Computational fluid dynamics calculus and analysis for gas and water turbines

Abstract

The paper presents the utilization of Computational Fluid Dynamics for calculating the flow through turbines. The first and most extended part of the paper is focused on gas turbines where the simulations are very precise and can be successfully used even for optimization of blade geometry. Flow details and results for an axial turbine are presented along with a proposal of optimization algorithm. The second part of the paper is dedicated to water turbines and there is presented the calculus realized for a kinetic water turbine. I this case, the flow around the turbine blades is presented and some data about the predicted performances along with many ways for improving the simulations. The conclusions of the paper are related to similarities and differences between the two types of simulations and to the many ways of using these simulations for practical applications.