April 22, 2021
13:00
The need and challenge of tackling climate change is an unrelenting priority. The goal has been set for the energy and mobility sectors to transition to greenhouse gas neutrality in Europe by 2050, while enhancing their competitiveness, availability and utility for citizens and society. The largest fraction of world-wide energy conversion relies on rotating fluid machinery. The development of turbomachinery technology is therefore a key factor for the rapid deployment of green and ultra-efficient propulsive and energy conversion systems.
This lecture delivers an overview of the research activities carried out at the von Karman Institute that investigate some of the most complex internal flows found in rotating machinery and that contribute to the development of future gas turbine technologies.
In the first part of the seminar, we will discuss how to redesign compact high-pressure turbines to control leakage and cooling flows using state-of-the-art optimization techniques and novel blade parametrizations. The lecture will show how we proved the virtual performance gains of multiple optimum blade geometries by engine-representative experiments in a short-duration turbine facility that makes use of a rainbow rotor and hundreds of high-frequency sensors and probes.
In the second part of the talk, we will look into one of the largest research projects of the von Karman Institute that explores the aerodynamics of transonic low-pressure turbines for the next-generation geared turbofan engines. The research focuses on the unsteady interactions of cavity purge and leakage flows with the high-speed primary turbine flow by time-resolved flow measurements in two world-class turbine rigs: a transonic low-Reynolds linear cascade, recently revamped for quasi-3D flow measurements of turbine airfoils subject to secondary-air injections and incoming periodic wakes; and the VKI rotating turbine rig equipped with a high-speed one-meter-large low-pressure turbine stage. Join the seminar
Dr. Sergio Lavagnoli is currently an Associate Professor in the Turbomachinery and Propulsion department of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Rhode-Saint-Genese, Belgium). He received his PhD in Applied Sciences from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) in 2012 on a study devoted to the aerodynamics and heat transfer of a transonic high-pressure turbine stage with a multi-splitter turbine vane frame.
Professor Lavagnoli has more than 10 years of experience on experimental and numerical aerothermal studies on gas turbine engine turbomachinery. The main focus of his research includes fundamental studies on the aerodynamics and heat transfer of jet-engine turbines, turbomachinery optimization and the development of instrumentation and data processing techniques.