Radial inflow turbine geometry generation method using third order Bezier curves for blade design

Abstract

Radial inflow turbines offer larger efficiency performance for small power applications due to its geometric configuration in which flow varies its radial position along the flow path. The geometry configuration of radial-inflow turbines demands a careful and adequate design of the flow path, since a 90° change of direction occurs from the radial inflow to the axial outflow. The blade camberline also requires attention since it defines the tangential flow direction along the meridional coordinate and any variation in its geometry affects the turbine performance. In this paper, a method for meridional profile and camberline geometry generation is proposed and tested through CFD. The method consists in using fourth order Bezier curves for defining the hub, shroud and mid-height blade meridional profile and third order Bezier curves for defining the relative flow velocity angle along the meridional coordinate, which leads to the camberline angular position in the rotor considering radial fibered blades. The blade thickness is set to vary linearly along the meridional coordinate and along the blade height. Different configurations of blade geometry are proposed and analyzed. These configurations are fixed to satisfy the design parameters. The code is programed in Python and adjusts the geometry data in files that are readable by meshing software. Thereby numerical calculations are performed to verify which configuration of camberline results in better performance. The calculations are done in models with the same boundary conditions and geometric data except for the variation of relative flow velocity angle along the meridional coordinate but setting the inlet and outlet angle to a fixed value. This way, the most suitable camberline geometry can be selected