Water droplet erosion (WDE) is one of major concerns resulting from the online water washing technique of compressor blades operating in gas turbine power plants. A new experiments-based model for WDE on stainless-steel targets was developed by the authors and presented in a previous work (TE2019). The model was developed to account for all the main parameters affecting the phenomenon, that is droplet impact velocity and angle, material properties of the target, and its initial hardness and roughness. In the proposed paper the model, further developed and numerically implemented in a commercial CFD code to allow its wide utilization, is applied to the simulation of an axial compressor water washing process. In the present paper we simulate a configuration representing a compressor blade hit by water droplets injected by a system for water washing.  The typical droplet size distribution in a real water injection systems is simulated, and droplets are injected in cross flow at the compressor inlet. Moreover, the droplet laden flow is simulated adopting a two-way coupling approach, so we can also analyze the interaction between droplets and fluid. The analysis focuses on the influence of several parameters such as impact velocity, injection time, impact angle and hardness and roughness of the target test blade. The results of the simulation will be critically analyzed, also in comparison with available experimental results and other evidences found in the open literature.


Numerical Study of Erosion Mechanism due to Online Water Washing in Axial Flow Compressors

Division / Sponsor:
International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/GT2020/volume/84058

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