Modelling Turbine

Applied Mathematical Modelling 67 (2019) 529–548
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Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm
Design of double curvature radial turbine blades for a micro

gas turbine
Sagar Pakle, Kyle Jiang∗
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United
Kingdom
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The paper reports a study on the design of a radial turbine for a portable micro gas turbine
Received 4 May 2018 engine. A unique design of blades with double curvatures is proposed which demonstrates
Revised 22 August 2018
the considerable advantage in terms of efficiency and power output. The design process
Accepted 22 October 2018
largely consists of design, optimization, and analysis of radial turbine closely based on low
Available online 25 October 2018
mass flow rate and high-pressure ratio. The intention of the development is to achieve
Keywords: reductions both in fuel consumption and emissions.
Micro gas turbine The micro gas turbine engine is designed to generate 20 kW net power output. As a
Radial turbine 110 mm centrifugal compressor takes 56 kW power in the Brayton cycle, a 113 mm inlet
Inverse design optimization diameter radial turbine is designed to produce 76 kW power. Optimization of the initial
Computational fluid dynamics turbine geometry is carried out using an inverse design technique to improve the over-
Stress and modal analysis all turbine stage performance. The original turbine blade meridional frame was used as
an input to the optimization. The optimized 3-D blade geometry have a unique double
curvature blade sections which is unlikely to be achieved using the conventional design
approach.
The performance of the optimized geometry has been compared with that of the initial
geometry. Computational fluid dynamic and finite element analysis techniques were used
for examining the aerodynamic performance and structural integrity respectively. The ro-
tational speed of the turbine was set up to 101,400 RPM. The result of computational dy-
namic analysis indicates that the optimized geometry provides an approximately 6% in-
crease in total-to-static efficiency on average and 6 kW increase in power output at high
expansion ratio as compared to the original design. Stress analysis shows that the maxi-
mum stress is lower than the yield strength of the material, which verifies that the turbine
design is mechanically viable.
© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In present days, micro gas turbines are considered to be one of the most sophisticated portable devices to generate
electricity power owing to its attribute of lower emission and compactness. Such devices are expected to reduce fuel con-
sumption and alleviate environmental pollution, as the pressure on CO2 reduction is mounting and low fuel consumption is
ever more demanding [1,2]. Although micro gas turbines have issues to be addressed in terms of reliability, efficiency, and
initial set-up cost, the intrinsic advantage of large power to weight ratio and lower emissions make them attractive to be
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Sxp489@bham.ac.uk (S. Pakle), K.Jiang@bham.ac.uk (K. Jiang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2018.10.020
0307-904X/© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
530 S. Pakle and K. Jiang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 67 (2019) 529–548
Nomenclature
b blade width/height
C0 ,Cs spouting velocity
Cθ tangential velocity
Cm meridional velocity
f blade wrap angle
h static enthalpy
H total enthalpy
i incident angle
KB blockage factor
m meridional distance, mass flow
Mrel relative Mach number
N, NR number of blades
Q volume flow
r radius
rV̄θ pitchwise-average swirl velocity
s blade pitch
o blade passage throat width
U blade tip speed
V velocity
W relative velocity
Z axial coordinate
Z R rotor axial length
θ tangential co-ordinate
ω rotational speed
vorticity
δp periodic delta function
ρ density
ηs static efficiency
σ slip factor
β blade angle
θ polar angle
2θ c diffuser divergence angle
υs velocity ratio
ns specific speed (total-to-static)
Subscripts
bl at the blade
m Meridional direction
0 Total condition
Superscripts
− pitchwise mean value
+ relative to the upper blade surface
- relative to the lower blade surface
used as portable power units [3–8]. The application of micro gas turbines covers many domains such as unmanned aerial
vehicles, auxiliary power units, distributed power generator, mini combined heat and power units, and range extenders for
electric vehicles. The broad range of the applications have encouraged industry and research organizations to study this area
in order to develop efficient and reliable micro gas turbines. Table 1 is a list of academic organizations which have carried
out micro gas turbine development and the corresponding engine specifications reported so far [9–11].
A micro gas turbine follows the same thermodynamic cycle as the large sized ones. The average efficiency for a simple
Brayton cycle system is reported to be 17%. However, it can be improved up to 30% by incorporating the recuperator [12]. In
a recuperative cycle, hot exhaust gas is directed to the recuperator to heat compressed air before it enters the combustion
chamber. By reusing the heat energy from the exhaust, the engine with a recuperator can improve the overall thermal
efficiency [10]. The schematic of the micro gas turbine with recuperator is shown in Fig. 1.
The performance of the compressor and the turbine has significant influence on the overall performance of the gas
turbine engine. Scaling a large diameter rotating component to a smaller one to meet design requirements is not appropriate.
This is due to the fact that scaling results in a large change in the Reynolds number and heat transfer properties of the
S. Pakle and K. Jiang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 67 (2019) 529–548 531
Table 1
Activity of micro gas turbine development and specification of the engines.
Organization Type Diameter/mm Rotational speed/RPM Output/W
MIT(US) Radial 4 2,40 0,0 0 0 60

MIT(US) Radial 6 1,20 0,0 0 0 52
Stanford University (US) Axial-radial 12 80 0,0 0 0 –
University of Tokyo (Japan) Axial-radial 8 1,170,0 0 0 300
Tohoku University (Japan) Axial-radial 10 870,0 0 0 475
XJTU (China) Radial 10 930,0 0 0 485
SIMTech (Singapore) Radial 8.4 – –
KIMM (Korea) Radial – 40 0,0 0 0 500
KUL (Europe) Axial-radial 10 250,0 0 0 44
AIT (Europe) Radial 10 35,0 0 0 10
ICL (Europe) Axial-radial 12 140,0 0 0 10
ETH Zurich (Europe) Radial 16 50 0,0 0 0 100
WUT (Europe) Disk 30 176,500 800
Fig. 1. The configuration and internal flows of a gas turbine with a recuperator [13].
component [9,14]. Therefore turbomachinery components of smaller dimensions need to be redesigned to meet the design
specification.
This paper introduces the design of a 113 mm radial turbine for a 20 kW micro gas turbine using conventional design
approach and optimization of the turbine geometry through an inverse design method. Subsequently, the resultant design is
validated for performance and structural integrity using CFD and FEA. Interestingly, an inverse design method is confirmed
to be very effective to optimize the existing design in a short period of time. The optimization through this method has
resulted in double curvature turbine blade which is noteworthy. In practice, modifying conventionally designed turboma-
chinery device to improve the overall aerodynamic performance is a tedious job and sometimes attempts in such direction
could further deteriorate the aerodynamic performance. However, a three-dimensional inverse design method ensures opti-
mized aerodynamic performance which makes it a rational approach for optimization of radial turbo components.
Fig. 2. Generalized stage performance correlation.
Fig. 3. Turbine stage layout.
2. Design of a radial turbine
In the design, it is important to ensure that the radial turbine will generate enough power to meet the needs of both
56 kW power that 110 mm centrifugal compressor consumes and 20 kW output power for the generator. It was found that a
113 mm radial turbine would meet the requirement. The geometry design process is based on the design approach proposed
by Aungier [15].
Fig. 4. Rotor meridional sketch.
Table 2
Preliminary design input specification.
Parameter Specification
Fluid Air
Dimensionless specific speed 0.447
Static Adiabatic efficiency 0.8581
Velocity ratio 0.6274
Inlet total pressure (kPa) 420
Inlet total temperature (k) 1173
Mass flow rate (kg/s) 0.183583
Total-to-static Pressure ratio 5.25
A preliminary or mean-line design is essential in order to get an overview of the dimensions and aerodynamic perfor-
mance of the turbine rotor. The success of any turbine design is mainly based on the accuracy of the mean-line design [1,16].
A preliminary design of the radial turbine stage for this specific requirement is started with the basic design specifications
which can be seen in Table 2.
Ideally, the specification of the velocity ratio υs and total-to-static efficiency is a function of the specific speed ns . The
dimensionless specific speed can be given as [15],

ω Q
ns = . (1)
(Hid )0.75
The chosen value of efficiency and velocity ratio for the design condition is shown in Fig. 2. Although a preferred value
for specific speed lies in the range of 0.45–0.75 [15,17], the geometry dimension and rotational speed impose the constraint
to choose a value, which marginally differs from this range.
Fig. 5. Mach number distribution (Left: initial; Right: modified).
The outline of the stage considered for this analysis is shown in Fig. 3. In general, 65°–80° of vane outlet flow angle
is recommended [18,19]. Therefore, in line with the best practice, the inlet absolute angle about 72° is considered for the
design.
In fact, nozzle vanes are considered to be significant components in the turbine stage, as they are intended to collect
flow from a radial direction and direct it towards the rotor inlet [18]. Furthermore, these vanes are the main components
that control the swallowing capacity of the turbine stage. Therefore, vanes blade angles and flow angles are considered
to be a more significant parameter and need proper attention [19]. In the present case, a nozzle vane is designed with a
parabolic-arc camber line proposed by Aungier [15].
The last part in the stage is a diffuser section. The diffuser section with better static pressure recovery coefficient has
a positive effect on the total-to-static pressure ratio and efficiency [20]. Here, diffuser with 11-degree divergence angle is
implemented as the divergence angle governs the diffuser performance [15].
It is imperative to account for the rotor passage losses in a preliminary design stage to arrive at the turbine design
with accurate performance estimation [16,17,21,22]. In the present design endeavor, various losses are considered during the
preliminary design and analysis. These losses include blade clearance loss, incidence loss, disk friction loss, blade loading
Fig. 6. Three dimensional rotor and stator geometry.
Fig. 7. Comparison of 1-D analysis and CFD result for expansion ratio.
Fig. 8. Comparison of 1-D analysis and CFD result for efficiency.
and profile loss [15,17,22]. These losses are systematically employed in a preliminary analysis and details of which can be
found in Ref. [15].
After geometric modeling, the through-flow analysis was carried out to understand the flow behavior in the turbine and
ANSYS Vista-TF commercial software was used in the process. Based on Mach number distribution, the end wall contours
were altered to achieve a better flow distribution. The initial and modified meridional sketch is shown in Fig. 4.
Furthermore, Mach number distribution with initial and modified contour has been analyzed as shown in Fig. 5, which
indicates the flow behavior is obviously improved particularly in the turbine exducer region.
Finally, the turbine stage is modeled as 19 modified rotor blades, 30 nozzle vanes and diffuser passage downstream of
the rotor blades. This stage geometry will be treated as the original geometry for further analysis. An overview of the rotor
and vane geometry can be seen in Fig. 6.
It is indeed valuable to compare the one-dimensional and CFD result to get a confidence in the design approach. Here,
the comparison for aerodynamic performance is made between one-dimensional analysis result of initial stage geometry and
CFD result of modified stage geometry as shown in Figs. 7–9. Although the performance trend appears to be encouraging,
the quantitative deterioration in performance can be attributed to the higher frictional loss. This loss is due to a narrow
flow passage in the rotor inlet and nozzle vane section of the turbine stage. Therefore, in order to improve the performance,
the turbine blades need to be optimized. The process of optimization is described in the next section.
3. Creation of double curvature turbine blades
As demonstrated in the previous section, an original turbine design appears to have lower aerodynamics performance
than expected; therefore, the scope for improvement in design is obvious. This improvement in design and its performance
can be achieved by optimization of turbine blades. The inverse design method is one of the sophisticated methods which
can provide a platform to efficiently optimize the turbine blade in order to improve the overall performance of the turbine
stage.
Fig. 9. Comparison of 1-D analysis and CFD result for power output.
A procedure of inverse design was proposed and described by Zangeneh [23]. The fundamental idea of this method is to
represent the blade by sheets of vorticity having its strength directly related to the specified bound circulation 2π rV̄θ ; here
rV̄θ can be given as
2π /N
N
rVθ = rVθ dθ . (2)
2π
0
where N is a number of blades. In this method, a camber line of the blade is represented by a single sheet of vorticity
and the blade blockage effect is included in continuity equation of the mean flow by means of stream surface thickness
parameter. Hence, the bound vorticity on the blade can be presented by,
= ∇ × V = (∇ rVθ × ∇ α )δ p (α ). (3)
where α is the blade surface and can be represented as
2π
α = θ − f (r, z ) = n . (4)
N
here θ is the tangential coordinate of a cylindrical polar coordinate system, f(r,z) the wrap angle or angular coordinate of
the point on the thin blade surface, δ p (α ) is the periodic delta function with pitchwise mean equal to unity. Therefore, the
tangential mean bound vorticity becomes,
= ∇ × V = (∇ rVθ × ∇ α ). (5)
In this method, an initial blade shape can be obtained by using one-dimensional velocity derived from the specified mass
flow rate and meridional geometry prescribed with mean tangential velocity. A precaution need to be taken to align the flow
with blade surface by means of applying the inviscid slip condition which can be represented by a first order hyperbolic
partial differential equation as shown below
∂f ∂ f Vθ
Wbl • ∇α = 0 [or] VZ + Vr = − ω + υbl · ∇α . (6)
∂z ∂r r
here ∇α is a vector normal to the blade surface and Wbl is the relative velocity at the blade surface Wbl = (W + + W − )/2,
where W + and W − are the velocities on the upper and lower surface of blades.
Eq. (6) needs to be integrated along the meridional projection of streamlines on the blade surface to find the blade shape.
The requirement of initial condition for this integration can be satisfied by specifying the wrap angle ‘f’ which is called as
Fig. 10. Inverse design optimization workflow.
Fig. 11. Dependent variables of blade loading distribution.
‘stacking condition of the blade’. Finite difference discretization scheme with Crank–Nicholson numerical technique can be
used to solve this equation. After obtaining the blade shape the velocity field can be computed by firstly estimating the
vorticity throughout the blade region using Eq. (3). This process can be continued iteratively to achieve the final blade
shape with a tolerance between the two consecutive iteration falls below the assigned tolerance value [24].
Secondary flow in a radial turbomachinery is an important phenomenon which needs to be controlled to achieve
good performance. This can be readily achieved through three-dimensional inverse design method by controlling the blade
pressure loading distribution on the hub and shroud independently. When the turbomachinery is compressible, the pres-
sure/enthalpy loading can be represented in terms of meridional derivatives of rV̄θ or blade loading as,
2π ∂ rVθ
h+ − h− = W . (7)
N mbl ∂ m
Fig. 12. Blade loading distribution.
where superscript + and – represents either side of the blade, Wmbl is meridional velocity at the blade and m is the direction
of streamlines in the meridional plane [24].
Ideally, a loading distribution or ∂ rV̄θ /∂ m distribution has a significant effect on the blade surface pressure (Mach number
distribution on the blade) [24]. This loading distribution can be represented by three segment curve which starts with a
parabolic curve, then straight line section and end with a parabolic curve. The distribution of this curve can be manipulated
depending on the work requirement of the blade. Once an optimum distribution of ∂ rV̄θ /∂ m at hub and shroud section is
arranged, it can be integrated to find the rV̄θ value at hub and shroud. Further, it can be linearly interpolated from hub to
shroud and overall distribution of rV̄θ on a meridional plane can be achieved [23,24].
Another factor that affects the pressure (Mach number) distribution is the stacking condition [25]. This is analogous
to the lean feature in the conventional turbomachinery design. The main effect of a lean or stacking is to distribute the
blade forces in the spanwise direction. In this case, the blade can be lean linearly against or in the direction of rotation
which has the corresponding effects on the aerodynamic performance and mechanical stress of the blade. If the blades are
leaned against the direction of the rotation making the blade hub to lead to the blade shroud, then the consequent blade
force would augment the pressure at the shroud end wall and subsequently lowers the pressure at the hub end wall [25].
Ultimately, care should be taken to apply the stacking in conjunction with ∂ rV̄θ /∂ m in order to achieve the design which
results in the suppression of secondary flow while complying with structural limitations [24,25].
Nevertheless, based on the CFD analysis of the modified geometry, it is evident that the turbine geometry needs to be
optimized to achieve the improved performance. Optimizing the turbine geometry with the conventional design approach is
tedious and time-consuming with limited or no certainty of improvement in performance. In such a scenario, an optimized
turbine blade can be achieved by adopting the inverse design approach. The inputs for this method can be listed as:
• Meridional sketch of geometry

• Initial flow condition
• Mass flow rate
• Blade thickness
• Blade numbers
Fig. 13. Optimized blade angle distribution.
Fig. 14. (a) Conventional design (b) optimized design.

Fig. 15. CFD simulation domain.
Fig. 16. Total-to-static efficiency vs. U/C: (a) 86,0 0 0 (b) 93,0 0 0 (c) 10 0,0 0 0.
• Rotational speed
• Stacking condition
• Specific work
• Blade loading distribution (meridional derivatives of rV̄θ ).
Fig. 10 indicates the workflow of the inverse design method. In general, constraints are based on the design conditions.
The objective function which in this case is a blade loading distribution can be optimized to accomplish the objectives. The
Fig. 17. Expansion ratio vs. mass flow rate.
objectives referred here are resultant geometry and performance attributes. A classification of constraints, objectives and
objective function are also shown in Fig. 10.
Most importantly, the objective function depends on the parameters such as NCH, NDH, NCS, NDS, SLOPE_H, and SLOPE_S
which governs the distribution of blade loading. The impact of these parameters on blade loading is depicted in Fig. 11.
It must be noted that the optimization of the turbine blade through the conventional design approach needs to be done
by tuning several parameters and the combination of this alteration could worsen the design performance. However, through
inverse design method, the optimized geometry can be easily achieved by optimizing a few parameters depicted in Fig. 11.
Therefore, the vital part, in this case, is to get optimum blade loading distribution by optimizing dependent variables
as indicated in Fig. 11. These variables remarkably influence the shape of blade geometry and performance of the radial
turbine. Ideally, optimizing the magnitude and location of dependent variables is an iterative process which is based on the
designer’s experience and blade loading requirements.
In the present case, optimization of streamwise blade loading is resulted in front loading of hub and shroud as shown in
Fig. 12. In particular, peak loading on hub and shroud can be observed at 15% and 40% of the meridional length, respectively.
The blade loading at hub thereafter decreases consistently till the trailing edge of the blade. Likewise, the shroud loading
decreases gradually to 90% of the meridional length and thereafter steeply reduces towards the trailing edge of the blade.
One of the reasons behind imposing the zero loading at trailing edge hub and shroud is to reduce the losses generated by
variation of spanwise blade loading. In addition, zero value of blade loading at the leading edge (m = 0) and trailing edge
(m = 1) is used to satisfy zero incident at the inlet and Kutta condition at blade outlet [23].
Another important input to be specified is rV̄θ distribution or specific work in a spanwise direction.
The rV̄θ value of 0.99 normalized by blade tip speed and inlet tip radius was specified at the inlet and zero at the turbine
trailing edge based on turbine work requirement.
Furthermore, the wrap angle or stacking condition was set at the blade inlet quasi-orthogonal. Primarily for stress con-
sideration, the wrap angle is applied in a manner that shroud leads to hub in the direction of rotation. The wrap angle at
hub is set to zero whereas at shroud a positive 2° wrap angle is applied. Interestingly, it has been observed that the inverse
design can generate more complex shapes which are unlikely to be generated using the conventional design approach.
Fig. 18. Power output (kW): (a) 86,0 0 0 RPM (b) 93,0 0 0 RPM (c) 10 0,0 0 0 RPM.
As shown in Fig. 13, the distribution of blade angle profile is appeared to be highly curved with double curvatures. This
distribution of blade angle is a result of the optimized blade loading shown in Fig. 12. This fact indicates that the blade
angle distribution is govern by the distribution of blade loading which is a crucial part of this optimization technique. In
present study, the optimization is resulted in double curvature blade which is shown in Fig. 14. Therefore, it is evident from
this design optimization that a double curvature blade shape can be achieved by means of optimizing the blade loading
distribution to enhance the performance. This type of turbine blade does not exist in the industry. Thus, an insight of such
design and its design approach can pave a way for the development of new types of turbines.
In this study, no modifications were done on vane geometry and only turbine blade was optimized through the inverse
design method for aerodynamic performance improvement. As mentioned previously, a same meridional geometry with
normal thickness was used without any blockage factor. An ideal gas equation with specific heat ratio of 1.333 was used in
flow properties and inlet temperature of 1173 K along with velocity profile was imposed as inlet condition. The rotational
speed of 86,0 0 0 RPM with 19 rotor blades was considered during the design iterations.
Fig. 19. Contours of Mrel on meridional view (Left: original; Right: optimized).
Fig. 20. Blade to blade view of Mrel contours at shroud (Left: original; Right: optimized).
Fig. 21. Blade to Blade view of Mrel contours at the hub (Left: original; Right: optimized).
Fig. 22. FEA unstructured mesh.
Fig. 23. Equivalent (von-Mises) stress.
4. Computational fluid dynamics
A three-dimensional viscous flow analysis was carried out for original and optimized radial turbine stage while the nozzle
vane geometry remains unchanged in both cases. For this purpose, commercial CFD software CFX16.0 was used. A mesh with
around 340 thousand nodes and a first cell height of 5e-06 m was used on both the turbine blade channels. Special care
has been taken to keep the mesh size approximately similar in both cases for meaningful comparison. A single passage
computational domain consists of a nozzle vane, radial turbine blade followed by the conical diffuser. The outline of this
configuration is shown in Fig. 15.
In the CFD analysis, a mixing plane interface was used between vane and rotor domains whereas the rotor and diffuser
have frozen rotor interface. The same tip clearance is used in both configurations. Moreover, for this flow analysis, com-
pressible RANS equations were used with the SST turbulence model. This turbulence model has the capability to predict
the flow in the vicinity of the solid wall with better accuracy [26]. The formulation of the SST turbulence is presented in
Eqs. (8) and (9).

∂ (ρ k ) ∂ (ρ u j k ) ∂ ∂k
+ = P − β ρωk +
∗
(μ + σk μt ) . (8)
∂t ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj

∂ (ρω ) ∂ (ρ u j ω ) γ ∂ ∂ω ρσω2 ∂ k ∂ω
+ = P − βρω2 + (μ + σω μt ) + 2(1 − F1 ) . (9)
∂t ∂xj υt ∂xj ∂xj ω ∂xj ∂xj
here k is a turbulent kinetic energy, ω is dissipation rate, P a production term, μt turbulent viscosity, and υt turbulent
kinematic viscosity.
The primary objective of this viscous flow analysis is to estimate the overall aerodynamic performance in terms of
mass flow rate, expansion ratio, efficiency and power output. To accomplish this objective, flow in the turbine stage was
Fig. 24. Total deformation under centrifugal load.
Fig. 25. 1st frequency mode shape.
simulated at the speed of 86,0 0 0, 93,0 0 0 and 10 0,0 0 0 RPM. Inlet temperature of 1173 K, outlet static pressure of 84 kPa was
set in the simulations and the total pressure was varied at the inlet. The results indicate that the optimized design turbine
stage has a better total-to-static efficiency at high expansion ratio (lower U/Cs ratio) which can be seen in total-to-static
efficiency against U/Cs ratio (Ratio of blade tip seed to spouting velocity) plot in Fig. 16. Furthermore, Fig. 17 shows that the
improvement in expansion ratio is marginal and cannot be accounted as a significant improvement. However, based on effi-
ciency plots, it can be concluded that optimized turbine geometry provides around 6% on average increase in total-to-static
efficiency which can be considered as a significant gain in efficiency.
Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 18, over three rotational speeds, on average 6 kW improvement in turbine output power
at high mass flow was observed. At a lower mass flow, there is hardly any obvious improvement in output power. However,
at higher mass flow, the improvement in output power is considered to be significant.
In addition, contours of relative Mach number (Mrel) can be seen on the meridional plot in Fig. 19. The distribution of
relative Mach number is observed to be improved significantly in the optimized design. Likewise, the same pattern of rela-
tive Mach number can be seen on the blade-to-blade contour plots for shroud section shown in Fig. 20 and for hub section
shown in Fig. 21. Indeed, the distribution of flow is largely improved in the optimized design where the flow separation,
particularly at tip section, has been reduced substantially. The location of the maximum relative Mach has been shifted
to trailing edge region in the optimized blade, which contributes to the reduction in rotor passage loss and enhances the
aerodynamic performance of the turbine stage.
5. Structural integrity
A radial turbine in a micro gas turbine engine operates at high speeds. Therefore, an evaluation of strength, particularly at
highest rotational speed, is of paramount importance [27,28]. In the current design, a radial turbine is designed for maximum
tip speed of 600 m/s i.e., a rotational speed of 101,400 RPM. Therefore, strength evaluation at this rotational speed was
conducted.
Stress analysis of optimized designed turbine was performed using the ANSYS structural software. An unstructured mesh
on single blade sector was generated as shown in Fig. 22.
A cyclic boundary condition is applied on the periodic surfaces of the blade sector with a fixed support at hub region.
The material used for the turbine is Inconel 718 which is high-temperature resistance and high strength material with yield
strength up to 1100 MPa.
As stress analysis indicates, the maximum von-Mises stress on the blade appears at the blade root particularly at the
trailing edge region which is shown in Fig. 23.
The magnitude of stress is much less than the yield strength of the material which makes design safe for operation with
25% of safety margin. Furthermore, blade fillet is a crucial feature in the turbine blade modeling along with hub disk and
has a significant impact on blade stress level. Therefore, in order to alleviate the centrifugal stress on the blade, a fillet of
0.7 mm radius is applied at the blade root section. As the turbine blades undergo a centrifugal load, a deformation of the
structure is inevitable. As shown in Fig. 24, the turbine blade deforms by 0.239 mm at blade exducer tip under centrifugal
load which seems to be reasonable.
Frequency mode evaluation is another important aspect of the rotor design which needs to be done to ensure that the
resonance would not happen in the operating regime [17]. In order to verify it, a modal analysis was carried out using the
single blade sector domain with cyclic boundary condition imposed at blade sector periodic surfaces.
The modal analysis indicates that the first mode shape appears at blade exducer tip as shown in Fig. 25, with a fre-
quency magnitude more than 4 times of blade vibration frequency which is sufficient to avoid resonance [17]. Hence, based
on overall results, it is clear that the optimized design complies with the structural integrity and is suitable for engine
operations.
6. Conclusions
A radial turbine design is developed for a 20 kW micro gas turbine engine. A comparison between the one-dimensional
analysis result and CFD result was made to get the confidence in the design approach. Further, an optimization was carried
out through an inverse design method to improve the efficiency and output power of a radial turbine. Optimization has
resulted in a double curvature blade shape. Such types of blades currently do not exist in the industry and cannot be
achieved using conventional design approach. The aerodynamic performance of the optimized geometry was subsequently
evaluated using CFD simulations. It was found that an optimization results in a 6% increase in total-to-static efficiency on
average and 6 kW additional total power output, particularly at higher expansion ratio and higher mass flow rate.
Stress and frequency of the optimized three-dimensional rotor blade were analyzed. The results indicate that the maxi-
mum computed stress is much lower than the yield strength of the material and offer a 25% safety margin. A modal analysis
shows the magnitude of first mode frequency is more than 4 times higher than the blade vibration frequency, which shows
that the designed blade will work outside the resonance condition.
Overall, this research demonstrates that the optimization using three-dimensional inverse design method is an effec-
tive way for achieving non-conventional turbine geometry. This optimization results in significant improvement in turbine
aerodynamic performance while complying with the structural integrity of the turbine blade.
Acknowledgments
The research was jointly supported by European Horizon 2020 project 644971, 2017 T-TRIG project of the UK Department
for Transport, and Innovate UK project 104021. The Authors wish to thank Advanced Design Technology Limited for their
help and guidance.
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Modelling Turbine

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Modelling Turbine

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Applied Mathematical Modelling 67 (2019) 529–548

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Applied Mathematical Modelling

Design of double curvature radial turbine blades for a micro

Organization Type Diameter/mm Rotational speed/RPM Output/W

MIT(US) Radial 4 2,40 0,0 0 0 60

Fig. 2. Generalized stage performance correlation.

Fig. 3. Turbine stage layout.

2. Design of a radial turbine

Fig. 4. Rotor meridional sketch.

Fig. 5. Mach number distribution (Left: initial; Right: modiﬁed).

Fig. 6. Three dimensional rotor and stator geometry.

Fig. 8. Comparison of 1-D analysis and CFD result for eﬃciency.

3. Creation of double curvature turbine blades

Fig. 10. Inverse design optimization workﬂow.

Fig. 11. Dependent variables of blade loading distribution.

Fig. 12. Blade loading distribution.

• Meridional sketch of geometry

Fig. 13. Optimized blade angle distribution.

Fig. 14. (a) Conventional design (b) optimized design.

Fig. 15. CFD simulation domain.

Fig. 17. Expansion ratio vs. mass ﬂow rate.

Fig. 22. FEA unstructured mesh.

Fig. 23. Equivalent (von-Mises) stress.

4. Computational ﬂuid dynamics

Fig. 24. Total deformation under centrifugal load.

Fig. 25. 1st frequency mode shape.

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