New test facility for forced blade flutter research

Verification tests of a new blade flutter research facility

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/202134500020 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 345 ◽

pp. 00020

Author(s):

Jan Lepicovsky ◽

David Šimurda ◽

Petr Šidlof

Keyword(s):

Alternative Energy ◽

High Speed ◽

Test Facility ◽

Flow Conditions ◽

Extensive Experience ◽

Ongoing Research ◽

Large Power ◽

State Tests ◽

Transonic Flutter ◽

Blade Flutter

Long term strategic changes in power generation approaches will require more flexibility for large power generating turbines as an unavoidable consequence of the increasing share of power generated by alternative energy sources. Demanded flexibility for the power turbine output will augment undesired flow phenomena in the low-pressure turbine module, which will consequently enhance blade flutter problems of long slender blades in turbine last stages. In order to advance the understanding of blade flutter onset conditions, the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences instigated an advanced research program on blade flutter research in high-speed turbomachines. A new innovative test facility for Blade Forced Flutter research was designed and built in the High-Speed Laboratory of the Institute of Thermomechanics. The concept of the new test facility is based on extensive experience with an older Transonic Flutter Cascade facility operated at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. At present, the first phase of verification tests of the new facility is in progress. The ongoing steady-state tests are intended for exploration of a newly proposed quasi-stationary method to investigate instigating flow conditions leading to an onset of intense blade flutter. Results of some opening tests under steady flow conditions are presented in the paper. The blade drive mechanism for unsteady tests with oscillating blades has not yet been installed in the facility. The presented paper is a work-in-progress report on the ongoing research of complex blade flutter problems.

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Radiation Damage Studies with the HVEM

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100096655 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 680-681

Author(s):

J. J. Laidler ◽

B. Mastel

Keyword(s):

Radiation Damage ◽

Stainless Steels ◽

Volume Expansion ◽

Austenitic Stainless Steels ◽

Test Facility ◽

Fast Breeder Reactors ◽

Breeder Reactors ◽

Under Construction ◽

Development Laboratory ◽

Insight Into

One of the major materials problems encountered in the development of fast breeder reactors for commercial power generation is the phenomenon of swelling in core structural components and fuel cladding. This volume expansion, which is due to the retention of lattice vacancies by agglomeration into large polyhedral clusters (voids), may amount to ten percent or greater at goal fluences in some austenitic stainless steels. From a design standpoint, this is an undesirable situation, and it is necessary to obtain experimental confirmation that such excessive volume expansion will not occur in materials selected for core applications in the Fast Flux Test Facility, the prototypic LMFBR now under construction at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL). The HEDL JEM-1000 1 MeV electron microscope is being used to provide an insight into trends of radiation damage accumulation in stainless steels, since it is possible to produce atom displacements at an accelerated rate with 1 MeV electrons, while the specimen is under continuous observation.

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