Investigation of Flow Distortion Generated Forced Response of a Radial Turbine with Vaneless Volute

For a radial turbine with vaneless volute, the inflow of turbine rotor usually has a circumferential flow distortion due to the influence of the volute tongue. The rotating blades of the rotor are exposed to harmonic aerodynamic loads caused by the distortion, which may induce rotor resonance and lead to high cycle failures (HCF). To understand the forced response mechanism clearly, a numerical analysis was carried out based on a fluid structure interaction (FSI) method. The pressure functions were extracted from the results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis by Fourier decomposition. The first three harmonic pressures were identified as the primary engine order (EO) excitations and imposed on the structural model for computational structural dynamics (CSD) simulation. The quantification and assessment of the rotor response were attained by mode superposition method. The simulation results are shown to be consistent with the predictions of Singh's advanced frequency evaluation (SAFE) diagram.