Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Progress in Aerospace Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paerosci

Research on the aerodynamics of intermediate turbine diffusers

Emil Göttlich n
Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 25 A, 8010 Graz, Austria

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Available online 14 April 2011 Intermediate turbine diffusers represent the flow path between the high pressure and the low pressure
turbine of a high-bypass ratio turbofan aero engine. Caused by the different rotational speeds of high
and low pressure spool, these components have to diffuse and guide the flow safely to a larger diameter
without disturbances or boundary layer separations. The large radial offset between in- and outlet of
intermediate turbine diffusers leads to a pronounced S-shape. The trend for further increased bypass
ratios will require more attention to this component since its shape influences the overall weight of
engine and nacelle considerably. The complicated aerodynamics of these annular ducts has to be
understood to realize short S-shaped diffuser designs. This article tries to review the flow evolution
through intermediate turbine diffusers and discusses the influence of the different effects in a
systematic way. Investigations by various researchers are presented and test turbine rigs for
experiments under engine realistic duct inlet conditions are described. Special focus is laid on different
measures for the designer to produce more aggressive diffuser layouts whilst keeping the losses low.
The application of flow control, shape optimization and endwall contouring are promising actions to
shorten the diffuser length and, furthermore, to gain an engine weight reduction. The paper ends with a
discussion of new design concepts for turbine ducts as well as for future engine architectures. It can be
concluded that intermediate turbine diffusers will become a key component for keeping the overall
engine weight and fuel burn low.
& 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
2. Fundamental aerodynamics of intermediate turbine diffusers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
2.1. Influence of S-shaped meridional flow path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
2.2. Influence of wakes, swirl and diffusion rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
2.2.1. Influence of wakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
2.2.2. Influence of swirl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
2.2.3. Influence of diffusion rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
2.3. Influence of struts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
3. Aerodynamics of intermediate turbine diffusers arranged downstream of turbine stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
3.1. Test programs with ducts downstream of turbine stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
3.1.1. Oxford Rotor Facility at the Thermo-Fluids Laboratory of the University of Oxford
(Southwell Laboratory, Osney Laboratory) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
3.1.2. Turbine Test Facility (TTF) at the Gas Turbine Laboratory of the Ohio State University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
3.1.3. Large-Scale Facility at the Division of Fluid Dynamic of Chalmers University of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
3.1.4. Transonic Test Turbine Facility (TTTF) at the Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics of
Graz University of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
3.2. Downstream effect of a turbine stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
3.3. Influence of Mach number and swirl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
3.4. Influence of rotor tip gap size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
3.5. Separated duct flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
4. Potential measures for increasing the diffuser design space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
4.1. Shape optimization and endwall contouring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

n
Tel.: þ43 316 873 7231; fax: þ 43 316 873 7234.
E-mail address: emil.goettlich@tugraz.at

0376-0421/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2011.01.002
250 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
4.2. Flow-controlled intermediate turbine diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
4.3. Integrated concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
5. Conclusions and future perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
1. Introduction
In modern commercial aero engines small specific fuel consump-
tion (SFC) together with low life cycle cost has to be realized to allow
economical air transportation. Furthermore, an environment-friendly
aero engine should have a reduced CO2 emission by less fuel burn and
generate low noise levels during take-off and landing. The use of
high-bypass ratio turbofan engines is essential to cope with these
requirements. The trend to increase the bypass ratio, which means to
decrease the specific thrust of an engine is still ongoing. While the
CF6 and the CFM56 engine families use a bypass ratio between 5 and
6, more recently developed designs apply values, for example, of
about 9 for General Electric’s GE90 [1], 8.7 for the GP7000 developed
by the Engine Alliance [2] or 10–11 for the turbofans powering
Boeing’s Dreamliner, e.g. the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 [3]. The demand
of further increased bypass ratios of aero engines will lead to larger,
but slower rotating fans due to the tip speed limit caused by
structural and noise considerations.
Fig. 1 gives an estimation of the differences between two-spool
turbofans with a bypass ratio of 6 and 10, under the assumption
of a common engine core [4]. As one can see the shape of the
meridional flow path of both designs differs considerably:
The flow has to be guided from the low pressure (LP) system to
the high pressure (HP) system and vice versa by annular ducts
with a respectable radial offset. For a higher bypass ratio these
radius changes are much more pronounced due to the LP blading
running on larger mean diameters, which are necessary in order
to reduce the blade loading coefficient by an increased circumfer-
ential speed and thus to reduce losses. In this study [4] it is shown
that the higher bypass ratio leads to more LP stages but the disk
bores can be much larger due to lower stresses caused by the
lower rotational speed. Therefore the weight penalty of the 9 stage
LP turbine is not as large as one might expect [4].
Comparing the shape of the turbine transition ducts between HP
and LP turbine it becomes clear that the slope angle has to become
steeper for the larger bypass ratio engine to avoid an excessive
increase in overall engine weight. The ducts between LP and HP
system have to be designed as short as possible. The requirements of
short annular flow channels will lead to a pronounced S-shape.
Therefore these components are also known as swan-necked inter-
mediate ducts. While the duct connecting the LP compressor stages
with the HP compressor inlet is designed with no or only marginal
diffusion, the channel between the HP and LP turbine may show a
large increase in area and hence a considerable amount of diffusion.
The strong curvature and the adverse pressure gradient will pro-
mote boundary layer separation. Nevertheless, the flow leaving the
HP turbine has to be guided to the following LP turbine without any
flow disturbances and provide the proper flow field for high effi-
ciency there. The same considerations are also true for the transition
ducts between the intermediate pressure (IP) and the LP turbine
of three-spool aero engines such as the Trent family of Rolls Royce,
but there the situation can be seen as less critical due to the smaller
radial offset and the reduced wall curvature.
Depending on the overall aero engine design the intermediate
turbine ducts can either be clean annular channels like for the
PW6000 aero engine (Pratt and Whitney) or be equipped with
load-carrying struts for bearing support and oil and cooling air
service lines leading radially inward through them such as in the
turbine center frame of the GP7000 aero engine (Engine Alliance).
The turbine center frame (TCF) is a star-like static structure, for
which the load-carrying struts and support lines are protected
from the hot gas path by aerodynamically optimized large non-
lifting fairings in the shape of airfoils [5]. The flow channel walls
and fairings are designed as segments made of heat resistant
material and usually protected by cooling air on the outside
against the high heat loads of the turbine flow.
This paper reviews the progress in the field of S-shaped inter-
mediate turbine diffusers by discussing the past and recent research
work performed on this topic. Details of aerodynamics and losses
are described together with their difficulties to predict them by
means of CFD, but adequate discussions on aircraft engine system-
level parameters are also presented. These include weight, length,
mechanical constraints, airfoil counts, etc. Moreover, the future
topics in this field are highlighted, which take account of finding
measures to design shorter components together with larger radial
offsets but without a shortfall in performance.
The need for more aggressive turbine transition ducts as an
enabling factor for high-bypass turbofan engines has already been
defined as one supporting technology program within the Energy
Efficient Engine Component Development and Integration Program
(E3 program) contracted between NASA and Pratt and Whitney in
1978 [6]. On the basis of this cooperation the performance objec-
tives of a transition duct with an area ratio of 1.5, a length to height
ratio of 3.0 and a non-working strut fairing were defined.
A lot of research work has been carried out on diffuser flows
but only fewer studies of the flow within annular S-shaped ducts
are available in open literature. Many of them are dealing with the
flow in intermediate compressor ducts (see e.g. [7]). Therefore the
fundamental work of Sovran and Klomp in 1967 [8] providing a
performance chart for straight-walled annular diffusers is still
used as a reference to classify intermediate turbine diffusers
regarding their criticality. Fig. 2 presents a diagram comparing
designs of intermediate turbine diffusers of selected aero engines
and rig test setups recently investigated at Chalmers University of
Technology and Graz University of Technology to the optimum
lines for maximum pressure recovery coefficient at prescribed
non-dimensional duct length (CP*) or duct area ratio (CP**) taken
from [8]. A diffuser design described by the non-dimensional duct
length (L/hin) and the area ratio (AR¼ Aout/Ain), which is between
these lines can be seen as optimal, while a layout below and above
is classified as conservative and aggressive, respectively. However,
this can only be a rough assessment as the effects of curvature,
flow swirl and inlet wakes, which occur in a real S-shaped inter-
mediate duct are not considered in the investigations of Sovran
and Klomp [8]. The area ratios and non-dimensional duct lengths
for this comparison were estimated from engine cut-off drawings
available in open literature or on the World Wide Web according
to the dashed lines in the sketch of Fig. 2. It can be seen that
the engine manufactures placed their designs within or close to
the optimal region but rather tight to the conservative border. The
test rig setups C1 to C5 will be described later in the paper.
Within the 6th framework program funded by the European
Commission two projects dealing exclusively or partly with the
topic of intermediate ducts were launched, namely AIDA—Ag-
gressive Intermediate Duct Aerodynamics for Competitive and
Environmentally Friendly Jet Engines (contract no. AST3-CT-2003-
502836) [9] and AITEB-II—Aerothermal Investigations on Turbine
Endwalls and Blades II (contract no. AST4-CT-2005-516113) [10].
These strategic research projects should help to eliminate the lack
of information on intermediate turbine diffuser aerodynamics
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 251

Nomenclature AIDA C1, AIDA C3, AIDA C4, AIDA C5 AIDA test configurations
AITEB-II Aerothermal Investigation on Turbine Endwalls (EU
Symbols
project)
CFD computational fluid dynamics
AR Aout/Ain exit to entry area ratio of duct (dimensionless) C, C1, C3, C5, D, E and F measurement planes
C chord length (m) CW clockwise
CP, CP,ideal pressure rise coefficient, idealized pressure rise DOE design of experiments
coefficient (dimensionless) H.L.V. hub leakage vortex
h blade height (mm) HP high pressure
hVG vortex generator height (mm) IC integrated concept
h enthalpy (J/kg) IP intermediate pressure
L axial duct length (mm) LDV Laser-Doppler-Velocimeter
L/hin non-dimensional duct length (dimensionless) L.P.V. lower passage vortex
LVG vortex generator length (mm) LP low pressure
p, pt pressure, total pressure (N/m2) MTF mid turbine frame
T blade pitch (m) NGV nozzle guide vane
u circumferential velocity (m/s) PS pressure side
Dh/u2 loading coefficient (dimensionless) RMS root mean square
T/C pitch to chord ratio (dimensionless) SFC specific fuel consumption
Ma Mach number (dimensionless) SS suction surface
n strut count (dimensionless) TCF turbine center frame
r1h hub radius at inlet (m) TE trailing edge
r2/r1 exit to entry mean radius ratio (dimensionless) TEC turbine end casing
Re Reynolds number (dimensionless) TMTF turning mid turbine frame
x/L non-dimensional axial distance (dimensionless) TTF Turbine Test Facility (Ohio State University)
a swirl angle (deg) TTTF Transonic Test Turbine Facility (Graz University of
aVG angle of attack for vortex generator (deg) Technology)
DsVG distance of vortex generator trailing edge to separa- U.P.V. upper passage vortex
tion line (mm)
ZD diffuser efficiency (dimensionless)
z loss coefficient (dimensionless)

Abbreviations

AIDA Aggressive Intermediate Duct Aerodynamics (EU project)

through cooperative numerical and experimental studies per- If the bypass ratio is increased above 10 in the future, it can
formed by all European aero engine manufacturers together with be expected that the intermediate compressor and turbine duct
universities and key research institutions. designs will have a much larger influence onto the engine weight of

Fig. 1. Common core turbofan engines with bypass ratio of 6 and 10 (flow paths Fig. 2. Sovran and Klomp performance chart with aero engines and test rig setups
and disc shapes from [4]). from e.g. [28,43,48].
252 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

a conventional turbofan. But the weight penalty of more LP stages

running at larger radii can be kept moderate by applying shorter
and thus more aggressive duct designs, which are far beyond the
classical limit of Sovran and Klomp, as shown in Fig. 2. The other
option is to apply the geared turbofan concept, where a gearbox
makes the fan rotational speed independent of the booster and the
LP turbine. The number of LP stages can be reduced whilst main-
taining the low levels of aerodynamic loading together with no need
for shifting the flow annulus outwards [4]. Due to the fact that the
part count of the geared turbofan can be reduced, although these
parts will be technologically more challenging, the conventional
turbofan with further reduced flow path length is still an option. To
achieve dependable ultrahigh-bypass ratio engine layouts it will be
necessary to apply new shape optimized intermediate turbine
diffusers together with endwall contouring, active or passive flow
control and integrated concepts. Examples for all of these measures
will be discussed later in this work.

2. Fundamental aerodynamics of intermediate turbine

diffusers

2.1. Influence of S-shaped meridional flow path

The pressure distribution in an S-shaped diffuser depends not

only on the area change such as in straight-walled channels, but also
upon the curvature of the endwalls and hence of the streamlines.
The effective local curvature is also linked to the boundary layer
growth at the surfaces. If the flow is turned from the axis-parallel
direction radially outward in the first bend of an S-shaped duct, a
pressure gradient from the casing (low pressure) to the hub (high
pressure) will be created according to the radial equilibrium within
the flow field. This cross-passage pressure gradient is superimposed
to the adverse pressure gradient, evoked by the diffusion due to an
increase in flow area. An optimized design of the endwall curvature
can help to control these pressure gradients, but both of them play a
significant role in an aggressive intermediate turbine diffuser. At the
end of the duct the flow has to be turned back towards the engine
axis in order to match the channel shape with the inflow of the
following LP turbine stage in a real engine or with the rig exit
section of an individual test setup. This will cause a cross-passage
pressure gradient but now with the higher pressure at the casing
and the lower pressure at the hub. The pressure distribution in an
S-shaped diffuser has a major effect on the boundary layer behavior
at the endwalls, which is most critical due to the strongest adverse
Fig. 3. Mach number distribution in a typical S-shaped diffuser without (a) and
pressure gradients right after strong wall curvatures. with (b) swirl.
Fig. 3a shows an example for the flow through an S-shaped duct
without swirl and other inlet distortions. The results were gained by
a two-dimensional CFD simulation with FLUENT 6.2.16 using the
k e turbulence model. The boundary conditions were defined by a Fig. 4a shows the pressure recovery along the duct surfaces by
mass flow rate of 13.2 kg/s and a constant inlet total pressure of means of the pressure rise coefficient, which is defined as
1.05 bar set approximately one diffuser length upstream in a
CP ¼ ðpn pin Þ=ðpt,in pin Þ ð1Þ
parallel-walled cylindrical channel. It should be mentioned that
the duct shape was adopted from a real test setup discussed later in The subscript ‘‘n’’ relates to the local position and ‘‘in’’ refers to
this paper where an additional LP vane row is arranged at x/L¼0.62 the mass-averaged values at the duct inlet. The zero position
(leading edge, midspan). In a real engine the LP vanes are positioned corresponds to the end of the parallel-walled cylindrical flow
within the duct area of still increasing radius. Therefore in this channel (geometrical diffuser inlet), while x/L¼ 1 marks the begin-
example the hub surface shows two convex curvatures before and ning of the also parallel-walled cylindrical exit duct (geometrical
after the vane position. The second one is to turn the flow towards diffuser exit). It can be seen that the curves for hub and casing start
the test rig outlet. For the CFD simulation the cylindrical annular to diverge prior to the diffuser inlet due to the upstream influence of
channel was extended by further 2.5 diffuser lengths. Three regions the first bend. The pressure field at the exit of a HP turbine stage
can be defined as susceptible to flow separations: The first one is the arranged upstream of an intermediate turbine duct will be modified
low Mach number region at the casing right after the first bend in a similar way, which has to be considered during its design.
(marked with ‘‘A’’) and the other ones are at the hub directly after The curve for the casing flow shows the peak suction point
the convex surface zones (marked with ‘‘B’’ and ‘‘C’’). (CP ¼  0.78) at x/L¼0.18 in the area with the highest curvature of
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 253

2.2. Influence of wakes, swirl and diffusion rate

The inflow of an intermediate turbine diffuser downstream of

a turbine stage differs significantly from the ideal boundary
conditions of the above mentioned example. The inflow and
hence every other downstream position is heavily influenced by
periodical unsteady effects caused by the passing rotor blades
modulated in their strength by stator–rotor interaction. These
effects although not independent of each other can be defined as

 rotor wakes causing a periodic change in the flow angle in the

absolute frame of reference due to their velocity deficit,
 secondary flow vortices having a significant influence onto the
boundary layers,
 rotor tip leakage with high energy flows at the casing surface,
 swirl angles different from the axial direction and possibly a
strong variation in blade spanwise direction and
 trailing edge shocks in cases of turbine stages with transonic
flow regime in the relative frame of reference.

2.2.1. Influence of wakes

At the University of Durham a series of experimental investiga-
tions has been performed in order to decouple the complex flow
phenomena occurring downstream of a turbine stage in a systematic
manner. The measurements have been carried out in the University
of Durham Swan Neck Duct Facility, where a variable-speed fan
sucks air through a turbulence grid and an inlet contraction into a
parallel section, which houses a row of 34 fixed swirl vanes followed
by the annular diffusing duct to be tested and a plenum.
The first experiments deal with the pseudo-steady influence of
two-dimensional wakes extending from hub to the casing. For this
initial investigation of Dominy and Kirkham [11] flat plate vanes
were used to generate wakes comparable both in intensity and
extent to those of HP or IP blades but without swirl. The inter-
mediate turbine diffuser showed an area ratio of 1.5 and a hub-to-
casing radius ratio of 0.7. The Reynolds number based on the inlet
passage height was 3.9  105. Detailed information regarding test
setup, operating conditions and instrumentation are given in [11].
Fig. 4. Pressure rise coefficient along casing and hub surface without (a) and with The authors observed that the cross-passage pressure gradient
(b) swirl for the S-shaped diffuser of Fig. 3.
of the first radial bend drives the transportation of boundary layer
fluid from the hub surface to the casing within the low energy
wake flow. Fig. 5 shows these secondary flows evoked by wakes
the first bend, which is directly followed by a region of the strongest schematically. The radial velocity within the wake was found to
adverse pressure gradient due to the area increase together with the be the highest on the hub side giving rise to a pitch angle
influence of the first convex bend at the hub, which also leads to a variation within the passage of 131. Across most of the passage
pressure rise at the casing. Here it should be mentioned that the the wakes remain essentially two-dimensional and appear to
applied design compensates a too rapid increase in the flow area by influence the wall boundary layers only in the immediate vicinity
this convex shape of the hub surface marked with ‘‘C’’ in Fig. 3a.
Therefore no flow separation can be found at the critical zone at the
outer duct surface between minimum and maximum pressure,
although a rapid growth of the boundary layer and a low wall shear
stress will occur there. The maximum pressure at the casing
(CP ¼0.54) can be found in the second bend at x/L¼0.84 where the
flow is turned back to the axial direction.
On the hub surface a rapid increase in surface pressure (CP ¼0.52)
can be observed as the flow approaches the first bend x/L¼0.3
followed by two drops evoked by flow acceleration at the two
convex wall regions ‘‘B’’ and ‘‘C’’ (x/L¼0.49 and 0.96, respectively)
with a pressure recovery in-between. The first drop would not be so
pronounced in the real intermediate turbine diffuser due to the
blockage of the additional LP vane row at x/L¼0.62. At the geome-
trical diffuser exit x/L¼1 still a large cross-passage pressure gradient
is evident, which mixes out to CP ¼ 0.26 at x/L¼1.6.
It is obvious that a classification of the criticality of annular
S-shaped diffusers must be characterized by more parameters
than only the area ratio (AR) and the non-dimensional length. Fig. 5. Pressure-driven secondary flows evoked by S-shape and stationary wakes.
254 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
of the wake [11]. Further downstream the hub boundary layer
remains relatively uniform in circumferential direction while the
thickened casing boundary layer reveals strong evidence from the
transport of wake fluid into it. A re-energization of the boundary
layer occurs there. Counter-rotating vortices start to form on
either side of the wake. As the fluid passes the second bend of the
duct the radial pressure gradient reverses, but the influence onto
the three-dimensional flow structures seems to be too small to
change their character. At the duct outlet counter-rotating vor-
tices on both sides of the wakes can be observed at the hub as
well as at the casing, whereas the latter were found to be much
stronger. The secondary vortices induce local variations in yaw
and pitch angle of up to 741. The wake itself is observed to be
very weak. The regions of highest loss were found at the casing
surface in the middle between two wakes where the boundary
layer thickness shows its maximum. Another important conclu-
sion of [11] is that a small flow deviation at the inlet may have a
disproportionately large influence upon the flow at the entry of
the first turbine stage downstream of the duct due to the radially
driven wake flows promoted by the S-shape. Despite the growth
of the wake induced secondary flows within an S-shaped duct
their influence upon the overall performance of the diffuser is
remarkably slight [12]. No change in the surface static pressure
distribution can be observed compared to a wake-free case. This
means that only a redistribution of loss occurs instead of an
additional loss generation.
2.2.2. Influence of swirl
Additionally to the flow effects already discussed, a swirling flow
at the diffuser inlet will further modify the pressure gradients and
the boundary layers. The following part will discuss the influence of
swirl onto the intermediate turbine duct flow without as well as
with wakes.
The effect of swirl in an annular diffuser is to superimpose a
radial pressure gradient where the pressure at the casing is higher
than at the hub. This gradient is the result of a radial equilibrium
between pressure and centrifugal force of a fluid particle. The
angular momentum has to be constant, if external forces can be
neglected, so that the circumferential speed decreases with
increasing radius leading to the pressure rise. The radial pressure
gradient caused by swirl is opposite to that evoked by the first
bend of the duct and additive to the effect of the second one. A
further effect of swirl in an S-shaped diffuser is that the flow path
of fluid particle through the duct is increased, which leads to a
reduced effective curvature of the streamline in the radial bends
and thus to a reduced radial pressure gradient. Additionally, the
friction losses increase slightly due to the longer flow path.
Bradshaw [13] reported that the turbulent energy production due
to the radial pressure gradient increases at the casing wall and
reduces at the hub wall. This difference implies a difference in growth
rate of the surface boundary layers and thus of their ability to sustain
streamwise pressure gradients without separation. For that reason
swirl stabilizes the casing and destabilizes the hub boundary layer.
Figs. 3b and 4b compare the flow through the example inter-
mediate turbine diffuser with an inlet swirl angle of 451 to the zero-
swirl case of Figs. 3a and 4a. The same mean inlet total pressure and
mass flow rate of 13.2 kg/s were applied for the flow simulation. The
Mach number distribution of Fig. 3b shows smaller cross-passage
gradients from hub to tip than for the zero-swirl case. The overall
level in Mach number is increased due to the additional circumfer-
ential velocity component.
In the axis-parallel inflow section the radial pressure gradient
caused by the circumferential velocity component is responsible
for the offset between the hub and casing pressure rise coefficient
lines. Again the upstream influence of the S-shape spreads the curves
prior to the inflow section at x/L¼0. The pressure at the casing peak
suction point at x/L¼0.18 increases from CP ¼ 0.78 for zero swirl to
 0.27 due to the superimposed opposite pressure gradient. Addi-
tionally, the effective wall curvature und thus the cross-passage
pressure gradient is reduced in this region. The pressure rise over the
whole diffuser is significantly increased for the casing as well as for
the hub. A mean exit CP of about 0.4 is reached compared to 0.26 for
the axial inflow. The maximum pressure at the hub in the first bend
is reduced from CP ¼0.52 to 0.16 and shifted from x/L¼0.3 to 0.36
due to the changed effective streamline curvature. The following two
flow accelerations at the corresponding convex wall regions ‘‘B’’ and
‘‘C’’ are appearing earlier at x/L¼0.47 and 0.95, respectively, with a
less pronounced pressure drop and a stronger pressure recovery in-
between. In summary the cross-passage pressure gradient at the first
bend is halved for the swirling flow, which is in good agreement with
the Mach number gradient shown in Fig. 3b.
In general, it can be stated that a swirl creates, on the one
hand, less boundary layer loss due to the decreased diffusion and
adverse pressure gradient along the streamlines caused by lower
effective wall curvature and, on the other hand, more friction loss
by the increased flow path length.
Dominy and Kirkham [12] extended their work on the influence
of swirl together with non-rotating wakes as discussed above. The
same experimental facility was used with the same inlet conditions
except for a swirl angle of 151. The inlet flow shows thicker wakes
and more pronounced secondary flows in comparison to the zero-
swirl case. Although the 34 vanes are simple and untwisted, the yaw
angle variation is small in the free stream outside the area where the
interaction between the secondary vortices and the boundary layers
occurs. Fig. 6 shows the secondary flows evoked by skewed wakes
schematically. Downstream of the first bend of the S-shaped duct the
wake was found to be inclined to the radial direction. A cross-passage
variation of the circumferentially averaged yaw angle of about 31 was
observed. In contrast to the zero-swirl case the wake flow interacts
with the boundary layers over nearly the whole pitch. At the second
bend where the radial pressure gradient reverses the wake was
skewed further and the associated high loss fluid accumulated almost
entirely at the casing [12]. A loss core forms close to the casing wall
and develops rapidly along the further duct. The boundary layer
merges more intensively with the low energy wake fluid compared
to the zero swirl case. Again a re-energization of the boundary layer
occurs there. Also the vortex structure was found to change sig-
nificantly: As a consequence of the wake skewing due to the swirling
flow hub and casing vortices of the same direction of rotation move
relative to each other in the circumferential direction until they are
adjacent. Consequently, the hub and casing vortices with the same
direction of rotation merge but keep the casing vortices as the
Fig. 6. Pressure-driven secondary flows evoked by S-shape, stationary wakes
and swirl.
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
dominant structure [12]. Again no significant generation of additional
losses or loss redistribution was found for this relatively conservative
duct. This may change significantly for more aggressive designs.
The flow effects discussed above were also summarized by
Dominy et al. [14] with a comparison of their measurements to
CFD and to results from an intermediate turbine diffuser arranged
downstream of a single-stage LP turbine stage. This test was carried
out in the Rolls Royce no. 4 Turbine Test Facility at a inlet Reynolds
number (based on the inlet passage height) of 3.2  105 together with
a Mach number of 0.23 and a temperature of 370 K at the duct inlet.
The comparison of the turbine measurements with a CFD simulation
based upon a circumferentially uniform inlet flow shows deviations
especially near the hub. The reason is that the flow downstream of a
turbine stage is characterized by moving wakes and secondary flows
from the rotor together with chopped wake segments and flow
effects from the stationary vanes. Only the latter can be captured by
time-averaged measurements in the intermediate turbine diffuser as
performed in this study [14]. The strong spanwise variation in swirl
angle at the duct inlet due to the stage design and the secondary
flows cannot be considered. As an important conclusion of this work
it can be stated that computational simulations generally give good
predictions of the flow development and of the loss generation
within the diffuser when the truly three-dimensional nature of the
flow is represented. Calculations based upon a circumferentially
averaged inlet flow show clear limitations [14].
2.2.3. Influence of diffusion rate
The next topic dealt with in the series of investigations per-
formed at University of Durham is the influence of the diffusion rate
on the intermediate turbine diffuser flow and its performance.
Norris and Dominy [15] used both experimental and numerical
results to show the differences between two S-shaped ducts with
the same area ratio and radial offset but with different axial length.
Consequently, these intermediate ducts have different wall curva-
tures and diffusion rates to achieve the area increase over a much
shorter distance and thus a changed influence onto the secondary
flows generated by the upstream wakes.
For this investigation the University of Durham Swan Neck Duct
Facility has been used with the flat plate vanes to generate wakes
without swirl and with a new inlet contraction in order to give a
more uniform radial total pressure gradient and a thinner and more
stable casing boundary layer. Again the Reynolds number was
adjusted to 3.9  105. The longer diffuser corresponds to the setup
used for the previous studies [11,12] while the shorter one has an
axial length reduced by 30%. Additionally, the intensity of the wakes
was varied by different lengths of the parallel inflow section.
In the shorter duct the casing surface flow on the first bend
undergoes a larger acceleration and hence diffusion due to the
smaller radius of curvature. This part of the flow was found to be
responsible for a significant part of the overall duct total pressure
loss caused by a thick low pressure region at the casing occupying
approximately 12% of the duct area compared to 8% in the longer
duct. This thicker boundary layer reduces the effective local duct
area and therefore less static pressure is recovered. For both
setups, the already described redistributed high-loss fluid in the
mid-pitch casing region was observed but more pronounced for
the shorter diffuser [15].
The theoretical maximum static pressure rise coefficient CP,ideal,
which a diffuser can achieve, is only a function of its exit to inlet
ratio defined by
 2
1
CP,ideal ¼ 1 ð2Þ
AR
AR is the area ratio of 1.5 for these setups. Of course, this
definition does not account for inlet blockage due to upstream
255
wakes as well as inlet hub and casing boundary layers. Accord-
ingly CP,ideal is 0.56, but in practice this theoretical value is
reduced by these blockage effects. The longer diffuser showed a
Cp of 0.464 compared to a Cp of 0.420 for the shorter one. The
diffuser efficiency ZD can be defined as
CP
ZD ¼  100% ð3Þ
CP,ideal
Values for ZD of 83.5% and 75.6% can be calculated for the
longer and the shorter diffuser, respectively. The CP distributions
for both setups are discussed in detail by Norris and Dominy [15].
It can be concluded that both the diffusion rate and the intensity
of the upstream wakes influence the structure and magnitude of
the resulting secondary flow vortices significantly. The study also
showed a decrease in pressure recovery as a result of shortening
the diffuser by 30% in axial length.
2.3. Influence of struts
For multi-spool turbofan engines it may be necessary to equip
the intermediate turbine diffuser with load-carrying struts to sup-
port the inner shaft bearings and to provide a path for essential
engine services such as cooling air and engine lubrication oil. The
influence of these struts onto the intermediate turbine diffuser flow
was the final topic within the series of experimental investigations
in the University of Durham Swan Neck Duct Facility (see Norris
et al. [16,17]). For this reason 26 evenly spaced struts have been
added to the facility in addition to the 34 flat-plate vanes at the
diffuser inlet. The diffuser section used for this research corresponds
to the shorter duct setup of [15]. Both experimental and numerical
investigations have been applied to analyze the differences between
the flow without and with struts. The strut surface was equipped
with a large number of static pressure taps in order to study the
effect of one or two upstream wakes passing through the strut
passage. Details on the instrumentation and the CFD predictions are
given by Norris and Dominy [16].
The clean duct shows an unsteady separation bubble at the
casing right after the first bend where the diffusion rates are
sufficiently high. In the measurements a thick and less clearly
structured low pressure region was found there, which is typical
for the energy dissipation of large eddies. The change of the local
aerodynamic shape by this separation bubble might be the reason
for the overpredicted peak suction value at the casing in the
region of the bubble by CFD [16]. The precise computational
prediction of a separation bubble location and its extension is still
challenging. The existence of the bubble has been confirmed by
surface flow visualization as well.
After installation of the struts in the same channel the surface
pressure distributions were found to change significantly. Their
leading edges were positioned just ahead of the peak suction zone
on the casing. Due to the fact that the strut has a symmetrical C4
aerofoil shape, the strut diffusion (from 10% chord length onwards)
is located where the duct diffusion shows its maximum. The added
blockage by the leading edges is responsible for the fact that the
minimum CP value is decreased from 0.49 to  0.82 (see [16]). The
effect of the struts on duct blockage and hence flow acceleration is
also evident in the rest of the flow path. The overall diffuser pressure
recovery is reduced from 42% to 30% of the inlet dynamic head,
which means a diffuser efficiency drop from ZD ¼75.6% to 54%. This
smaller pressure recovery is responsible for a reduced work extrac-
tion of a following LP turbine stage by decreasing the flow and stage
loading coefficient [16].
The area where the struts are positioned was found to be the
part of the duct with the main losses. The overall duct loss with
installed struts is almost doubled. A massive flow separation
occurring on the casing part of the strut was found to be the
256 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
Fig. 7. High-loss fluid distribution evoked by S-shape, stationary wakes and struts.
explanation for that. The strut diffusion and the critical duct
diffusion together were sufficient to cause the flow to separate.
The interaction of the stationary wake flow and the strut has been
analyzed by CFD. In the simulation, the inlet wake is circumferen-
tially shifted so that no direct strut–wake interaction occurs.
A schematic flow situation is given in Fig. 7. The re-energization of
the boundary layer by the pressure-driven secondary flows due to
the inlet wake was observed on the side of the strut adjacent to the
wake flow. There the separation was found to be suppressed and
hence any reversed flow. On the other side of the strut the separation
causes a low total pressure region together with negative velocities.
After passing the strut trailing edge the interaction of these two flow
regimes causes the low energy zone to lift off from the casing surface
forming a loss core, which is still visible at the diffuser exit section
[16] (see Fig. 7).
Additionally, time-dependent flow characteristics have been
investigated by Norris et al. [17]. RMS fluctuations of the static
pressure coefficient at each tapping were used as indication of the
unsteadiness there. More details are given in the paper itself. The
separation bubble in the clean duct without struts was found to
be of a periodic low frequency unsteady nature. The installed struts
evoke the above discussed stronger and more ordered casing surface
separation, which shows still a closed bubble character. After adding
the influence of the inlet wakes a more stable flow on the strut
surface close to the casing was found with a much reduced mag-
nitude and spatial extent of the flow unsteadiness correlating to the
pressure-driven secondary wake flows [17].
This investigation shows that the blockage effect has to be
considered during the design process of a well performing strutted
diffuser. It is obvious that a reduction in flow area due to the struts
can be compensated by an area increase by changing the meridional
channel shape in this region. This means that the overall negative
influence of load-carrying structures can be much reduced com-
pared to the findings in the works of Norris et al. [16,17].
3. Aerodynamics of intermediate turbine diffusers arranged
downstream of turbine stages
All the effects occurring in the exit flow of a turbine stage
influence the inflow to an intermediate turbine diffuser and hence
every other downstream position by periodical unsteady effects
caused by the passing rotor blades modulated in their strength by
stator–rotor interaction. As already mentioned these effects are
wakes, secondary flows, swirl, tip leakage flow and possibly trailing
edge shocks. Some of them have already been discussed in detail in
a systematic way, mainly separated from each other. Downstream
of a turbine stage these effects occur simultaneously and their
contributions to the resulting flow field are much more complicated.
For example, the influence of rotor wakes is not an effect fixed in
space because of the blade movement. The influence of the
stationary vanes is disturbed by chopping their wakes by the rotor
into segments, which pass independently through the different
blade channels.
Also the following flow channel shape influences the spanwise
back-pressure profile of the turbine stage and unsteady interac-
tions with downstream vanes or struts have an upstream influ-
ence mostly onto the rotating blades. The decaying and mixing
out of all the effects from the upstream turbine stage occur in the
following intermediate turbine diffuser and change the flow
through it in contrast to a clean annular channel within a wind
tunnel test.
3.1. Test programs with ducts downstream of turbine stages
In order to investigate the effects of an upstream turbine stage
onto the aerodynamics of an intermediate turbine diffuser a much
more sophisticated test arrangement is necessary. The test facil-
ities capable to host these experiments can be classified as low- or
high speed test turbines operating in a short duration mode or a
continuously running mode. The investigations of inter turbine
ducts downstream of a turbine stage, which are published in open
literature, have been performed at four different test sites. In the
following paragraphs these test setups will be introduced and an
overview of all the performed research work related to them will
be given. After that a detailed discussion of important results will
be presented in a more systematic manner.
3.1.1. Oxford Rotor Facility at the Thermo-Fluids Laboratory of the
University of Oxford (Southwell Laboratory, Osney Laboratory)
The Oxford Rotor Facility [18] uses an isentropic light-piston
tunnel to provide fully scaled test conditions for approximately
100 ms. Over several years a test setup with a one and a half
turbine stage was used for a series of research work where the
second vane was arranged in an S-shaped swan-necked turbine
diffuser. This setup characterizes the engine representative design
of a Rolls Royce 2nd stage vane of very low aspect ratio. The large
size of this wide-chord vane is caused by the necessity to route
service lines through its core and to use it as a rear engine support
strut [19]. The flow field inside the vane passage is very three-
dimensional and the presence of the upstream stage induces a
high level of unsteadiness. After the time-resolved investigation
of the vane-rotor interaction of the preceding HP turbine [20] and
the wake, shock and potential field interaction of the 1.5 stage
setup [21,22] Miller et al. [19] focused their research onto the
rotor flow evolution within the swan-necked duct and its influ-
ence onto the downstream IP vane [23]. Both experimental and
numerical investigations have been performed with and without
this second wide chord vane. The test setups of the facility are
shown in Fig. 8a and b, the stage parameters are given in Table 1.
3.1.2. Turbine Test Facility (TTF) at the Gas Turbine Laboratory of
the Ohio State University
This transient facility is a short-duration shock-tube and
blowdown facility and has been described thoroughly by Dunn
et al. [24]. During the approximately 100 ms run time of the
facility the upstream area-averaged total pressure and the wheel
speed are approximately constant, varying by 8% and 0.6%,
respectively, over the 40 ms interval of data sampling for a given
tunnel run. This research program utilizes an uncooled one-and-
a-half transonic turbine stage of which all three airfoils are
heavily instrumented. The test setup is representative of an early
design iteration of the PW6000 engine [25]. The meridional flow
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 257

channel is depicted in Fig. 8c and the design parameters are given

in Table 1. In Clark et al. [25] the experimental results were used to
validate two unsteady CFD predictions with and without airfoil
scaling. When no airfoil scaling was used and thus the true airfoil
counts were modeled, the predicted levels of unsteadiness on the
blade were in very good agreement with the measurements in the
short-duration turbine rig. Significant discrepancies in the predicted
first vane/first blade potential interaction were found when airfoil
scaling was applied. Building on this investigation a further study of
Davis et al. [26] addresses the physics of the complex reflected-
shock interaction between the blade, the intermediate turbine duct
and the second vane. Haldeman et al. [27] investigated experimen-
tally the influence of vane-blade spacing and clocking on the
unsteady surface pressure loading in this setup.

3.1.3. Large-Scale Facility at the Division of Fluid Dynamic of

Fig. 8. Test setups for intermediate turbine diffusers at different test turbine rigs.
Chalmers University of Technology
Compared to both test turbines introduced above this facility
is continuously operating and allows the testing of large scale
S-ducts downstream of a low-speed turbine stage under engine
realistic Reynolds numbers. The design, construction and com-
missioning of this test facility were part of the EU project AIDA
and are described by Arroyo et al. [28]. Although modern turbines
operate at near sonic conditions, many of the phenomena are also
present at lower speeds. Therefore low-speed large-scale rigs are
of considerable value for studying the flow details, which would
otherwise not be obtainable. The experimental facility is a horizontal
closed-loop wind tunnel and consists of a centrifugal fan, a flow
conditioning section, the test section with the turbine stage, duct and
de-swirler, and a flow return channel with a heat exchanger. The
electrical power of the fan is 110 kW delivering a maximum mass
flow rate of 11.1 kg/s. The speed of the turbine rotor is adjusted by a
hydraulic brake to 1090 rpm.
Fig. 8d shows the meridional section of the test setup AIDA C1
of the EU project AIDA consisting of a turbine stage designed by
Rolls Royce Deutschland together with an intermediate turbine
diffuser geometry from Industria de Turbo Propulsores S.A.
(ITP). Table 1 gives some design parameters of this test case. In
the past years a detailed test series has been performed within
this test setup including a performance evaluation and endwall
flow structure investigation by Axelsson et al. [29], a detailed
investigation of the time-averaged flow field by Axelsson and
Johansson [30] and of the time-resolved flow field by Axels-
son [31] as well as studies concerning turbulence and the integral
length scale of the diffuser flow by Axelsson and George [32,33].
Measurements at off-design conditions have been presented by
Axelsson and Johansson [34]. A comparison between experimen-
tal and numerical results of the AIDA C1 intermediate turbine
duct was drawn by Johansson and Axelsson [35].
Within the EU project AITEB-II the design and optimization of an
intermediate turbine duct with load-carrying struts has been

Table 1
Characteristics of test setups for intermediate turbine diffusers.

Oxford Ohio Chalmers Graz

Rotational speed rpm 8910 – 965/1088/1160 10100/11000

pt inlet/p outlet – – 5.19 – –
Inlet Ma – 0.45 – – 0.48/0.65
Rel. inlet Ma – 0.98 1.17 – –
Re – – – 170000 –
Vane/blade/vane count – 36/60/21 36/56/36 36/72/72 24/36/48
Mean diameter m – 0.5796 0.99 –
Tip clearance/blade h % 2.25 – 1.45 1.5/2.4
258 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
executed by Wallin et al. [36]. The final geometry was installed in
the Chalmers Large-Scale Facility for a detailed measurement
program for comparison with CFD simulations. The geometry of
this setup is given in Fig. 8e. The outcomes of this investigation were
presented for the flow field at design inlet conditions by Wallin
et al. [37] and for the flow field at off-design inlet conditions by
Arroyo et al. [38]. The complete aerothermal investigation of this
setup was presented by Arroyo [39]. In his work a unique database
has been created, which is already in use to improve design methods
in industry. The heat transfer measurements were conducted with
the help of a technique based on infrared thermography. Two
different inlet boundary conditions out of the database from [39]
were used for the continuation of the numerical work within AITEB-II
by Wallin [40], where diverse turbulence models were applied to
analyze the flow field and heat transfer structures.
3.1.4. Transonic Test Turbine Facility (TTTF) at the Institute for
Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics of Graz University
of Technology
This high-speed facility is a continuously operating cold-flow
open-circuit plant, which allows the testing of rig inserts under
engine-representative Mach numbers. It is a free running turboset
consisting of the test turbine itself and a three-stage radial brake
compressor and is driven by pressurized air delivered by a
separate 3 MW compressor station. The brake compressor deli-
vers additional air mixed to the flow from the compressor station
and increases the overall mass flow through the test setup. The air
temperature at turbine stage inlet can be adjusted by coolers
between 40 and 185 1C. The maximum shaft speed of the test rig
is limited to 11,550 rpm. Depending on the stage characteristic
a maximum coupling power of 2.8 MW at a total mass flow of
22 kg/s can be reached. Detailed information on the design and
construction of the facility can be found in Erhard and Gehrer [41],
on the operation in Neumayer et al. [42].
Within the EU project AIDA the Transonic Test Turbine Facility
(TTTF) has been adapted in order to investigate the flow physics in
intermediate turbine ducts. Details can be seen in Göttlich et al. [43].
During this test program three different intermediate turbine duct
setups have been tested at two different operating points with
different inlet Mach numbers together with a variation of the rotor
tip clearance size. The layout of these setups is shown in Fig. 8f and
g. The parameters are given in Table 1. A comparison of the results
for the two Mach number cases in the so-called aggressive setup
AIDA C4 representing the flow downstream of a single-stage and a
two-stage HP turbine, respectively, is reported on by Göttlich et al.
[44]. The study on the rotor tip gap size variation in the same test
configuration is discussed by Marn et al. [45] using time-averaged
results and by Göttlich et al. [46] by means of time-accurate results
at the duct inlet together with surface flow visualization. Addition-
ally, a numerical study on this topic was performed by Sanz et al.
[47] considering also a theoretical zero tip gap case to separate the
flow effects evoked by the tip leakage. A much shorter so-called
super-aggressive intermediate duct providing a separated flow
(AIDA C5) was used to create a database for CFD code verification.
This duct was also designed as a platform for the application of
passive flow control devices. The separated flow through this
configuration is discussed for both inlet Mach number cases by
Göttlich et al. [48]. The tip gap size variation in the same test
configuration is discussed in detail by Marn et al. [49]. Finally the
flow differences between configuration AIDA C4 and AIDA C5 are
shown by Marn et al. [50].
3.2. Downstream effect of a turbine stage
It has been shown by Miller et al. [20] that for an unshrouded
HP-turbine rotor the inlet flow is dominated by the rotor tip
leakage flow close to the casing wall and the rotor hub passage
vortex. As an example of all the downstream effects evoked by an
upstream HP-turbine stage the results from an unsteady simula-
tion of the aggressive intermediate turbine test setup of Fig. 8f
should be used (see also Fig. 2 for the classification of its agg-
ressiveness). The computations were performed using the in-
house Navier–Stokes code LINARS, developed at Graz University
of Technology. The CFD code uses pressure-sensitive wall-
functions and the one equation turbulence model of Spalart and
Allmaras, which showed good results in previous numerical
studies. The CFD and post processing tools used for this investiga-
tion are described in [51] and [52], respectively. Fig. 9 shows time
snapshots of entropy contours in different planes throughout this
aggressive intermediate turbine duct. The position of these planes
is given in the upper left corner. High entropy appears in red
while low entropy is depicted in blue. The wake flows and the loss
cores due to secondary flows can be seen very clearly as zones of
high entropy. In order to identify the secondary flows a stream-
wise-vorticity plot together with relative streamlines are given in
the upper right corner. The vortical structures are the lower
passage vortex (A), a pair of trailing edge shed vortices (B) and
(C), the upper passage vortex (D) and the tip leakage vortex
merged with a scraping vortex (E) and have been discussed in
detail in [46]. According to the findings of Miller et al. [20] the
lower passage vortex and the tip leakage vortex are the most
pronounced vortical structures. Additionally the stage design of
this transonic high pressure turbine stage shows a strong varia-
tion of swirl angle with almost zero-swirl at the tip and approxi-
mately 451 counter-swirl at the hub.
In plane C the rotor wakes are marked with black dashed lines,
the high loss regions corresponding to the vortical structures are
encircled. Between the wakes the entropy is low (rotor passage
2 and 3). In every third rotor passage the periodical appearance of
high-entropy fluid from the chopped nozzle wake segments can
be observed (rotor passage 1). As already shown in the previous
sections the wakes enable the transport of boundary layer fluid
from the inner duct wall outwards within the S-shaped duct. The
swirl downstream of the rotor is responsible for the skewing of
the wakes, which can be observed in plane C1. This strong swirl
variation enhances the tilting of the wakes on their way through
the duct.
The radial pressure gradient due to the S-shape of the duct lifts
the wakes and secondary flow effects off from the inner wall,
makes them drift outwards and merge with the outer duct’s
boundary layer. In plane C1 all flow structures are already above
the dotted line at about 30% span. High-loss fluid from the vane
wake is still visible downstream of every third rotor passage. The
further stretching and tilting of the wakes can be observed in
plane C3. Here the highest entropy values can be found due to the
merging of the wake fluid of the blade and vane (marked with A).
The strong tilting and stretching of the blade wake flow was also
observed in the unsteady measurement results of Axelsson [31].
In his large-scale low-speed facility also the HP vane wakes are
detectable over a long distance in the diffuser and their evolution
is discussed in his work.
In plane D of the setup in Fig. 8f directly upstream of the LP
vane a nearly continuous stripe of high entropy can be seen,
which is slightly intermitted by low-loss fluid at a distance of
one HP vane pitch. Also Dominy and Kirkham [12] found this
accumulation of high loss fluid almost entirely at the casing right
after the second bend of the duct. Downstream of the LP vane
(plane E) high loss fluid accumulates at the casing on the suction
side of the vane wakes (B). The leakage flow through the gap
between LP vane and inner duct surface becomes visible (C). This
gap was necessary to rotate the vane ring in the circumferential
direction during the measurements in this test setup.
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 259

Fig. 9. Entropy contours in different planes (C–E) and vortical structures (top right) for AIDA C4 configuration at Graz University of Technology. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Due to the vane–vane count of 24–48 some sort of clocking
effect can be seen in the form of a higher loss region in every
second vane passage (D). That clocking can be interesting for
turbine stages up- and downstream of an intermediate turbine
diffuser has been demonstrated by Haldeman et al. [27] in the test
setup of Fig. 8c. As a major outcome a large effect of the relative
vane–vane position onto the time-accurate pressure distributions
of the transition duct and the LP vane was found. The results
indicate that there is no best clocking position that uniformly
reduces the unsteadiness on the transition duct or LP vane, and
certainly not simultaneously for both the duct and the vane.
That means that if there is a critical location on the airfoil for
260 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
which the amplitude of the unsteady surface pressure is too high,
clocking may be one solution for reducing the local level of
unsteadiness [27].
Downstream of a transonic turbine stage the duct inlet is also
dominated by rotor trailing edge shocks. These shocks are a major
contributor to the unsteady interaction between the turbine stage
and the downstream components affecting the unsteady pressure
field and the aerodynamic performance. Davis et al. [26] showed that
pressure waves and shocks propagate from the blades downwards
and are reflected back upstream to the blade itself. The authors also
showed that the computed time-averaged pressure distributions
generally agree very well with the experiment. Additionally, the
interactions between HP vanes and blades as well as blades and LP
vanes are well predicted at midspan. But the simulation results
disagreed with the measurements in the near-wall region since the
inner duct wall is the most influenced part of the whole intermediate
turbine diffuser by rotor trailing edge shocks.
This unsteady interaction can also be seen in Fig. 9 by means of
the magnitude of the pressure gradient, which is projected onto
the duct endwalls and the blade surfaces. Fig. 10 shows a time-
snapshot of pressure gradients plotted onto the inner duct surface
to visualize this heavy interaction there. The view is radially
inward; the flow direction is from left to right. The trailing edges
of the rotor blades can be seen on the left, the LP vane leading
edges on the right.
Here it should be noticed that the contents of Figs. 9 and 10 are
also available as videos in the Electronic Annex 1 in the online
version of this article. The unsteady interaction mechanisms can
be more easily captured in these moving pictures.
Supplementary material related to this article can be found
online at doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2011.01.002.
There are different types of pressure gradients visible in this CFD
result of Fig. 10. The dominating structures are the rotor trailing
edge shocks (marked with black dotted lines). The interaction of the
trailing edge shocks emanating from the upstream nozzle guide
vanes with the rotor blades also causes pressure waves entering the
duct periodically, e.g. see Schennach et al. [53], and can be seen
in Fig. 10. These pressure waves are generated through the reflection
of the HP vane trailing edge shocks on the moving rotor blades.
Whenever a shock hits the suction surface and sweeps forward to
the blade leading edge an upstream running wave is generated.
After that these structures are reflected back on the rear part of the
HP vane surfaces and travel downstream through the rotor passages
(see video in the Electronic Annex 1 in the online version of this
article). These waves are most pronounced below midspan. Due to
the phase lag between neighboring rotor blade passages they form
Fig. 10. Time snapshot of visualized pressure gradient on the inner duct surface from
unsteady CFD (AIDA C4 configuration). (For interpretation of the references to color in
this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
coherent pressure wave fronts propagating downstream. The angle
of these pressure wave fronts (marked with red dash-dotted lines)
depends on the local speed of sound and the circumferential velocity
of the rotor. The third type of pressure gradients are fronts of
upstream running pressure waves (marked with yellow dashed
lines), which are mainly evoked by reflection of the rotor trailing
edge shocks onto the LP vane surfaces. During the rotation the shock
hits the LP vane and sweeps forward along the pressure side.
The duct inner surface can be divided into three zones: the
upstream one (marked with A) is strongly influenced by the down-
stream running pressure wave fronts from the HP stator–rotor
interaction, the downstream one (marked with C) is heavily domi-
nated by the upstream reflections from the rotor TE shocks and
the section between them (marked with B) where the interaction
between the up- and downstream running waves takes place. In this
region there seems to be something like destructive interference
between them so that no strong pressure wave leaving this area is
clearly detectable.
Special focus should be laid onto the interaction of the down-
stream running wave fronts with the rotor trailing edge shocks.
There are many points at the inner duct surface where these
two pressure gradients intersect (marked with green circles). Due
to the different propagation directions and velocities of both
involved pressure gradients these points are not stationary and
move slowly downstream in the relative frame of reference. The
two pressure gradients superimpose in these regions and form a
stronger gradient with a different direction of propagation. There-
fore the trailing edge shock seems to split from the further down-
stream part and changes its angle rapidly (marked with black
dashed lines) at the encircled points of intersection. The picture in
the lower right corner of Fig. 10 shows the radial extension of this
interaction mechanism. The depicted surface almost perpendicular
to the inner duct is measurement plane C1. It can be seen that the
trailing edge shock only splits over a relatively small part of the
channel height and sweeps back in its original direction as the point
of intersection moves further downstream during the rotation in the
circumferential direction.
Apart from these unsteady interaction phenomena caused
mainly by the moving rotor blades, which can only be captured by
unsteady CFD or time-resolved measurements there are several
important flow features originating from the stationary HP vanes of
the upstream turbine stage. On the one hand, the downstream
influence of them is visible as the propagation of vane related flow
features like wakes segments, secondary vortices and pressure
fluctuations at fixed circumferential positions. On the other hand,
they modulate the rotor relevant flow structures like secondary
vortices, tip leakages and trailing edge shocks in their strength by
stator–rotor interaction during the blade passing event. In an engine
relevant test setup with an upstream turbine stage the conse-
quences of both the propagation and the modulation mechanisms,
but not the interaction itself, can be captured by time-averaged
measurement techniques like pneumatic five-hole probes, static
pressure taps and oil-flow visualization. The latter is usually used to
study the flow on the diffuser walls and on the following LP vanes,
which are necessary to ensure a proper radial mass flow distribution
throughout the duct. As an example for this the findings of the
surface flow visualization of Axelsson et al. [30] can be seen where
two streaks of removed color pigments were found on the outer
duct surface within one HP vane pitch. These streaks correspond
well to the time-averaged static wall pressure distribution. In the
five-hole probe measurements two pairs of zones with counter-
rotating vorticity were expected to be responsible for this phenom-
enon. But only with the help of time-resolved hot-wire measure-
ments in [31] the unsteady interaction of the tip leakage jet with the
stationary outer wall could be found as the cause of these streaks in
the time mean. These streaks played also an important role in the
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
aerothermal investigation of [39,40] and were found to cause a
decreased heat transfer coefficient.
Time-averaged techniques are easy to apply, robust, not very time
consuming and therefore cheaper in their application. In recent
research programs like AIDA and AITEB-II a huge amount of
measurements had to be carried out under variation of the operating
conditions influencing the Mach number and swirl, with different
rotor tip gap heights and for several duct designs being more or less
aggressive. Therefore most of the measurements were performed
with time-averaged measurement techniques. The result is a data-
base for CFD code verification of the project partners. Most of them
use steady numerical simulation tools during the engine design
process with mixing planes between stator and rotor and further
downstream. Thus the HP vane effects are not visible in these results.
For instance, at the duct inlet only circumferentially averaged results
from the time-averaged measurements can be compared to circum-
ferentially averaged steady computational results from the rotating
grid of the rotor. If there are deviations which occur mainly at the
endwalls, it is hard to find out the discrepancies without knowing
the real flow physics with all unsteady effects. A numerical simula-
tion of the test setup of Fig. 8d was performed by Johansson and
Axelsson [35] using a commercial flow solver without any adjust-
ments to the turbulence models in order to show the current
capabilities of CFD for this kind of complex flows. As expected, the
simulation managed to capture the total pressure and swirl angle
profile fairly well between 20% and 80% span, but not close to the
walls. The static wall pressure distributions were also predicted well,
but the total pressure losses were overestimated.
Another difficulty is to find the correct boundary conditions for
the numerical calculations. A procedure for obtaining the inlet
dissipation using the one-dimensional energy spectrum gained by
means of hot-wire traverses is published by Axelsson and
George [32]. The work presents the concept of integral length-
scale and the differences between the physical length-scales and
the pseudo-integral length-scale.
As a consequence of the complex intermediate turbine duct
flows with many flow features not fully understood up to now,
the future trend should go to unsteady multi-stage CFD simula-
tions and time-resolved measurement techniques despite their
high demands in computational and testing time, respectively.
3.3. Influence of Mach number and swirl
An intermediate turbine diffuser within a modern turbofan
engine has to cope with different flow conditions corresponding
to the different phases of the flight like take-off, cruise and
approach. The Mach number as well as the swirl angle will vary
significantly between them. For that reason the duct should guide
the flow without separation over the whole operating range in
order to ensure safe engine operation.
In the EU projects AIDA and AITEB-II different studies with off-
design flow conditions have been conducted. In the Large-Scale
Facility at Chalmers University the AIDA C1 intermediate diffuser
setup presented in Fig. 8d and classified in Fig. 2 was tested under
different representing operating conditions of the upstream turbine
stage (design point 1090 rpm and  211 swirl) providing a swirl
angle variation of 7101. The speed was changed to 967 rpm for part
load and 1160 rpm for peak load leading to a swirl angle of  311 and
111, respectively [29]. The diffuser shows similar robust operation
for all swirl angles with the smallest peak suction occurring for the
part load condition due to the largest effective wall curvature radius.
As expected, the strongest pressure gradient between inner and
outer duct wall in the first bend was found for peak load with the
minimum swirl angle. The pressure loss from diffuser inlet to LP vane
exit was smallest for the design point and largest for the highly
261
swirling part load case. The longer effective flow path and a small
separation on the suction side of the LP vane might be the reason
for that.
The situation changes significantly in the case of a strutted
duct. The large airfoils within the annular channel can only be
designed optimally for one operating point of the upstream high
pressure turbine providing the corresponding Mach number and
swirl angle. Since the leading edges of these airfoils are closer to
the duct inlet and the chord length are very long, they are much
more sensitive to flow distortions from the high pressure turbine
and off-design flows. The principles of the flow through a strutted
duct downstream of a turbine stage have been studied experi-
mentally as well as numerically by Wallin et al. [37] at design
conditions. The duct configuration corresponds to Fig. 8e, the
operating speed of the turbine was adjusted to 1060 rpm corre-
sponding to a Reynolds number of 160,000 based on the inlet
axial velocity and the inlet height. Measured two-dimensional
time-averaged contours of total pressure, total temperature, swirl
angle and pitch angle were taken as boundary conditions for the
numerical investigation of the duct so that the upstream turbine
stage could be omitted. A major finding of this investigation was
the formation of a large vortex in the corner formed by the suction
surface of the strut and the casing wall. This phenomenon is caused
by the tip leakage flow of the upstream turbine stage, which
impinges on the strut with high incidence and is forced away
towards the hub. This dominating structure covers the entire span
at the duct outlet. The formation of these large vortices is shown in
principle in Fig. 11 with the help of streamlines released from 50%
and 95% span at the diffuser inlet [37].
Its position and size is captured satisfactorily by CFD although
there is an over-prediction of the total pressure loss together with
an under-prediction of the velocity. The circumferentially aver-
aged radial loss coefficient profiles of CFD and experimental
results agree reasonably well but the contour plots show larger
differences. Therefore it is important to integrate the tip leakage
flow early in the design process and to consider not only radial
profiles when evaluating duct performance [37]. Another impor-
tant statement of the paper is that the implementation of inlet
boundary conditions is difficult without a modeled turbine stage,
either with a mixing plane analyses or much better with an
unsteady simulation if the computational resources are available.
In the aerothermal investigation of this test setup by Wallin [40]
also a strong circumferential heat transfer variation was found,
too. Therefore the author suggests including the upstream wakes
in the numerical analyses to account for their effects.
The off-design situation of this test setup has been investi-
gated in the second part of this study, namely Arroyo et al. [38].
At lower and higher load of the high pressure turbine stage the
flow features change significantly together with the duct inlet
flow angle (nominal flow angle þ111 and  121 to nominal flow
angle, respectively). The flow situation for low-load (mid) and
high-load conditions (bottom) can also be seen in Fig. 11 [38] and
compared to the design flow (top). For the lower load the duct
starts to separate (separation zone is marked in Fig. 11). For both
off-design conditions the overall loss coefficient is larger (0.18
and 0.16 for lower and higher load, respectively) compared to the
design case (0.12). As the main source of loss the shear layer
produced by the tip leakage flow was found. While this effect is
stronger for the higher-load case, the occurring separation seems
to be the main contributor to the losses of the lower-load case. For
more details on the CFD, the experiments and the flow results
see [37–39].
In the future there will be still two engine families with
different HP turbine architectures in service, the first one with a
single-stage and the second one with a two-stage turbine driving
the HP compressor shaft. To perform research work for both types
262 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
Fig. 11. Flow through strutted intermediate turbine diffuser for design (top), low-
load (mid) and high-load conditions (bottom), streamlines released from 50% and
95% span at inlet [37,38].
of HP turbines, measurements were performed within test setup
AIDA C4 (see Figs. 8f and 2) by Göttlich et al. [44] by means of
pneumatic five-hole-probes. Measurements in the intermediate
turbine duct were performed at two different Mach numbers
(0.65 and 0.48) representing the flow downstream of a single-
stage and a two-stage HP turbine, respectively. The flow behavior
through this setup was found to be very similar for both operating
conditions. The main difference appeared at the end of the flow
path. The flow parameters in the downstream part did hardly
change for the lower Mach number case. This means that diffu-
sion took place earlier in the diffuser for this operating point. The
surface flow visualization showed stable flow conditions of this
aggressive diffuser geometry for both Mach numbers. It was not a
target to study off-design situations for both duct inflow environ-
ments in [44].
3.4. Influence of rotor tip gap size
One important flow feature provided by an upstream high
pressure turbine stage at the inlet to the intermediate turbine
diffuser is the tip leakage flow. In most of the cases this turbine
stage is unshrouded due to the necessity for film cooling of the
blades. Therefore the typical tip leakage vortices will be formed
by the roll-up of leakage fluid after crossing the blade tips from
the pressure to the suction side. These streamwise vortices at the
outer diffuser wall rotating in the circumferential direction
together with the rotor blades energize intermittently the casing
boundary layer by transporting higher momentum fluid from the
core flow to the near-wall region and low energy fluid away from
it whenever they pass by. As a consequence, the mixing process
is enhanced. Also a direct wall jet through the tip gap influences
the outer duct boundary layer similar to an injection of high
energy fluid. The main parameter influencing the strength of
these energizing effects is the rotor tip gap size. A larger gap will
increase the tip leakage flow and help to prevent the casing
boundary layer from separation due to the strong adverse
pressure gradient and thus increase the diffuser efficiency. Addi-
tionally, a larger gap reduces the power output of the high
pressure turbine. Moreover, the stronger the tip leakage vortex
is the higher are the mixing losses. On the contrary, a smaller gap
increases the turbine efficiency but reduces the positive effects
onto the intermediate turbine duct flow. There seems to be an
overall optimum for a given turbine/diffuser configuration. Also
the influence onto the following low pressure turbine has to be
taken into account.
The influence of the rotor tip gap variation onto the flow
through the aggressive AIDA C4 diffuser configuration (see Fig. 8f)
downstream of a transonic turbine stage has been experimentally
investigated by Marn et al. [45] and Göttlich et al. [46]. The duct
geometry was designed 20% shorter than the state-of-the-art for a
duct with this radial offset and is classified according to the
Sovran and Klomp performance chart in Fig. 2 where it is directly
on the classical limit for aggressive designs. The rotor tip gap
variation was realized by interchangeable liner rings around the
turbine rotor. In the first part of this work [45] time-averaged
flow measurements were performed by means of five-hole probe
area traverses, static pressure taps and boundary layer rakes. The
operating conditions of the high pressure turbine were set to
provide a diffuser inlet Mach number of 0.65 and an inlet swirl
angle of  151. A rotor tip gap size of 1.5% and 2.4% span were
applied. This influence of the tip gap variation varies within the
duct as shown by the data in the different measurement planes.
The measurement locations can be seen in the top left picture
of Fig. 9. While immediately downstream of the rotor only the
upper part of the flow field is directly affected by the variation of
the tip clearance size, in planes further downstream the whole
flow field is concerned. For detailed results see [45], whereas here
only the diffuser total pressure loss will be used to show the
influence of the tip gap variation. The diffuser total pressure loss
between inlet and outlet for the 1.5% span tip clearance is about
2.8% and increases by about 7.5% up to 3.0% total pressure loss for
the 2.4% span gap. Fig. 12 shows where the loss is generated
within the duct. It can be seen that the most part of the loss is
produced from plane C to C1 for both clearances in the same
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
magnitude. From plane C to C1 the flow is turned radially out-
ward around the strong bend at the outer duct where the highest
Mach number was observed. At the inner wall the flow channel
opens rapidly. In the following planes the loss production for the
larger gap is higher as is shown in Fig. 12.
A detailed study of the duct inflow has been performed in the
second part of the work [46]. A two-component LDV was used to
gain time-resolved results in order to better understand the
structures and differences observed in the five-hole-probe mea-
surements of [45]. The tip leakage flow affecting only 20% span at
the duct inlet causes a different flow behavior over an increased
part of the channel height in the more downstream sections of the
transition duct. As shown before the flow within such an S-shaped
duct is very sensitive to relatively small flow variations at the duct
inlet which agrees very well with the findings of Dominy and
Kirkham [11] during their investigation within a setup with only
Fig. 12. Loss evolution in an intermediate turbine diffuser (AIDA C4 test setup)
depending on the rotor tip gap.
Fig. 13. Oil flow visualization in an intermediate turbine diffuser (AIDA C4 test setup) for two rotor tip gaps: outer wall (top) and inner wall (bottom).
263
stationary wakes. Additionally, the outflow from the transonic
turbine stage was investigated and compared to numerical results
of a steady Navier–Stokes solution. Thereby it was possible to
identify the formation of trailing edge shed vortices at midspan
(see Fig. 9 top right). The strong tilted wakes and the modulation of
the flow effects due to stator–rotor interaction were quantified by
the unsteady measurements and confirm the numerical results of
Fig. 9. They can be found in the electronic annex of the online
version of this paper. The surface flow visualization of Fig. 13 shows
no separation in this high diffusion intermediate turbine duct.
A comparison with the steady CFD simulation confirmed that the
effects of the tip clearance variation could be captured precisely.
In the work of Sanz et al. [47] the unsteady flow through this
whole configuration was numerically investigated for both gap
heights as well as for a rotor with zero gap height. Again the in-
house Navier–Stokes code LINARS was used [51]. The unsteady
results were compared at the stage exit and throughout the
intermediate turbine diffuser in order to study the flow physics.
The calculation for zero gap height allowed separating the
influence of the tip leakage flow.
Fig. 14 shows the radial distribution of the stage loading for
the three cases investigated: For non-zero gap height the loading
is the same in the lower part of the stage and differs slightly
above 75% span. There the loading is higher for the smaller gap
height of 1.5% span. For zero gap height the loading is slightly
smaller in the lower part of the stage due to a reduced stage
pressure ratio there, but remarkably higher in the upper part of
the stage because of the non-existing tip leakage flow.
In order to demonstrate the complex flow structure the simu-
lated time-averaged streamwise vorticity distribution in plane C is
shown in Fig. 15 for zero gap and 1.5% span gap height. Additionally
streamlines through the vortical structures are depicted. The upper
trailing edge shed vortex ‘‘C’’ is slightly stronger and moved
upwards in the zero-gap case because of the nonexistent tip leakage
flow. In the upper section of the channel the flow is dominated by
264 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
the upper passage vortex ‘‘D’’ for zero gap and by the tip leakage
vortex ‘‘E’’ for 1.5% span gap height. It can be seen that the tip
leakage flow displaces the opposite rotating upper passage vortex
downwards and reduces its strength. In Fig. 9 also the entropy
contours of plane C indicate that the tip leakage flow is the
dominant loss source [46].
For zero gap height a strong movement of the passage vortex
core ‘‘D’’ up- and downwards and a change of its shape could be
observed in the unsteady results during the blade passing cycle
(see Fig. 9). Also the shocks emanating from the rotor extend from
the hub to the tip in plane C with the highest strength in the tip
region. For 1.5% span gap height the shock structure is very
similar up to 75% span, although it is differently inclined. But from
there on the tip leakage flow dominates the Mach number distri-
bution and no shock occurs in the tip region (see [47]).
It turned out that for this aggressive duct the tip leakage flow
has a very positive effect on the pressure recovery by means of
energizing the outer duct boundary layer through the leakage
wall jet combined with the wallward transport of high energy
fluid by the tip leakage vortex. This thinner boundary layer with
less blockage effect is the reason for a larger effective flow area
and consequently more diffusion. On the other hand, it has to be
taken into account that the stronger tip leakage flow mixes out on
its way through the duct. For this reason the total pressure loss
increases for the larger tip gap as depicted in Fig. 12. Fig. 16
shows the pressure distribution along the duct by means of the
pressure rise coefficient for both tip gaps and the zero tip gap
Fig. 14. Stage loading at the inlet of an intermediate turbine diffuser (AIDA C4 test
setup) depending on the rotor tip gap.
Fig. 15. Flow structure at the inlet of an intermediate turbine diffuser (AIDA C4 test setup) without and with rotor tip gap.
case. For both gaps the principal trend is very similar. The minimum
static pressure at the outer wall is detected after the first bend
where the flow is accelerated. From there on the pressure con-
tinuously increases. At the inner wall the maximum static pressure
is found at a duct length x/L of about 0.46. A distinct minimum
occurs right after the change in curvature at the inner wall. There
for 1.5% span gap height the static pressure is slightly smaller. The
comparison with measurement data shows a good agreement and
confirms the reliability of the numerical investigation, although
there are slight differences between the experiments and the
computation for the outer duct wall for x/Lo0.25. These differences
might be partly caused by a larger measurement uncertainty at the
beginning of the duct due to the high flow unsteadiness there.
For the zero gap case the pressure recovery behavior is quite
different. At the outer wall it starts with a higher static pressure
and a smaller velocity and accelerates around the first bend.
Because of the lower dynamic pressure and since the flow is not
able to follow the inner contour completely, the pressure mini-
mum is less pronounced and occurs slightly earlier. From there on
the pressure increases and ends significantly lower than for the
duct flow with gap. The higher velocities outside the stagnant
endwall flow and the blockage of local zones of separated flow
(not shown here) cause the lower pressure recovery. At the inner
contour the trend is similar to the cases with gap up to nearly plane
C3. From there on the pressure recovery is smaller due to the higher
velocities at the hub and midspan section as described above.
Finally the efficiency of the whole system was evaluated. Looking
at the isentropic stage efficiency, the configuration with zero rotor
gap has – as expected – the highest efficiency of 93.2% due to the
additional work generated in the tip region (see also Fig. 14). With
Fig. 16. Pressure rise coefficient of an intermediate turbine diffuser (AIDA C4 test
setup) for different rotor tip gaps (0.8 mm¼ 1.5% span, 1.3 mm¼2.4% span).
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
increasing rotor tip gap height the efficiency decreases considerably
(90.5% and 89.3%, respectively).
Although the diffuser efficiency ZD is only 33.5% for the zero
gap case compared to 67.4% and 67.0% for the 1.5% and 2.4% span
gap, respectively, the efficiency of the whole configuration (HP
stage and intermediate turbine diffuser) is remarkably higher for
the zero-gap case, and decreases with increasing gap height. The
total pressure loss coefficient shows similar losses for the zero
gap and the 1.5% span gap case. The losses generated by the
stagnant flow at the outer wall for zero gap are balanced by losses
generated by the tip leakage flow for 1.5% span gap height. The
increased gap height of 2.4% span leads to a significant loss
increase in the duct. It is important to remark that the loss
evaluation in [47] does not consider that for the zero-gap case the
inlet profile to the succeeding LP stage has a significant deficiency
in the hub region, which will negatively influence the flow there.
Therefore for a study considering all effects of the tip clearance
variation a downstream turbine has also to be included.
Due to the strong influence of the tip clearance on the flow
field the entire system consisting of turbine stage, intermediate
turbine duct and following parts has to be taken into account
during the design process of aero engines. Furthermore, it is also
necessary to keep the blade tip clearance constant during opera-
tion particularly if the intermediate turbine diffuser is operating
near separation. Although a larger tip clearance has a positive
influence on the flow at the outer wall due to the energization of
the boundary layer the additional losses of an aggressive duct
must be much lower than the efficiency gain due to a higher
by-pass-ratio and due to the weight reduction of the engine.
3.5. Separated duct flows
Although no separated intermediate turbine diffuser will be
applied in a reliable aero engine or in other well-performing
technical applications there has also been some research work
performed on this topic. For CFD applications dealing with separated
flows or flows close to separation it is necessary to evaluate if the
solver is able to predict the separation start and its extension in a
correct way. The super-aggressive intermediate turbine diffuser
setup AIDA C5 of the TTTF at Graz University of Technology has
been designed as a test case for this purpose (see Göttlich et al. [48]).
Fig. 17. Oil flow visualization (left) and CFD simulation (right) of separated duct flow (AIDA C5 test setup). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
265
This transition duct is further 20% shorter than the configuration
AIDA C4 and provides fully separated flow on the casing wall
(see Fig. 8g). Again the duct geometry is classified by the Sovran
and Klomp performance chart in Fig. 2, where it is highly above
the classical limit for aggressive designs. The intermediate turbine
diffuser setup C5 is designed very steep and due to cost reasons it
uses the same LP vane row like the former investigated aggressive
setup. Therefore the radial offset and area ratio is identical, but the
second bend is much more pronounced in order to fit the meridional
duct shape to the existing downstream flow path components as it
would be for a complete new test case. The same operating
conditions like in Göttlich et al. [44] (two different Mach number
cases: 0.65 and 0.48) were used.
The measurements showed a very poor efficiency of this separ-
ating intermediate turbine duct for both Mach numbers. The height
of the backflow region increases with increasing Mach number. This
separation zone changes the effective duct shape massively so that
the geometrical diffusion cannot be realized with such a short
design. For more details on the core flow through this setup see [48].
An interesting topic of this paper [48] was to get more insight
into the separated flow region. This was done by means of oil-film
visualization as well as of a numerical simulation of the duct
without LP vanes and the measured inlet flow conditions as
boundary conditions. The black surfaces of the duct and the LP
vanes were painted with a mixture of titanium oxide and mineral
oil. The CFD calculations were performed with FLUENT 6.2.16, using
the k e turbulence model together with standard wall functions. At
the exit a constant back pressure for plane D was applied. Fig. 17
shows a comparison of the results of this oil-film visualization with
the CFD simulation for the higher Mach number case at the outer
duct wall. The flow direction is from the left to the right. The arrows
indicate some shear stress lines. The flow is nearly axial at the duct
inlet with some variations over the HP vane pitch. Directly after the
first radial bend of the duct the flow starts to separate downstream
of a region of low wall shear stress. In principal a separation within
the annular duct can be seen in the oil flow visualization as a
deflection of the flow in the circumferential direction. In this test
setup a massive recirculation region is formed. The separation is
indicated by an upstream red line parallel to the separation lines
(convergent shear stress lines). In this separated flow vortical
structures in the shear stress lines are clearly visible (foci, F). The
centers of these periodically circumferentially shifted vortices have a
266 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

distance of exactly one HP vane pitch from each other. The sense of
rotation and the formation of these foci have been verified by the
CFD simulation and observed through an acrylic glass window
during operation of the facility. A video of this experiment is
available within the Electronic Annex 1 of the online version of this
article. Within these vortical structures the pressure is low so that
the oil is drawn away from the duct surface like in a twister.
Therefore the black surface of the duct is visible there. The separa-
tion lines end up in the neighboring foci. Upstream of the LP vane
the flow reattaches again. The reattachment lines (divergent shear
stress lines) marked in green are the connection between singular
points (O). At these points all shear stress lines have their origin.
Between them another type of singular points can be found on the
reattachment lines namely saddle points (green shaded regions, S1).
There the flow from both adjacent origins collides: A part of the flow
then forms the backflow into the separation zone and the remaining
part is traveling downstream and enters the LP vanes. The backflow
splits up again in the saddle points S2 and then enters one of the
adjoining foci (F).
All these structures can only be seen upstream of every second
LP vane in the flow visualization. The same flow features can be
seen as well in the results of the CFD simulation without modeled
LP vanes and given constant back pressure (Fig. 17 on the right).
That means that these effects are independent from the down-
stream components. Only one singular point O and S1 can be
found within the simulated sector. This indicates that the poten-
tial field of the downstream LP vane row has a direct effect onto
the reattachment behavior but not on the start of separation.
Therefore it was stated that the formation of a vortical structure
within the separation zone is imposed by the first stator, which is
also confirmed by the distance between two foci, which is the HP
vane pitch [48].
Fig. 18 shows a comparison of the oil flow visualization at the
casing between the two Mach number cases. The green arrows
indicate the inflow direction. The two foci in a distance of one HP
vane pitch marked with a yellow arrow cannot be seen for
Ma¼0.48. That means that the effects that evoke the formation
of these vortical structures are less pronounced in this case. For
both operating conditions the singular points (marked with O, S1
and S2) where the flow splits up and spreads out in different
directions can be seen upstream of every second LP vane. In
between the flow direction cannot be defined clearly for the lower
Mach number. For both cases the separation lines (red) are clearly
visible.
Another important point is that, if one runs a CFD calculation
with a mixing plane boundary condition downstream of the rotor
it cannot capture these flow phenomena and thus most likely
underpredicts the duct losses. Further, a more serious problem
can result in a real engine where these structures produce hot
spots on the casing surface, thus possibly leading to severe engine
damage and therefore their formation must be avoided [48].
The influence of the rotor tip clearance size onto the separated
flow through the super-aggressive intermediate turbine duct
setup AIDA C5 has been investigated by Marn et al. [49]. The
outer duct flow was found to be separated for both gaps (1.5% and
2.4% span at the duct inlet). However, it seems that the separation
is less extended for the bigger gap at the casing. The positive
effect of the tip clearance flow is responsible for that. At the hub
the duct becomes separated at different circumferential positions
for the larger gap. It seems that this circumferential separation
position is also affected by the first stator. Further, the formation
of the vortical structures discussed in [48] at the outer casing
downstream of the first bend, which are imposed by the HP-vane
(and therefore, the distance between two vortex cores is exactly
one HP-vane pitch) could be observed for both gap sizes. Only the
circumferential position changed for the different tip clearances
due to a slightly changed flow angle at the outer duct wall. This
influence has been confirmed by a CFD simulation. The simulation
was run with and without the upstream stator whose influence is
then considered by inlet boundary conditions based on the
measured flow. The vortex formation is only seen in the case that
the HP-vane influence is given by the inlet boundary condition.
Fig. 19 shows a comparison of the pressure rise coefficient for both
tip gap sizes. The minima are at the same axial positions. At the
casing the static pressure is slightly lower and at the rear part of the
duct the pressure is higher for the larger gap. This is due to a
reduced separation zone at the casing. Also a higher pressure at the
duct outlet and a more pronounced peak suction was found for the
Fig. 19. Pressure rise coefficient for separated AIDA C5 diffuser setup with
different rotor tip clearances (1.5% and 2.4% span).

Fig. 18. Separated surface flow for two Mach number cases at outer duct wall (AIDA C5 test setup). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 267

possibilities to delay or suppress the negative influence of some

flow effects with the overall target to increase the design space of
intermediate turbine diffusers.

4.1. Shape optimization and endwall contouring

The early preliminary design phase of an intermediate turbine

duct is often done with the help of experimentally generated
standard diffuser performance maps like the well known Sovran
and Klomp diagram [8] which is used, beside the classification of
the aggressiveness, to correlate a pressure rise coefficient CP for a
given area ratio AR and a non-dimensional duct length L/hin. But it
is only valid for non-swirling flows. Also the theoretical max-
imum pressure recovery represented by

Fig. 20. Pressure rise coefficient for AIDA C4 (aggressive) and AIDA C5 (super-
CP,ideal ¼ 1AR2 ð4Þ
aggressive) test setups. which is only a function of AR does not consider swirl. On the
other hand, an intermediate turbine duct downstream of a
larger gap. At the hub the pressure was found to be equal over most turbine stage usually works with a significant inlet swirl and is
part of the duct. The diffuser efficiency ZD, which is calculated equipped with struts. Therefore the total pressure loss of such a
according to Eqs. (2) and (3), is much better for the larger rotor tip design has to be estimated with the help of a database where
clearance (ZD ¼12.7%) compared to the value for the smaller one parameters like swirl angle, duct blockage and strut losses have
(ZD ¼ 34.0%). The measurement results show that the diffuser been added and which is usually gained by a systematic compu-
efficiency ZD is much higher for C4 (ZD ¼51.4%) while for C5 the tational study. As an example the work of Gräsel et al. [54] should
duct even accelerates the flow due to the blockage of the large be named where a linear increase of the pressure loss z with the
separation zone (ZD ¼ 34.0%). The negative value indicates that the thickness to chord ratio T/C of a strut and also a linear contribu-
averaged static pressure at the exit is lower than at the inlet. tion of the strut count n was found. With such correlations and a
Finally, a comparison between the flow through an aggressive good database a preliminary design can be defined together with
and a super-aggressive intermediate turbine duct has been drawn an estimation of the expected pressure rise and loss (see Fig. 21).
by Marn et al. [50]. Similar to the study of the influence of the After the fixation of the preliminary design the final design
diffusion rate by Norris and Dominy [15], two different duct should be developed by shape optimization. The first step is the
configurations have been investigated using the same area ratio parameterization by means of a multilevel parameterization with
but different duct lengths, namely the aggressive AIDA C4 and the familiar engineering parameters for the preliminary design and
super-aggressive AIDA C5 intermediate turbine duct. As already purely mathematical parameters for the subsequent detailed
mentioned configuration C5 is 20% shorter than C4, which is design [54]. For the duct optimization the characteristic para-
already 20% shorter than a state-of-the-art duct, and thus pro- meters are the area ratio AR, the duct length L, the inlet hub
duces a large separation zone at the casing and therefore much radius r1h and the mean radius ratio r2/r1 between exit and inlet.
higher losses. For C5 the separation obstructs such a large amount The second parameter set defines the contour of the hub and
of the passage height that the flow is accelerated and therefore casing walls between the duct inlet and exit and is suitable for the
the averaged static pressure at the outlet is lower than at the
inlet. This means that the diffuser is working as a nozzle. Fig. 20
indicates that the pressure at the duct outlet at the casing as well
as at the hub is higher for C4 than for C5. Further, it can be seen
that the flow is strongly accelerated around the first bend at
the hub.
The aim of all these investigations [48–50], which is unique in
literature was to gain a more detailed insight into a duct flow
with heavy separation. If a duct is designed close to separation
and the flow starts to separate, for example, due to a changed
(smaller) HP-rotor tip clearance, the following turbine stage is
provided with totally different inflow conditions even when the
separation reattaches before entering the vane row. The calcula-
tions show that it is essential to model the influence of the HP
turbine exit flow field. Without this information the duct flow
cannot be predicted accurately and the losses will be predicted
too low.

4. Potential measures for increasing the diffuser design space

As shown in the previous parts the aerodynamics of inter-

mediate diffusers are complex and it seems that clear limits are
set for the designer to create an aggressive duct: The flow will
start to separate and/or the loss situation of the diffuser itself or
of one of its neighboring components will become more and more
critical. Therefore it should be further discussed, if there are Fig. 21. Optimization procedure.
268 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
design optimization. With the optimal shape of the diffuser walls
the risk of boundary layer separation at the casing can be
suppressed.
The two most common parametric representations for aero-
dynamic shape optimization together using open cubic B-splines
with five control points and the C1-continuity at the borders have
been applied in the work of Gräsel et al. [54], namely camber line
and thickness as well as hub and casing parameterization. For both
methods a total of eight parameters p¼8 were retained supporting
of the design of experiments (DOE) in order to determine the
sensitivity of each parameter on the pressure recovery and the
pressure loss, to identify significant parameter interaction, to deter-
mine the dependence between pressure recovery and loss as well as
to define the optimization strategy [54]. Two different sampling
techniques for the DOE have been investigated, the Central Compo-
site Design (CCD) and the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS), where
the first of which generated more extreme designs. After that the
automatic creation of duct geometry and computational mesh as
well as CFD calculation (FLUENT V6.2 with k–o SST model) and
analyses were managed by a batch procedure. A second-order
response surface approximation (RSA) was conducted for all four
DOEs. It was found that the RSA is independent of the sampling
technique, which clearly favors the LHS over CCD because of its
robustness and lower sample number. Also the tight correlation
between pressure recovery and pressure loss makes the design of a
strutless intermediate turbine diffuser with a high pressure recovery
and a low pressure loss challenging. Additional details on the
methods and programs used are given in their paper [54].
An important result for the intermediate turbine diffuser
design is that the observed CP and z variations in the found corre-
lations [54] are only in the range of 735% and 750%, respec-
tively, of the mean values of the investigated test case (AR ¼1.35
and L/hin ¼4). This indicates the limitations of the preliminary
design assessment using only the characteristic parameters as
well as the potential gain by an optimization of the duct endwalls.
Another result of the DOE study is that the decoupling of the
casing and hub endwall contour allows a reduction of about 50%
of the design parameters with a close coupling between design
parameters and objective function. Also the ducts are very
sensitive to changes of the casing endwalls.
Additionally, a shape optimization of a preliminary design of
the test setup of Fig. 8f has been performed by Gräsel et al. [54]
and resulted in a significant increase in pressure recovery without
degradation of the pressure loss. However, the duct loss calcu-
lated with the applied profile of total pressure, which is constant
all around the circumference, was underpredicted due to the
missing mixing out of the circumferential flow variations caused
by stationary and rotating blades. Therefore the computational
domain should also contain the HP turbine to assess the effect of a
change in radial pressure gradient due to the optimization.
Another approach was applied by Eriksson [55] for their tran-
sition duct shape optimization using CFD and response surface
methodology. Again a design space was defined by design para-
meters and a low number of candidate designs were chosen
according to the DOE theory. With a CFD simulation of each design
the objective function was evaluated and a response surface was
approximated. In order to keep the number of design parameters
at a minimum, but still obtain maximum flexibility of the duct
geometry an efficient way was introduced by applying perturbations
to a reference duct. Therefore an approximation to a perturbation,
which optimizes the duct geometry with respect to the objective
function was sought. There was no need to parameterize the original
geometry. A linear combination of orthogonal polynomials in the
interval 0rxrL was used to construct the approximate perturba-
tion in such a way that the radius, the flow angle and the curvature
defined by the upstream and downstream components were used as
boundary conditions at the inlet and the exit. For more details of the
parameterization, the DOE with a face-centered composite design
(FCCD), the flow solver (an in-house RANS solver with high-Re
number or low-Re number k–e closure [55]) and the second-order
response surface see the work of Wallin and Eriksson [56].
Besides a 3D strutted compressor duct a 2D axisymmetric
turbine duct has been studied as a test case for this optimization
procedure. The geometry of the baseline intermediate turbine
diffuser fits to the Chalmers Large-Scale Facility inlet and outlet
radii and was optimized for minimum pressure loss. Two design
spaces of different sizes were evaluated with the high- and the
low-Re number turbulence models, in order to evaluate the most
practicable procedure. Here a poor loss prediction for some of the
extreme designs of the larger design space was observed for the
high-Re number model leading to a more unreliable regression
model. The low-Re number model response surface showed a
very good agreement with the loss coefficient obtained from a
detailed CFD analysis of the optimum geometries for both design
spaces, which are very similar for this axisymmetric non-separat-
ing duct. For the smaller design space the main result was a
decrease in total pressure loss by 19% for the high-Re and 16% for
the low-Re number model analyses. An important optimization
mechanism found in [56] is to shift the mean line curvature towards
the exit of the duct. But the obtained loss values are too low because
of the missing effects from an upstream turbine stage.
If an initially vane-less intermediate turbine diffuser is
equipped with struts like in [16,17], the effective flow area will
change. Modifying the flow area distribution in that way to get
one similar to the initial vane-less design and accounting for the
strut blockage is sometimes referred to as area ruling [57]. The
area change could be obtained by increasing the hub-to-casing
radial distance or by increasing the endwall distance only in the
vicinity of the strut, leading to an axisymmetric or a non-
axisymmetric endwall re-design, respectively (see Fig. 22).
In Wallin et al. [36] the design of the strutted intermediate
turbine diffuser of the test geometry for the EU project AITEB-II
given in Fig. 8e is described. The duct is equipped with nine non-
lifting modified NACA four-digit series airfoils and has been
optimized for minimum total pressure loss by an axisymmetric
endwall modification of a baseline duct design. The applied
optimization procedure was similar to those presented in [56].
A baseline duct design was constructed by using a fifth-order
polynomial as mean line and another fifth-order polynomial as
area distribution, which was slightly modified to account for
some strut blockage. The struts were designed based on a given
duct inlet swirl profile using low-cost streamline calculations. For
every new candidate in the optimization procedure a new strut
design fitting the endwalls had to be generated, which is only
coupled with the inlet swirl and the endwall shape of that duct.
Fig. 22. Optimized axisymmetric (top left) or non-axisymmetric endwalls (top
right) and non-axisymmetric endwalls designed with parts of harmonic functions
(bottom).
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
The optimization resulted in a duct design with a loss reduction
of 25%. Details of the procedure performed in two steps are given
in [56]. Primarily the new designed duct intends to compensate the
strut blockage and opens up in its region thus reducing the
otherwise following strong adverse pressure gradient. An early rapid
diffusion seems to be favorable in reducing the losses. Also a
significant contraction in the strut trailing edge region was found
resulting in local flow acceleration in order to prevent boundary
layer separation in this most critical area of the diffuser (compare
also to the findings regarding the strutted duct in the work of
Norris et al. [16,17]). The shape optimization for reducing the total
pressure loss might influence the inflow situation to a downstream
component like the LP turbine. This should be the topic of a
separate study.
The next logical step is to apply non-axisymmetric shape opti-
mization techniques for strutted intermediate turbine ducts. In
turbine design endwall contouring is used as a tool for reduction
of secondary flow effects in turbine stages and hence loss. In
Wallin and Eriksson [58] non-axisymmetric endwall contouring
has been applied at the diffuser hub endwall in order to investi-
gate the effects on secondary flows, distortion, local separations
and associated losses. The same parameterization with perturba-
tions to a baseline design like in [56] was applied to maintain
an axisymmetric inlet and outlet. The non-axisymmetry was
obtained by adding circumferential cosine and sine functions in
the strut area of interest. Again a DOE approach of face-centered
composite design (FCCD) has been adopted. For more details and
the used CFD code see [58].
As baseline design a duct corresponding to the Chalmers
Large-Scale Facility main parameters was used together with 16
lifting struts. The purpose of such a layout will be discussed in the
chapter ‘‘Integrated concepts’’. In order to minimize the up- and
downstream effects of the re-design optimization onto the tur-
bine stages, the same distances were used between the strut
leading and trailing edges to the duct inlet and exit, respectively.
Especially the downstream LP turbine must be prevented from
unwanted outflow changes. A more aggressive diffuser design
was realized by shortening the strut chord length by 10% leading
to an overall axial length reduction of 6% compared to the
baseline design. This results in a more loaded strut for the same
amount of turning.
The design target was to reduce loss and to improve outlet flow
quality; therefore a constraint on the outlet swirl angle was
imposed, too. All details of the optimization process are presented
in [58], here only the major results will be described. The optimiza-
tion resulted in a non-axisymmetric redesigned turbine duct for
which the outer wall contour remained unchanged. The inner
surface was modified by adding an optimized perturbation function
with six parameters. The hub modification procedure illustrated by
radius contours is shown in Fig. 23. Blue represents a radius
decrease and red a radius increase. The turning strut profiles are
depicted in black. A comparison of optimized and baseline diffuser
showed a reduction in loss coefficient from 0.237 to 0.213, which
means a reduction by 10%. The outlet flow angle distribution of the
optimized duct was less distorted but showed the same flow
features [58]. Again the absolute loss values might be too small
due to the missing unsteady effects.
Additionally, an optimization of the same configuration, but
only with an axisymmetric parameterization was performed. For
this case it was found that the optimization had problems to
achieve low loss at maintaining the same flow turning. Finally it
can be concluded that non-axisymmetric contouring can reduce
the overall losses and suppress the strength of secondary flows
together with shortening the axial diffuser length. A validation of
this conclusion is planned by means of the experimental inves-
tigation of such a turbine diffuser in a two-shaft test rig within
269
the EU project DREAM—Validation of Radical Engine Architecture
Systems [59].
4.2. Flow-controlled intermediate turbine diffusers
Flow control enables the designer to generate more aggressive
transition duct geometries with larger radial offsets as suggested,
for example, by Lord et al. [60]. Flow separation can be sup-
pressed by active or passive flow control measures. The first type
can either be the energization of the boundary layer by injection
of high energy fluid or the removal of low energy fluid from the
critical wall regions (see Fig. 24).
Due to the high temperature level within an intermediate
turbine diffuser the extraction of hot gas from the flow may be
challenging. In spite of that, a patent held by General Electric, Kirtley
and Graziosi [61], suggests the design of a self-aspirating high-area-
ratio inter-turbine duct suitable for high-bypass ratio engines, where
the low energy fluid is removed from the critical areas at the casing
surface through boundary layer suction ports formed by a porous
material and led via bypass channels to blowing ports on the suction
side of the following LP turbine vanes. The natural static pressure
difference results in a self-aspirating assembly. This invention will
combine two positive effects: The first one is to prevent the bound-
ary layer from separation along the outer transition duct surface
leading to the ability to shorten the length or to increase the dia-
meter of a LP turbine. The second one is that blowing on the suction
surface of the LP vanes will also prevent separation there. Higher
aerodynamic loads for these vanes are feasible thus leading to a
reduced airfoil count and consequently to a reduced overall weight
of an aero engine [61].
Inter turbine diffusers with different types of blowing at the
first part of the outer wall are the subject of two patents held by
General Electric, namely Graziosi and Kirtley [62] as well as
Widenhoefer et al. [63]. In both inventions secondary air is
injected to energize the boundary layer in order to prevent it
from separation. The air will be taken from an upstream part of
the gas turbine, possibly from the compressor. Due to a suitable
static pressure ratio between the suction port and the injection
slot the fluid flow will need no additional power supply by a
pump. The idea of [63] is to use several slot openings arranged
along the outer contour rather than one large slot far upstream
like in [62]. This multi-slot arrangement should require less
blowing momentum to prevent separation and thus saving mass
flow bypassing the combustor or the high pressure turbine.
The injection of high-energy fluid by means of wall jets in
order to eliminate flow separation within aggressive intermediate
turbine diffusers is demonstrated by Florea et al. [64]. It was
shown that flow control alone might not be sufficient to eliminate
flow separation and to obtain the ideal flow quality for the
following turbine stage. Therefore a novel methodology for
designing flow-control-enabled turbine transition ducts coupled
with shape optimization was presented. A numerical procedure
with a design of experiments approach (DOE) was used in order to
eliminate flow separation and to maximize system performance.
An LP turbine model based on performance maps for different
inlet radii and flow conditions was included in the optimization
procedure to capture the system performance effects correspond-
ing to duct shape, losses and weight savings. Eleven parameters
for a given duct length, exit radius and span are used in order to
define the channel shape as well as the position of the two
injection sites. A wall-shear-stress-driven criterion was formu-
lated to specify these locations. The transition duct results from
the numerical simulation of 430 candidate designs were coupled
to the LP turbine model through transfer functions for the system-
level analyses. Two global objective functions were considered,
270 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

Fig. 23. Baseline and shortened duct (top), hub modification procedure (mid), non-axisymmetric optimized hub (bottom), blue contour lines represent a radius decrease
and red a radius increase (by courtesy of Wallin). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

namely range and total fuel burn. More details of the optimization
procedure and the flow solver are given in [64].
It was demonstrated that the first jet delays separation and the
second one prevents separation completely. The optimum wall
curvature allows the first jet to penetrate the boundary layer and
impinge on the core flow leading to a relatively uniform total
pressure profile at the duct exit. As a result of this study it was
also shown that range and fuel burn benefits depend on the radial
offset of the intermediate turbine diffuser. A range benefit of
approximately 0.6% due to weight reductions through a smaller
LP turbine stage count or a fuel burn decrease of 0.4% for a fixed
mission profile together with an optimized duct/LP turbine design
resulting in an increased radial offset was confirmed by Florea
et al. [64]. There an injection mass flow of approximately 3% of
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
Fig. 24. Flow control mechanism: active (a and b) and passive (c) measures for
re-energization of boundary layer.
the core mass flow per slot was assumed. It is implied that for
satisfying designs the flow control authority can be further
reduced and minimized together with unsteady flow actuation.
Eventually this might lead to a closed-loop control, which is also
difficult due to the requirement of sensing and actuating in the
still hot environment downstream of the HP turbine.
In contrast to active flow control the application of passive flow
control is less complex because there is no need for handling addi-
tional fluid streams possibly at unsteady flow rates. The installation
of fixed components in order to reenergize the boundary layer in
critical areas would be very beneficial (see Fig. 24). For that reason
one work package of the EU project AIDA [9] was installed to
evaluate the application of passive flow control devices in compres-
sor as well as in turbine transition ducts. Numerical and experi-
mental investigations have been conducted in order to assess their
performance. On the turbine side low-profile vortex generators have
been designated as the most promising candidate for going into a rig
test in an engine representative turbine transition duct environ-
ment. As test vehicle for their application the super-aggressive
intermediate turbine diffuser setup AIDA C5 of the TTTF at Graz
University of Technology (see Fig. 8g) has been chosen. As already
discussed this transition duct is fully separated on the casing wall
and therefore suitable for the application of these passive flow
control devices in order to show possible improvements by pre-
venting or reducing the separated flow region.
A thorough review of low-profile vortex generator applications
and their ability to prevent flow separation is given in Lin [65]. The
working principle is to transport high momentum fluid from the core
flow into the boundary layer by means of streamwise vortices. The
same mechanism was observed above in the previous discussion of
the positive effect of the tip leakage vortices but in a much larger
scale. There are many types of possible geometries. A simple one is
the vane-type vortex generator, which consists of thin flat plates
271
Fig. 25. Vane-type vortex generator geometry and main parameters.
perpendicular to the wall but inclined to the flow direction, according
to Fig. 25. A vortex is formed behind these small vanes as the flow
has to pass the tip region from the pressure to the suction side.
Dependent on the arrangement of the vortex generators co-rotating
or counter-rotating streamwise vortices can be produced. Of course
these devices will also generate additional drag and thus total pre-
ssure loss. For that reason the extension of low-profile vortex
generators into the flow is only 10–50% of the boundary layer
thickness to minimize their losses. These devices can still transfer
sufficient momentum wallward over a distance several times their
height for effective flow-separation control [65].
Regarding numerical simulations it is difficult to model these
small structures with an appropriate mesh because it would need
a high number of nodes and therefore lead to time consuming
CFD runs. For optimization procedures, e.g. for finding the most
suitable vortex generator configuration from many candidate
designs, this would not be practicable.
A reliable vortex generator model could shorten the computa-
tional time significantly by reducing grid size and complexity.
Therefore a new tuning-free body-force model has been devel-
oped and validated for a low-profile vortex generator installation
in an intermediate turbine diffuser by Wallin and Eriksson [66].
They demonstrated that a realistic result could be obtained at a
grid size reduced by approximately 80% by applying a body force
to the Navier–Stokes equations to replace the actual geometry of
the vortex generator. This body force will reproduce the same net
effect onto the flow like a vortex generator. The new model was
implemented into a CFD code for compressible flows [55] using
both a high-Reynolds number (HRN) k–e turbulence model with
standard wall-functions and a low-Reynolds number (LRN) clo-
sure with well resolved boundary layers. The application of the
new model works as follows: Firstly, the procedure will specify
the location of the vortex generator installation and identify the
adjacent grid cells. Then the flow condition at each location is
obtained by linear interpolation in circumferential direction from
the two cells closest to this position. After that the local force is
calculated and finally distributed back to these cells. The magni-
tude of the body force added to the adjacent cells is defined by
their relative position to the vortex generator mean surface. For
validation purposes CFD simulations with fully resolved grids and
both turbulence models have been performed, too. The distance of
the vortex generator trailing edge to the area in a clean duct
where rapid boundary layer growth starts has been chosen to be
 15  hVG, where hVG ¼4 mm represented the vortex generator
height, which was 35% of the boundary layer thickness at the
vortex generation position. The installation consisted of 120 pairs of
counter-rotating vortex generators all around the circumference of
272 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

the casing wall. For more details see [66]. The results gained by the geometries with low-profile vanes similar to those defined in the
vortex generator model showed good agreement with the fully work of Canepa et al. [69] together with an angle of attack of 251
resolved analysis using both the HRN and LRN turbulence approaches were used. Within the cooperation of AIDA Wallin performed a
although there were some expected differences between the HRN variety of steady CFD simulations of the duct and the LP vane row
and LRN closures in loss predictions. This newly developed vortex but without the upstream turbine stage in order to the find the
generator model should also be applicable for unsteady simulations optimal vortex generator position and height. The body-force
of transient flows. model [66] and circumferentially averaged measurement results
The vortex generator model of [66] has been adopted for the from [48] were used as inlet boundary conditions. The objective
investigation of a large number of different configurations within was to minimize the overall total pressure loss through the setup.
a design of experiments (DOE) based response surface methodol- The optimum was found for a counter-rotating vortex generator
ogy CFD optimization procedure for a flow-controlled intermedi- installation with a height of 0.7 mm and a length of 5 mm leading
ate turbine diffuser by Wallin and Eriksson [67]. There the vortex to 240 vane pairs around the circumference at approximately one
generator devices were optimized with respect to their position, vortex generator length upstream of the separation line of the
height, length and angle of attack but it was not within the scope clean duct. Fig. 26 shows a comparison between the baseline duct
of the work to present the complete design process for vortex (no vortex generator) and the optimal vortex generator arrange-
generator controlled intermediate turbine diffusers. A very ment out of Wallin’s pre-test simulations. Besides the contours of
aggressive and separating duct design for the large scale facility stagnation pressure (low pressure in blue, high pressure in red) an
at Chalmers University with an area ratio AR of 1.62 and an L/hin iso-surface of negative axial velocity (in purple) is shown for each
of 2.56 was chosen, too, as a test case for this numerical study. configuration. A reduced separation zone is clearly visible for
In the Sovran and Klomp diagram of Fig. 2 this configuration is the setup with the passive flow control devices. Because of the
clearly located in the aggressive region. The boundary conditions reattachment of the flow of the baseline configuration upstream
for the simulation were circumferentially averaged measured of the LP vane the changes in the vane passages due to reduced
flow parameters taken from the investigations of Axelsson et al.
[29]. The same CFD code like in the authors’ previous works was
used [55]. The computational domain was a 51 sector of the
diffuser including one downstream LP vane and a prolonged
channel of 0.5  L with atmospheric pressure at the end. The
vortex generator configurations were modeled with the intro-
duced body-force model [66] and with a circumferential node
spacing of 0.0721.
For the optimization procedure four parameters with influence on
the vortex generator performance were allowed to vary within lower
and upper bounds: (1) a non-dimensional location of the trailing
edges relative to the baseline separation line (DsVG/hVG ¼0–11),
(2) height (hVG ¼1.3–2.9 mm, the minimum height corresponds with
the boundary layer thickness, due to manufacturing restrictions),
(3) non-dimensional length (LVG/hVG ¼2.5–5.5  hVG) and (4) angle of
attack (aVG ¼ 10–261). The target was to find a design with a total
pressure loss as low as possible. Details of the optimization are given
in the paper [67]. The procedure resulted in a optimum design para-
meter settings of: hVG ¼ 1.9 mm, DsVG/hVG ¼0, LVG/hVG ¼4, aVG ¼51.
It was shown that the loss obtained was very sensitive to the angle of
attack and that the trailing edge of the vortex generator should be
placed just upstream of the baseline detachment line, while the
height and the length seemed to be of lower importance [67].
Furthermore, the loss coefficient decreased from 0.232 for the base-
line duct to 0.198 for the optimum configuration which means a
decrease of 15%. The largest flow differences were found in the upper
70% of the channel height at outlet. Also a positive influence onto the
loss development in the LP vane passage could be observed. In
comparison with former experiments where the optimal angle of
attack is around 251, here the value for the optimum design was
found to be only 51 which is rather small.
The application and the performance of a low-profile vortex
generator installation within a super-aggressive (very high diffu-
sion) intermediate turbine diffuser have been investigated experi-
mentally by Santner et al. [68] within the AIDA project. As already
mentioned the test setup for these passive flow control devices
was the separating AIDA C5 duct downstream of a transonic test
turbine stage within the TTTF at Graz University of Technology
(see Fig. 8g). The basic flow evolution through this setup has
already been discussed and is also given in Göttlich et al. [48]. The
main parameters of the installation, which have a high influence
on the efficiency of these low-profile vortex generators, are the Fig. 26. Steady CFD simulation of AIDA C5 duct without (top) and with (bottom)
angle of attack and the position relative to the separation accord- vortex generators (by courtesy of Wallin). (For interpretation of the references to
ing to Wallin and Eriksson [67]. In this test vortex generator color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
separation are small. The overall loss from the inlet to the exit of
the CFD domain did not change. This means that the additional
drag generated by the vortex generators is compensated by the
flow improvements due to reduced separation. After these CFD
optimization process the next task was to realize and investigate
this test configuration in the turbine environment.
For reasons of costs and time a simple method for the
installation of the vortex generators on the existing duct geome-
try was needed. Therefore, they were manufactured by stamping
their shape into a band of copper foil with a thickness of 0.1 mm.
The foils were glued on the surface, which allowed an easy
application and removal. On the upper right of Fig. 27 a picture
of the manufactured vortex generators can be seen. A drawback of
this production process is that the small vanes have a more
trapezoid cross section instead of parallel walls and the edges are
rounded and not sharp as the suggested design (see Fig. 27 top).
Therefore the decision was taken to pre-test these foils in a
rectangular 2D duct with steady inflow and without secondary
effects emanating from a preceding rotor to find out if this slightly
Fig. 27. Vortex generator geometry (top), installation in 2D and annular duct (mid), oil flow visualization at outer wall contour in 2D duct (bottom left) and annular duct
(bottom right).
273
altered but producible geometry is also able to reduce or even
suppress flow separation. The two-dimensional (2D) rectangular
S-shaped wind tunnel model possesses the same curvature of the
outer duct contour and diffusion rate and a similar Mach number
level as in the annular duct of the turbine test rig but with steady
inflow conditions. For that reason the duct contour at the casing
has been retained but a change of the inner duct shape was
necessary to achieve an area distribution and diffusion rate (due
to the geometry), respectively, such as in the annular duct. The
rectangular inlet section of the wind tunnel was reduced to a
height of 46.13 mm, which corresponds to the minimum section
in the test turbine at the duct inlet. The width of the flow channel
(100 mm) was given by the test rig. A comparison of both
geometries is given in Fig. 27 in the middle. To achieve similar
flow conditions like in the annular duct the Mach number of 0.6 at
the inlet was kept the same. In order to reproduce also the radial
pressure distribution and the blockage effect generated by the
downstream LP-vanes at the duct exit, three simple straight
profiles were placed at the equivalent axial position. Details of
274 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279

the vortex generators, the test rigs and the instrumentation can row and are consequently less pronounced due to mixing and
be found in [68]. decay.
The results of the wind tunnel test showed a distinct positive It can be concluded that the different types of flow control will
influence of the flow control devices under the steady flow become an enabling factor for the design of aggressive inter-
conditions there. As shown in Fig. 27 at the bottom left the sepa- mediate turbine diffusers for future aero engines. Flow control
ration onset was shifted downstream by approximately 10 mm has to be integrated into the optimization procedures during the
(marked with D) due to the vortex generators. Additionally, a design process. For reliable results it will be necessary to use
much smaller separation zone than in the configuration without time-accurate calculations to capture the real interaction
vortex generators was found. A video of the oil flow visualization mechanisms between unsteady main flow and flow control and
can be found in the Electronic Annex 1 of the online version of thus their real influence.
this article. But in the annular diffuser with the highly unsteady
inflow provided by the upstream turbine stage the surface flow 4.3. Integrated concepts
visualization showed a similar flow behavior such as the baseline
duct without vortex generators (Fig. 27 bottom right). The surface
Integrated concepts are novel ideas to integrate the function of
flow without vortex generators has already been discussed in
several components. In strutted intermediate turbine diffusers with
detail in [48] and is depicted in Fig. 17. Again, the video of this
load-carrying aerodynamically unloaded (non-turning) vanes
flow visualization is given in the Electronic Annex 1 of the online
usually a conventional LP vane row will follow to provide a suitable
version of this article. The only difference to the clean duct is a
inflow for the LP rotor. Therefore it would make sense to avoid the
slightly better behavior of the flow along the inner duct contour,
vanes by designing these struts as loaded airfoils in order to provide
which is very close to separation. The flow is less deflected into
flow conditions similar to those downstream of the LP vane row. An
the circumferential direction for the case without vortex gen-
intermediate diffuser setup without a conventional LP vane row will
erators. The measurements of Santner et al. [68] demonstrated
save axial duct length and thus weight. This concept can be seen in
that the loss through the intermediate turbine diffuser with the
Fig. 28a and b. There the difference in axial length is marked with D.
vortex generators installed is higher than without it. This is not
For instance, a configuration tested within the EU project AIDA
only a result of the additional losses due to the blockage effect of
should replace the first LP vane row of a front bearing engine
the vortex generators but also because of an even larger separa-
tion zone after installing these devices. The already poor diffuser
efficiency ZD ¼12.7% of the baseline configuration was further
reduced to 4.3%.
The main contributor to the inefficiency of the vortex gen-
erators has to be an unsteady effect such as the wakes or the
shocks emanating from the HP-rotor or secondary flows. This is
supported by the numerical investigations at Chalmers University
for finding the applied geometry using a mixing plane approach
or circumferentially averaged measurement results at the duct
inlet thus neglecting unsteady effects. This means that in order to
be able to predict the behavior and influence of vortex generators
accurately it is necessary to perform time-dependent numerical
simulations considering all these unsteady interaction effects.
This highlights the increased importance of unsteady CFD in the
design process of future aero engines.
It is concluded that the rotating wakes of the rotor blades are
responsible for the bad performance of these passive flow con-
trols in a real engine environment. The fluctuating slip velocity
component due to the velocity deficit in the wake relative frame
of reference prevents the steady formation of the streamwise
vortices at the flow control devices. In contrast to that the rotor
trailing edge shocks seem to be a second-order effect due to their
weakening at the outer duct surface [47]. The increase in loss can
be explained by the fact that the vortex generators form an
obstruction to the tip leakage vortices from the moving rotor blades.
Thus their positive effect onto the diffuser flow as discussed
in [45–47] is reduced and as a result the diffuser efficiency becomes
even worse. It can be concluded that the low-profile vortex gene-
rators investigated in [68] at the applied axial position within the
annular duct are not effective in stabilizing the flow through a three-
dimensional intermediate turbine duct with a highly unsteady three-
dimensional flow field although they showed promising results in the
2D S-shaped duct [68].
In compressor ducts where separation takes place at the inner
wall the application of vortex generators will be more promising
due to the weakening of the wakes at lower radii and the
occurrence of the tip leakage flow located on the opposite casing
surface. The shocks on a transonic compressor blading are posi- Fig. 28. Comparison between strutted diffuser (a), integrated concept or turning
tioned far away from the trailing edges; also all flow effects from mid turbine frame (b) and turning strutted diffuser concept with embedded LP
a compressor rotor have to convect through the stationary vane vanes (c).
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279 275

architecture where the vane needs a big sectional area to hold
bearing services. The rotor is located directly downstream of the
struts, so that they have to provide the downstream blade row
with undisturbed inflow of suitable flow angle and Mach number.
Therefore these lifting struts have a distinct three-dimensional
design in the aft blade region while in the front region they have
to be cylindrical to be able to lead the supply lines through. To
apply this concept a compromise must be found between the
number of struts (weight), vibration, noise and occurring flow
disturbances due to secondary flows and losses.
The AIDA C3 setup for the Transonic Test Turbine Facility
(see Fig. 8h) was designed by Industria de Turbo Propulsores S.A.
(ITP) as integrated concept using the same inner diffuser geome-
try from AIDA C4 together with 18 turning struts with a thickness
to chord ratio of 18%. This configuration has been investigated by
Marn et al. [70] in order to compare the outflow from this wide
chord vane arrangement to the AIDA C4 test setup acting as a
baseline for this study. It was shown that a similar flow field can
be realized with this integrated concept as for the base design.
Fig. 29 shows a comparison by means of the total pressure
distributions downstream of the test arrangement. The larger
spacing of the turning struts compared to the much thinner LP
vanes evokes more pronounced secondary flows (vortices marked
with dashed arrows in Fig. 29). In the plot of the base design and
the integrated concept a thickening of the wake close to the
casing was observed. The upper passage vortex (U.P.V.) and the
lower passage vortex (L.P.V.) occupy nearly the whole flow
channel downstream of the turning struts. In the base design
the passage vortices are much smaller but there are more of them
within the measurement domain. A larger yaw angle variation
over the passage height must also be taken into account. In the
plot of the integrated concept beside untypical hub leakage
vortices (H.L.V., due to a gap for rotating the blade row during
the measurements) another vortex can be observed at the hub
which rotates in the clockwise (CW) direction. An oil flow
visualization showed that this clockwise rotating vortex is the
casing horse shoe vortex traveling below the U.P.V. and pushed
radially inwards by the pressure gradient. For more details on the
flow development through the setup see [70]. A significant weight
reduction of the blading between 20% and 39% depending on the

0.35

350 SS 350 SS 0.34

PS PS
340 U.P.V. 340
U.P.V. 0.33
330 330
0.32
320 320
0.31
310 310
0.3
300 300
0.29
290 290
0.28
280 280
H.L.V.
0.27
270 270
H.L.V.
260 260 0.26

0.25
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0
Base Design Integrated Concept IC

1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
Passage Height

0.6
0.5
0.4
Base Design
0.3
IC
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.28 0.29 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34 0.35
pt/pt,inlet

Fig. 29. Comparison of non-dimensional exit total pressure distributions of diffuser with LP vanes (base design) to diffuser with turning struts (integrated concept) and
resulting circumferentially mass-averaged total pressure distribution (bottom).
276 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
airfoil wall thickness was predicted by the design of a configura-
tion with a strut that also fulfils the functions of a LP vane without
severe loss increase [70].
The flow effects observed by Marn et al. [70] agree very well
with the time-averaged results in the investigated low-aspect
ratio vane by Miller et al. [23]. In their analysis they also studied
the influence of the rotor tip leakage, which was found to be the
strongest interaction mechanism in shroudless turbines with
large tip gaps. In order to separate the effects a CFD simulation
with zero rotor tip gap has been performed comparable to that
carried out by Sanz et al. [47]. Miller et al. [23] showed that a drop
in efficiency occurred between the leading edge and 20% axial
chord length of the wide chord vane when the tip gap was
removed. A local high entropy region was found there in the
corner between casing and suction surface, which coincides with
a local flow separation. This is due to the fact that the vane is
designed for a flow with tip leakage. The tip leakage flow
suppresses the fluid movement of casing fluid onto the vane
suction surface and the formation of the upper passage vortex.
Due to the significantly altered fluid motion in a low aspect ratio
vane by the presence of the upstream stage it is important to
integrate all their downstream effects already during the design
phase. Miller et al. [23] also stated in their work that the
secondary flows within the vane could have been reduced by
locating the second bend of the duct well downstream of its exit.
It has to be mentioned that the test setup of Miller et al. [23]
represents the second stage IP vane of very low aspect ratio for a
three-shaft aero engine. For that reason the leading edge of this
aerofoil is positioned closer to the HP rotor exit compared to an
integrated concept causing much stronger interactions between
the components.
The influence of a rotor tip clearance size variation on such an
integrated concept discussed above has been determined by Marn
et al. [71]. But only marginal changes were found between the
total and static pressure, Mach number, yaw and pitch angle
distributions for the gap sizes of 1.5% span and 2.4% span down-
stream of the strut. Only the stagnation point on the strut leading
edge was shifted a little towards the pressure side for the larger tip
gap case due to the altered flow angle in the casing region. Here at
the outer duct between the struts a strong deflection of the surface
flow for the smaller tip gap indicated the flow to be close to
separation [71]. It seems that the positive effects of the tip leakage
flow are not as pronounced in a strutted duct as in a clean duct.
In contrast, the development of the tip leakage flow in a
strutted diffuser with non turning vanes has already been
discussed above using the papers of Wallin et al. [37] and Arroyo
et al. [38] and can be seen in Fig. 11.
The optimization of such an integrated concept by means of
non-axisymmetric endwall shape optimization has been shown
by Wallin and Eriksson [58] as already discussed in Section 4.1.
Fig. 23 shows the baseline and the optimized meridional geome-
try as well as the turning strut profiles.
To decrease the negative effect of the larger secondary flow
structures of an integrated concept but at the same short axial
extent one future solution could be to embed several thin LP
vanes between the fewer load-carrying turning struts. Fig. 28c
gives an idea of such a concept with embedded LP vanes. Of
course the weight reduction of this layout might not be as
beneficial although the number of thick load-carrying struts could
possibly be further reduced.
5. Conclusions and future perspectives
The purpose of this article is to review the aerodynamics of
S-shaped intermediate turbine diffusers for high-bypass ratio
turbofan engines, their meaning for the whole aero engine
system and some future trends. The discussion begins with a
review of the fundamental aerodynamic studies of such diffusers
without upstream turbine stages. Special focus is laid onto the
effect of the S-shape, of swirl, of non-rotating wakes and of the
diffusion rate leading to radial pressure gradients, an outward
transportation of boundary layer fluid together with the forma-
tion of vortices and more or less strong adverse pressure
gradients. The aerodynamic situation of ducts equipped with
load-carrying struts is also shown and the additional difficulties
for the designer are highlighted. The blockage and the additional
diffusion within the channel formed by two struts can enforce
strong separations starting in the corners between strut and
casing surface. Therefore a modification of the meridional channel
shape is necessary to compensate these negative effects during
the design process.
The next topic of this article focuses on the discussion of the
effects resulting from an upstream turbine stage. The rotating and
non-rotating wakes, secondary flows together with the rotor
trailing edge shocks and tip leakage vortices interact with each
other and with the boundary layers on their way through the
downstream diffuser. The need for modeling all these effects in a
CFD simulation is discussed in order to predict the endwall flows
and losses correctly. Steady calculations using mixing planes
underpredict the mixing interactions and thus the resulting
losses. The positive influence of the rotor tip leakage flow is
shown. The transportation of high momentum fluid towards the
outer duct surface by the streamwise vortices energizes the
boundary layer there enabling it to better withstand the adverse
pressure gradient. Also the effect of swirl stabilizes the flow at the
casing surface but the overall loss of a strutted duct depends
strongly on flow angle variations corresponding to off-design
operating conditions at the diffuser inlet.
Then the paper focuses onto measures for the enlargement of
the design space of intermediate turbine diffusers towards more
aggressive layouts with shorter axial length or larger radial offset.
Compared to a straight-walled annular diffuser S-shaped ducts
have many more design parameters like the effective flow area
distribution and the curvature of the flow path formed by the
shape of their endwalls. The parameterization and the computa-
tional optimization of the duct shape is the first measure
discussed. The result of such a numerical procedure can be an
intermediate turbine diffuser with optimized axisymmetric or
non-axisymmetric endwalls with either less loss production or
with a shorter axial length. This endwall optimization also known
as area ruling can also be performed whenever a baseline diffuser
should be equipped with struts. The second measure discussed is
the application of active or passive flow controls in order to
enable the duct boundary layers to withstand stronger curvatures
in outward direction and thus larger adverse pressure gradients.
In the future new technologies like single dielectric barrier
discharge plasma actuators could become important for the
application of separation control within intermediate turbine
diffusers (see [72,73]) besides the flow control measures dis-
cussed above. Numerical optimization procedures can also be
applied for finding the correct position or flow control parameters
such as e.g. blowing rate or vortex generator height. In general, a
combined optimization of the diffuser shape together with flow
control measures would be very beneficial. The behavior of the
neighboring components can also be included in the optimization
procedure with the help of empirical models but the number of
design parameters influenced by the optimizer would increase
drastically, which would exceed the possibilities of present
computational resources. The paper ends with the introduction
of integrated concepts, a measure to shorten an aero engine with
a strutted intermediate turbine diffuser by integrating the
 E. Göttlich / Progress in Aerospace Sciences 47 (2011) 249–279
Fig. 30. Meridional section of TTTF in counter-rotating two-shaft arrangement for testing of turning mid turbine frames (TMTF).
function of the following LP vane into the load carrying airfoils in
the duct.
All the topics discussed can help to improve the overall
performance of an aero engine. The intermediate ducts and
especially the intermediate turbine diffuser will become a key
component of future aero engine architectures. As mentioned
above the further increase in bypass ratio will lead to more slowly
rotating LP turbines requiring intermediate turbine ducts with
larger radial offsets. On the other hand, a short intermediate duct
will save weight of the whole engine and the nacelle and thus
help to save fuel. Other engine layouts suggest shifting the rear
bearing of the LP shaft upstream of the LP turbine leading to an
overhung arrangement; see, for example, the US patent of Seda
[74]. Instead of a turbine exit casing (TEC) a mid turbine frame
(MTF) in the region of the intermediate turbine diffuser will function
as engine mount structure to the aircraft. The load of the two rear
bearings of both spools will be lead through thick struts to the outer
ring of this structure of the mid turbine frame. A weight reduction
can be achieved by the smaller exit guide vanes, a shorter shaft and
a thinner LP turbine casing. Further reduction in axial length and
thus in engine weight can be realized by additionally applying the
idea of an integrated concept. This will lead to so-called turning mid
turbine frames (TMTF). These structures are not only interesting for
high-bypass ratio turbofan engines, but also be a key component for
the open rotor technology especially if a counter-rotating LP turbine
concept will be used to directly drive a counter-rotating propel-
ler [59]; also for the geared turbofan concept turning mid turbine
frames could be of interest. In addition the aerodynamics of
S-shaped turbine ducts might be of great relevance for the design
of IP compressor exit S-duct in intercooled aero gas turbine engines,
but there additionally a transition from an annular to a branched duct
connected to separate intercooler modules has to be realized [75].
On the experimental side the testing of intermediate turbine
diffusers downstream of HP turbine stages is state-of-the-art as
discussed in the paper. This is necessary to capture all effects
occurring in a real aero engine. The test data is usually used to
validate new designs and, furthermore, to calibrate the numerical
tools for the engine design process. The next step is to test diffuser
277
test setups together with up- and downstream components like in
the work of Antonov et al. [76]. The latest progress in this respect
can be seen in Hubinka et al. [77]. An engine relevant test setup for
turning mid turbine frames with an up- and downstream turbine
stage is now available. Fig. 30 shows the adapted TTTF at Graz
University of Technology with a counter-rotating mechanically
independent two-shaft test turbine arrangement, which went suc-
cessfully into operation at the beginning of 2010.
It can be concluded that intermediate turbine diffusers are
engine components, which are not as simple as they look at a first
glance. For the designer it is important to understand their relevance
concerning high performance and to see them as an enabling factor
for future aero engine concepts. It will be interesting to see which
new engine concepts the future will bring, but intermediate turbine
diffusers may play a significant role in any case.
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