Numerical analysis of flutter in a transonic low pressure steam turbine

High levels of vibrations have been observed on the last row blades of a low pressure steam turbine for nominal operating conditions. A self-excited phenomenon known as flutter is suspected to be the cause of the vibrations for non-stall transonic conditions. The non-homogeneous distribution of vibratory levels on the row is attributed to mistuning effects. They are beyond the scope of our study. A time-dependent ALE formulation of Euler equations is derived on a quasi-3D domain and coupled with a one-degree-of-freedom structural model. The work-by-cycle (WBC) method is performed in order to analyse the stability of the vibrating blades in the surrounding flowfield, for a perfectly tuned assembly. On the top part of the blades, the flow is transonic and fully attached. It is shown that, for these operating conditions, the cascade aeroelastic behaviour is linear. By using the influence coefficient method, an instability region is exhibited. The effects of the flowfield on the vibrating blades are discussed. They are expressed in terms of added damping and stiffness in order to be used as the input data of a structural mistuning analysis.