SHOCKWAVES &TRANSONIC

MACHINES
Shocks in Turbomachinery
Peak Efficiency Near Stall

NASA rotor 67 (transonic rotor) with passage shocks

2
 Shocks in Turbomachinery
HPT
Bucket
fishtail
shock Shockwaves
reflect off
the LPT
Nozzle and
travel back
upstream

High Pressure Turbine (HPT) – Low Pressure Turbine (LPT)

unsteady interactions due to reflected shocks
3
 Shocks in Turbomachinery

Unsteady behavior
of Shockwaves due
to 1/rev
backpressure
variation at LP-exit

4 ft

Supersonic flow in Steam Low-Pressure Turbine (Last stage

bucket)

4
 Shocks in Turbomachinery
 Shocks are always associated with losses (entropy increase!!!) => compressor
and/or turbine efficiency can suffer if not properly designed

 Transonic turbomachinery stages must be carefully designed to avoid flow

separation due to shock-boundary layer interaction

 Shocks can impinge on blades in an unsteady fashion and cause high cycle fatigue
(HCF) if the shock frequency happens to be close to one of the natural frequencies
of the blade => Resonance