A numerical investigation of moment coefficient and flow structure in a rotor-stator cavity with rotor mounted bolts

This paper presents a numerical study of the effect of rotor mounted bolts on the moment coefficient and flow structure within a rotor-stator cavity representative of modern gas turbine engine design. The CFD computations are performed using the commercial code FLUENT. The simulation methodology is first validated using experimental data from plain co-rotating disc and rotor-stator cavities from the open literature. Comparisons are then made with experimental data obtained from a test rig at the Thermo Fluid Mechanics Research Centre (TFMRC), University of Sussex. Computations were performed at Reφ = 6.8 × 10⁶, C_w = 5929 (λ_T = 0.35) with different numbers of bolts (0 < N < 60), and also a continuous ring, at r/b = 0.9. The study has improved the current understanding of the effect on moment coefficient and flow structure that rotor mounted protrusions have in rotor-stator systems. It is seen that the contribution of skin friction to the moment coefficient reduces as the number of bolts is increased. The size and shape of the wake created by a rotating bolt also means that the pressure loss per bolt reduces with N but the overall effect is to increase the moment coefficient because there are more bolts.