LAUSR

Abstract The aim of the study is to assess the appropriateness of a new principle for designing turbine stages based on the partial integration of cylindrical visors built on the rotor (root and peripheral relative to the height of the blade) in the corresponding grooves of the nozzle box. A single-stage gas axial microturbine was used as a model (hereinafter referred to as tested), incorporating a nozzle box with one rectangular-type nozzle, which was manufactured in accordance with the proposed principle. A comparative analysis of the tested turbine was performed with a reference turbine, which had neither visors on the rotor nor grooves in the nozzle box. In all other aspects, the reference turbine was similar to the tested turbine. The tested microturbine was observed to perform better than its reference counterpart over the entire range of the studied parameters. The maximum efficiency of the tested microturbine was 26.4%, while that of the reference turbine was 18.1%. The results of this study confirmed the possibility of using the proposed principle of designing microturbine stages; in addition, the use of this principle can be beneficial for designing turbines of other sizes.