On the performance enhancement of thermo-compressor and steam turbine blade cascade in the presence of spontaneous nucleation

In the present study, increasing the performance of thermo-compressors and steam turbines by volumetric cooling and inlet superheating is addressed. The efficacies of these two proposed methods are assessed using a numerical code developed based on Eulerian-Eulerian description of the two-phase fluid flow accounting for the spontaneous nucleation. The results show that maximum increase of 2.8% in entrainment ratio and 4.2% increase in isentropic efficiency are achieved for thermo-compressor and steam turbine blade cascade respectively. As the result, flow passage cooling and increasing the superheating level at the flow inlet could be considered as reliable techniques for wetness loss reduction in industrial apparatuses. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.