How much a geometrical model of a honeycomb seal can be simplied in the CFD calculation

This paper presents the influence of geometry simplification on the results obtained in the computational fluid dynamics simulation. The subject of simulation was part of the honeycomb seal located at the inlet to high pressure part of a steam turbine. There were three diferent geometrical models assumed in the calculations. First one was two-dimensional case and two others were three-dimensional, one with the radius of curvature and one without. Numerical simulations were performed for 15 sets of boundary conditions to compare flow characteristics for each geometrical case.