Gas Turbine Combustor Cooling by Augmented Backside Convection

1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Evans ◽  
M. L. Noble

Traditionally, gas turbine combustor walls have been cooled by one or more of the various film cooling methods. The current motivation to control exhaust gas emission composition has led to the serious consideration of backside convection wall cooling, where the cooling air is introduced to the main gas stream not prior to the dilution zone. Due to the confined space and the severe nature of the wall cooling problem, it is essential to maximize the heat transfer/pumping power characteristic, which suggests an augmented convection technique. A particular heat transfer design of a combustor cooled by means of transverse rib turbulence promoters applied to the exterior wall of the annular spaces surrounding the primary and secondary zones is described. Analytical methods for designing such a cooling system are reviewed and a comparison between analytical and experimental results is presented.

Author(s):  
Firat Kiyici ◽  
Ahmet Topal ◽  
Ender Hepkaya ◽  
Sinan Inanli

A numerical study, based on experimental work of Inanli et al. [1] is conducted to understand the heat transfer characteristics of film cooled test plates that represent the gas turbine combustor liner cooling system. Film cooling tests are conducted by six different slot geometries and they are scaled-up model of real combustor liner. Three different blowing ratios are applied to six different geometries and surface cooling effectiveness is determined for each test condition by measuring the surface temperature distribution. Effects of geometrical and flow parameters on cooling effectiveness are investigated. In this study, Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations are performed with different turbulence models. Effect of the turbulent Prandtl Number is also investigated in terms of heat transfer distribution along the measurement surface. For this purpose, turbulent Prandtl number is calculated with a correlation as a function of local surface temperature gradient and its effect also compared with the constant turbulent Prandtl numbers. Good agreement is obtained with two-layered k–ϵ with modified Turbulent Prandtl number.


Author(s):  
A. W. Reichert ◽  
M. Janssen

Siemens heavy duty Gas Turbines have been well known for their high power output combined with high efficiency and reliability for more than 3 decades. Offering state of the art technology at all times, the requirements concerning the cooling and sealing air system have increased with technological development over the years. In particular the increase of the turbine inlet temperature and reduced NOx requirements demand a highly efficient cooling and sealing air system. The new Vx4.3A family of Siemens gas turbines with ISO turbine inlet temperatures of 1190°C in the power range of 70 to 240 MW uses an effective film cooling technique for the turbine stages 1 and 2 to ensure the minimum cooling air requirement possible. In addition, the application of film cooling enables the cooling system to be simplified. For example, in the new gas turbine family no intercooler and no cooling air booster for the first turbine vane are needed. This paper deals with the internal air system of Siemens gas turbines which supplies cooling and sealing air. A general overview is given and some problems and their technical solutions are discussed. Furthermore a state of the art calculation system for the prediction of the thermodynamic states of the cooling and sealing air is introduced. The calculation system is based on the flow calculation package Flowmaster (Flowmaster International Ltd.), which has been modified for the requirements of the internal air system. The comparison of computational results with measurements give a good impression of the high accuracy of the calculation method used.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanapat Chotroongruang ◽  
Prasert Prapamonthon ◽  
Rungsimun Thongdee ◽  
Thanapat Thongmuenwaiyathon ◽  
Zhenxu Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Based on the Brayton cycle for gas-turbine engines, the high thermal efficiency and power output of a gas-turbine engine can be obtainable when the gas-turbine engine operates at high turbine inlet temperatures. However, turbine components e.g., inlet guide vane, rotor blade, and stator vane request high cooling performance. Typically, internal cooling and film cooling are two effective techniques that are widely used to protect high thermal loads for the turbine components in a state-of-the-art gas turbine. Consequently, the high thermal efficiency and power output can be obtained, and the turbine lifespan can be prolonged, also. On top of that, a comprehensive understanding of flow and heat transfer phenomena in the turbine components is very important. As a result, both experiments and simulations have been used to improve the cooling performance of the turbine components. In fact, the cooling air used in the internal cooling and film cooling is partially extracted from the compressor. Therefore, variations in the cooling air affect the cooling performance of the turbine components directly. This paper presents a numerical study on the influence of the cooling air on cooling-performance sensitivity of an internally convective turbine vane, MARK II using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)/conjugate heat transfer (CHT) with the SST k-ω turbulence model. Result comparisons are conducted in terms of pressure, temperature, and cooling effectiveness under the effects of the inlet temperature, mass flow rate, turbulence intensity, and flow direction of the cooling air. The cooling-performance sensitivity to the coolant parameters is shown through variations of local cooling effectiveness, and area and volume-weighted average cooling effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Wenping Wang ◽  
Peng Sun ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Hongde Jiang

With the increasing of the gas turbine inlet temperature, the radiative heat transfer plays a more important role in the total heat transfer. In this paper, a high temperature test rig has been built to research the radiative effect in high temperature film cooling. The test section is made up of a high temperature hot gas channel and a middle temperature coolant air channel which are separated by a flat plate with a row of film cooling holes. The goal is to analyze the effects of radiation and its interaction between conduction and convection in the internal and film cooling which consider the heat transfer in both gas and solid. Meanwhile, the numerical study on the test cases are also carried out by combining conjugate heat transfer with radiative models. The fluid and solid regions were solved simultaneously. The Discrete Ordinates (DO) model and the Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Model (WSGGM) has been used to solve the radiative transfer equation for the radiation modeling. The results show that the temperature of the plate increase greatly when the radiation is taken into account and the temperature gradient through the plate becomes much larger. The temperature distribution has been changed and become smoother in spanwise direction. The results also indicate that the internal emissivity of the inlet has an influence mainly on the whole temperature of the plate, which suggests that the control of inlet emissivity is a good way for prevent over-high temperature on the first stage gas turbine vane.


Author(s):  
Vivek Savarianandam ◽  
Steven J. Thorpe ◽  
Jon F. Carrotte ◽  
Marco Zedda

Pin-fin cooling geometries are used extensively in gas turbine engine components, typically in combination with film-cooling and thermal barrier coatings. The cooling performance of this cold-side arrangement is an important factor in maintaining hot-section components below prescribed life-limiting temperatures. At a time when engine manufacturers are pursuing combustor designs that require a reduced coolant flow, robust aerodynamic and heat transfer correlations, as well as the physical insight provided by a deeper understanding of the flow processes, are essential to efficient design. In this paper both experimental and computational findings are reported for the performance of a combustor pin-fin cooling system that employs a single row of impingement feed-holes. The geometry is representative of that employed in a double-skin combustor cooling system. The data includes spatially resolved end-wall heat transfer measurements, and hot-wire traverse data for the coolant velocity and turbulence parameters. Heat transfer measurements have been obtained for the cold-side of the hot-skin, and include the impact of a gap between the cold-skin and tips of the pin-fins. The flow conditions within the pin-fin geometry can be divided between an impingement zone immediately adjacent to the feed-holes, and a fully-developed zone further downstream. In general, the impingement zone is characterised by strongly varying flow and heat transfer behaviour up to approximately six pin-fin rows from the feed-hole centre-line, and then sensibly repeating conditions within the pin-fin array thereafter downstream. The impact of the cold-skin gap is to redistribute the coolant away from the hot-skin, leading to a reduction in the hot-skin heat transfer coefficient in the developed zone. Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations of the flow within the experimental geometry have been conducted and compared to the experimental results. Various standard turbulence models have been considered. Based on this comparison recommendations are made regarding the most appropriate computational modeling approach.


Author(s):  
Carlo Carcasci ◽  
Stefano Zecchi ◽  
Gianpaolo Oteri

CO2 emissions reduction has become an important topic, especially after Kyoto protocol. There are several ways to reduce the overall amount of CO2 discharged into the atmosphere, for example using alternative fluids such as steam or CO2. It is therefore interesting to analyze the consequences of their usage on overall performances of gas turbine and blade cooling systems. The presence of steam can be associated with combined or STIG cycle, whereas pure carbon dioxide or air-carbon dioxide mixtures are present in innovative cycles, where the exhaust gas is recirculated partially or even totally. In this paper we will analyze a commercial gas turbine, comparing different fluids used as working and cooling fluids. The different nature of the fluids involved determines different external heat transfer coefficients (external blade surface), different internal heat transfer coefficients (cooling cavities) and affects film cooling effectiveness, resulting in a change of the blade temperature distribution. Results show that the presence of steam and CO2 could determine a non negligible effect on blade temperature. This means that cooling systems need a deep investigation. A redesign of the cooling system could be required. In particular, results show that steam is well suited for internal cooling, whereas CO2 is better used in film cooling systems.


Author(s):  
Je-Chin Han

Gas turbines are used for aircraft propulsion and land-based power generation or industrial applications. Thermal efficiency and power output of gas turbines increase with increasing turbine rotor inlet temperatures (RIT). Current advanced gas turbine engines operate at turbine RIT (1700 °C) far higher than the melting point of the blade material (1000 °C); therefore, turbine blades are cooled by compressor discharge air (700 °C). To design an efficient cooling system, it is a great need to increase the understanding of gas turbine heat transfer behaviors within complex 3D high-turbulence unsteady engine-flow environments. Moreover, recent research focuses on aircraft gas turbines operating at even higher RIT with limited cooling air and land-based gas turbines burn coal-gasified fuels with a higher heat load. It is important to understand and solve gas turbine heat transfer problems under new harsh working environments. The advanced cooling technology and durable thermal barrier coatings play critical roles for the development of advanced gas turbines with near zero emissions for safe and long-life operation. This paper reviews fundamental gas turbine heat transfer research topics and documents important relevant papers for future research.


Author(s):  
Seung Il Baek ◽  
Savas Yavuzkurt

The objective of this study is to understand the effects of oscillations in the main flow and the film cooling jets caused by the thermoacoustic fields formed in a gas turbine combustor on film cooling. As a first step, CFD simulations are performed for the case of steady mainstream and steady film cooling jets for validation of models and simulations and compared with other studies trying to predict adiabatic effectiveness under similar operating conditions. Based on the knowledge gained on the capability and limitations of different turbulence models for the steady simulations, simulations were extended to unsteady main flow and unsteady cooling jets. The unsteady simulations are performed using URANS-realizable k-ε turbulence model and LES-Smagorinsky-Lilly model. Initially, oscillations due to the combustion instabilities are approximated to be in sinusoidal form. For unsteady main flow and cooling jet simulations, results from the Seo et al. [3] experimental study were selected for comparison with CFD results. The effects of different frequencies (2, 16, 32 Hz) on film cooling are investigated. In each case, average blowing ratio was M=0.5. The results show that if the frequencies of the main flow and the cooling jet flow are increased, the adiabatic centerline effectiveness is decreased and the heat transfer coefficient is increased. Some representative results are: if the frequency of the main flow is increased from 0 Hz to 2 Hz, 16 Hz, or 32 Hz for L/D=1.6, the centerline effectiveness is decreased about 10%, 12%, or 47% and the spanwise-averaged heat transfer coefficient is increased around 1%, 2%, or 4% respectively. If the frequency of the mainstream and the jet flow is increased, the amplitude of the pressure difference between the mainstream and the plenum is increased and the amplitude of coolant flow rate oscillation is increased. Additionally, rectangular or triangular wave forms are used for mainstream and coolant jet flow in order to see the effect on the results and total 36 cases are simulated and effects of changing wave form are investigated. In each case, coolant flow rate was the same as sinusoidal wave forms. It seems like rectangular wave form for main flow at 2 Hz has a negative effect on film cooling performance whereas the same wave form for coolant jet at 32 Hz has a positive effect.


Author(s):  
Daniel Lörstad ◽  
Annika Lindholm ◽  
Jan Pettersson ◽  
Mats Björkman ◽  
Ingvar Hultmark

Siemens Oil & Gas introduced an enhanced SGT-800 gas turbine during 2010. The new power rating is 50.5MW at a 38.3% electrical efficiency in simple cycle (ISO) and best in class combined-cycle performance of more than 55%, for improved fuel flexibility at low emissions. The updated components in the gas turbine are interchangeable from the existing 47MW rating. The increased power and improved efficiency are mainly obtained by improved compressor airfoil profiles and improved turbine aerodynamics and cooling air layout. The current paper is focused on the design modifications of the combustor parts and the combustion validation and operation experience. The serial cooling system of the annular combustion chamber is improved using aerodynamically shaped liner cooling air inlet and reduced liner rib height to minimize the pressure drop and optimize the cooling layout to improve the life due to engine operation hours. The cold parts of the combustion chamber were redesigned using cast cooling struts where the variable thickness was optimized to maximize the cycle life. Due to fewer thicker vanes of the turbine stage #1, the combustor-turbine interface is accordingly updated to maintain the life requirements due to the upstream effect of the stronger pressure gradient. Minor burner tuning is used which in combination with the previously introduced combustor passive damping results in low emissions for >50% load, which is insensitive to ambient conditions. The combustion system has shown excellent combustion stability properties, such as to rapid load changes and large flame temperature range at high loads, which leads to the possibility of single digit Dry Low Emission (DLE) NOx. The combustion system has also shown insensitivity to fuels of large content of hydrogen, different hydrocarbons, inerts and CO. Also DLE liquid operation shows low emissions for 50–100% load. The first SGT-800 with 50.5MW rating was successfully tested during the Spring 2010 and the expected performance figures were confirmed. The fleet leader has, up to January 2013, accumulated >16000 Equivalent Operation Hours (EOH) and a planned follow up inspection made after 10000 EOH by boroscope of the hot section showed that the combustor was in good condition. This paper presents some details of the design work carried out during the development of the combustor design enhancement and the combustion operation experience from the first units.


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