Conjugate Heat Transfer Methodology for Thermal Design and Verification of Gas Turbine Cooled Components

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Winchler ◽  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Andrei ◽  
Alessio Bonini ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way, turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity, and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. In the framework of the design and validation process of high pressure turbine cooled components of the BHGE NovaLTTM 16 gas turbine, a decoupled methodology for conjugate heat transfer prediction has been applied and validated against measurement data. The procedure consists of a conjugate heat transfer analysis in which the internal cooling system (for both airfoils and platforms) is modeled by an in-house one-dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution are evaluated through 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D finite element method (FEM) solution. Film cooling effect has been treated by means of a dedicated CFD analysis, implementing a source term approach. Predicted metal temperatures are finally compared with measurements from an extensive test campaign of the engine in order to validate the presented procedure.

Author(s):  
Lorenzo Winchler ◽  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Andrei ◽  
Alessio Bonini ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures, is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. In the framework of the design and validation process of HPT (High Pressure Turbine) cooled components of the BHGE NovaLT™ 16 gas turbine, a decoupled methodology for conjugate heat transfer prediction has been applied and validated against measurement data. The procedure consists of a conjugate heat transfer analysis in which the internal cooling system (for both airfoils and platforms) is modeled by an in-house one-dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution are evaluated through 3D CFD analysis and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D FEM solution. Film cooling effect has been treated by means of a dedicated CFD analysis, implementing a source term approach. Predicted metal temperatures are finally compared with measurements from an extensive test campaign of the engine, in order to validate the presented procedure.


Author(s):  
A. Bonini ◽  
A. Andreini ◽  
C. Carcasci ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
A. Ciani ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures, is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. This two part work presents a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer procedure developed in the framework of an internal research project of GE Oil & Gas. The procedure, applied to the first rotor blade of the MS5002E gas turbine, consists of a conjugate heat transfer analysis in which the internal cooling system was modeled by an in-house one dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution have been evaluated through 3D CFD and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D FEM solution. The first part of this work is focused on the description of the procedures in terms of set up of the equivalent fluid network model of internal cooling system and its tuning through experimental measurements of blade flow function. A first computation of blade metal temperature was obtained by coupling with CFD computations carried out on a de-featured geometry of the blade. Achieved results are compared with the data of a metallographic analysis performed on a blade operated on an actual engine. Some discrepancies are observed between datasets, suggesting the necessity to improve the models, mainly from the CFD side.


Author(s):  
Yaping Ju ◽  
Yi Feng ◽  
Chuhua Zhang

Abstract Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes model-based conjugate heat transfer method is popularly used in simulations and designs of internally cooled gas turbine blades. One of the important factors influencing its prediction accuracy is the choice of turbulence models for different fluid regions because the blade passage flow and internal cooling have considerably different flow features. However, most studies adopted the same turbulence models in passage flow and internal cooling. Another important issue is the comprehensive evaluation of the losses caused by flow and heat transfer for both fluid and solid regions. In this study, a RANS-based CHT solver for subsonic/transonic flows was developed based on OpenFOAM and validated and used to explore suitable RANS turbulence model combinations for internally cooled gas turbine blades. Entropy generation, able to weigh the losses caused by flow friction and heat transfer, was used in the analyses of two internally cooled vanes to reveal the loss mechanisms. Findings indicate that the combination of the k-? SST-?-Re? transition model for passage flow and the standard k-e model for internal cooling agreed best with measurement data. The relative error of vane dimensionless temperature was less than 3%. The variations of entropy generation with different internal cooling inlet velocities and temperatures indicate that reducing entropy generation was contradictory with enhancing heat transfer performance. This study, providing a reliable computing tool and a comprehensive performance parameter, has an important application value for the design of internally cooled gas turbine blades.


Author(s):  
A. Andreini ◽  
A. Bonini ◽  
R. Da Soghe ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
A. Ciani ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures, is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. This two part work presents a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer procedure developed in the framework of an internal research project of GE Oil & Gas. The procedure, applied to the first rotor blade of the MS5002E gas turbine, consists in a decoupled analysis in which the internal cooling system was modeled by an in-house one dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution have been evaluated through 3D CFD and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D FEM solution. The second part of this work is focused on the improvement of external heat loads prediction through the use of a full featured geometry of the blade. In particular a detailed representation of the rim seal is accounted for as well as the actual geometry of the squealer tip. A new set of conjugate results is compared with temperature obtained by metallographic analysis, pointing out the relevant effect of the actual endwall contour on the metal temperature distribution at low spans of the blade.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2096
Author(s):  
Joon Ahn ◽  
Jeong Chul Song ◽  
Joon Sik Lee

Large eddy simulations are performed to analyze the conjugate heat transfer of turbulent flow in a ribbed channel with a heat-conducting solid wall. An immersed boundary method (IBM) is used to determine the effect of heat transfer in the solid region on that in the fluid region in a unitary computational domain. To satisfy the continuity of the heat flux at the solid–fluid interface, effective conductivity is introduced. By applying the IBM, it is possible to fully couple the convection on the fluid side and the conduction inside the solid and use a dynamic subgrid scale model in a Cartesian grid. The blockage ratio (e/H) is set at 0.1, which is typical for gas turbine blades. Through conjugate heat transfer analysis, it is confirmed that the heat transfer peak in front of the rib occurs because of the impinging of the reattached flow and not the influence of the thermal boundary condition. When the rib turbulator acts as a fin, its efficiency and effectiveness are predicted to be 98.9% and 8.32, respectively. When considering conjugate heat transfer, the total heat transfer rate is reduced by 3% compared with that of the isothermal wall. The typical Biot number at the internal cooling passage of a gas turbine is <0.1, and the use of the rib height as the characteristic length better represents the heat transfer of the rib.


Author(s):  
Jun Su Park ◽  
Namgeon Yun ◽  
Hokyu Moon ◽  
Kyung Min Kim ◽  
Sin-Ho Kang ◽  
...  

This paper presents thermal analyses of the cooling system of a transition piece, which is one of the primary hot components in a gas turbine engine. The thermal analyses include heat transfer distributions induced by heat and fluid flow, temperature, and thermal stresses. The purpose of this study is to provide basic thermal and structural information on transition piece, to facilitate their maintenance and repair. The study is carried out primarily by numerical methods, using the commercial software, Fluent and ANSYS. First, the combustion field in a combustion liner with nine fuel nozzles is analyzed to determine the inlet conditions of a transition piece. Using the results of this analysis, pressure distributions inside a transition piece are calculated. The outside of the transition piece in a dump diffuser system is also analyzed. Information on the pressure differences is then used to obtain data on cooling channel flow (one of the methods for cooling a transition piece). The cooling channels have exit holes that function as film-cooling holes. Thermal and flow analyses are carried out on the inside of a film-cooled transition piece. The results are used to investigate the adjacent temperatures and wall heat transfer coefficients inside the transition piece. Overall temperature and thermal stress distributions of the transition piece are obtained. These results will provide a direction to improve thermal design of transition piece.


Author(s):  
Duccio Griffini ◽  
Massimiliano Insinna ◽  
Simone Salvadori ◽  
Francesco Martelli

A high-pressure vane equipped with a realistic film-cooling configuration has been studied. The vane is characterized by the presence of multiple rows of fan-shaped holes along pressure and suction side while the leading edge is protected by a showerhead system of cylindrical holes. Steady three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations have been performed. A preliminary grid sensitivity analysis with uniform inlet flow has been used to quantify the effect of spatial discretization. Turbulence model has been assessed in comparison with available experimental data. The effects of the relative alignment between combustion chamber and high-pressure vanes are then investigated considering realistic inflow conditions in terms of hot spot and swirl. The inlet profiles used are derived from the EU-funded project TATEF2. Two different clocking positions are considered: the first one where hot spot and swirl core are aligned with passage and the second one where they are aligned with the leading edge. Comparisons between metal temperature distributions obtained from conjugate heat transfer simulations are performed evidencing the role of swirl in determining both the hot streak trajectory within the passage and the coolant redistribution. The leading edge aligned configuration is resulted to be the most problematic in terms of thermal load, leading to increased average and local vane temperature peaks on both suction side and pressure side with respect to the passage aligned case. A strong sensitivity of both injected coolant mass flow and heat removed by heat sink effect has also been highlighted for the showerhead cooling system.


Author(s):  
Kuo-San Ho ◽  
Christopher Urwiller ◽  
S. Murthy Konan ◽  
Jong S. Liu ◽  
Bruno Aguilar

This paper explores the conjugate heat transfer (CHT) numerical simulation approach to calculate the metal temperature for the gas turbine cooled stator. ANSYS CFX12.1 code was selected to be the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool to perform the CHT simulation. The 2-equation RNG k-ε turbulence model with scalable modified wall function was employed. A full engine test with thermocouple measurement was performed and used to validate the CHT results. Metal temperatures calculated with the CHT model were compared to engine test data. The results demonstrated good agreement between test data and airfoil metal temperatures and cooling flow temperatures using the CHT model. However, the CHT calculations in the outer end wall had a discrepancy compared to the measured temperatures, which was due to the fact that the CHT model assumed an adiabatic wall as a boundary condition. This paper presents a process to calculate convection heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for cooling passages and airfoil surfaces using CHT results. This process is possible because local wall heat flux and fluid temperatures are known. This approach assists in calibrating an in-house conduction thermal model for steady state and transient thermal analyses.


Author(s):  
Takeshi Horiuchi ◽  
Tomoki Taniguchi ◽  
Ryozo Tanaka ◽  
Masanori Ryu ◽  
Masahide Kazari

In this paper, the Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) analysis, which utilizes commercial software STAR-CCM+ with detailed models and practical mesh size, was performed to the first stage cooled turbine airfoils for an industrial gas turbine produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI). First its estimation accuracy was evaluated by comparing with the measurement results obtained with thermal index paint (TIP) and a pyrometer. After the validation of the CHT analysis, the metal temperature distribution was understood with the flow phenomena associated with it from the analysis results. To the parts where the metal temperature is locally high, then, the improvements of the cooling performance were considered with the CHT analysis and their effects were finally confirmed by measuring the metal temperature in the actual engine. The investigation reveals that the CHT analysis, which is validated with measurement results, makes it possible for cooling designers to efficiently improve the cooling performance of turbine airfoils with the adequate estimation accuracy, thus enhancing their durability for the reliability of gas turbines.


Author(s):  
Young Seok Kang ◽  
Dong-Ho Rhee ◽  
Sanga Lee ◽  
Bong Jun Cha

Abstract Conjugate heat transfer analysis method has been highlighted for predicting heat exchange between fluid domain and solid domain inside high-pressure turbines, which are exposed to very harsh operating conditions. Then it is able to assess the overall cooling effectiveness considering both internal cooling and external film cooling at the cooled turbine design step. In this study, high-pressure turbine nozzles, which have three different film cooling holes arrangements, were numerically simulated with conjugate heat transfer analysis method for predicting overall cooling effectiveness. The film cooling holes distributed over the nozzle pressure surface were optimized by minimizing the peak temperature, temperature deviation. Additional internal cooling components such as pedestals and rectangular rib turbulators were modeled inside the cooling passages for more efficient heat transfer. The real engine conditions were given for boundary conditions to fluid and solid domains for conjugate heat transfer analysis. Hot combustion gas properties such as specific heat at constant pressure and other transport properties were given as functions of temperature. Also, the conductivity of Inconel 718 was also given as a function of temperature to solve the heat equation in the nozzle solid domain. Conjugate heat transfer analysis results showed that optimized designs showed better cooling performance, especially on the pressure surface due to proper staggering and spacing hole-rows compared to the baseline design. The overall cooling performances were offset from the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. Locally concentrated heat transfer and corresponding high cooling effectiveness region appeared where internal cooling effects were overlapped in the optimized designs. Also, conjugate heat transfer analysis results for the optimized designs showed more uniform contours of the overall cooling effectiveness compared to the baseline design. By varying the coolant mass flow rate, it was observed that pressure surface was more sensitive to the coolant mass flow rate than nozzle leading edge stagnation region and suction surface. The CHT results showed that optimized designs to improve the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness also have better overall cooling effectiveness.


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