Numerical and Experimental Investigations on the Flow in a 4-Stage Turbine With Special Focus on the Development of a Radial Temperature Streak

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Bonn ◽  
Harald Funke ◽  
Jochen Gier
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Recent Experimental Data ◽  
Finite Volume Scheme ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Reference Case ◽  
Mixing Processes ◽  
Radial Temperature

In the development of modern gas turbines the increase of the turbine inlet temperature is restricted by the need to cool the first stages of the turbine. In addition the flow leaving the combustor is thermally inhomogeneous. Since the blade cooling has to be designed for the actual local hot gas temperatures, it is important to know how these temperature inhomogeneities develop and attenuate inside the multistage flow passage. In this investigation the flow inside a 4-stage turbine, which is set up in a test rig at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, Aachen University of Technology, is calculated with a state-of-the-art fully three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver based on an accurate finite volume scheme. The stator and rotor rows are coupled via mixing planes. The turbine is a scaled down original turbine with realistic axial gaps. The homogeneous reference case is qualified by comparison to recent experimental data gathered at the test rig. Therefore, the flow is extensively measured at several locations. In a second step a radial temperature streak is set at the inlet for the same point of operation. The results show the development of the temperature streak through the four stages. With this information the underlying mixing processes are described and analysed. It is found that the hot streak segregation effect is present in all four stages.

Numerical and Experimental Investigations of the Influence of Different Swirl Ratios on the Temperature Streak Development in a 4-Stage Turbine

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Bohn ◽  
Harald Funke ◽  
Tom Heuer ◽  
Jürg Bütikofer
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Temperature Inhomogeneity ◽  
Radial Temperature ◽  
Blade Cooling ◽  
Hot Gas ◽  
Segregation Effect ◽  
Temperature Equalization ◽  
Hot Streak

In the development of modern gas turbines the increase in the turbine inlet temperature is restricted by the need for cooling the first stages of the turbine. In addition, the flow leaving the combustor is thermally inhomogeneous. Since the blade cooling has to be designed for the actual local hot gas temperatures, it is important to know how these temperature inhomogeneities develop and attenuate inside the multistage flow passage. In this investigation the development of a circumferential and a radial temperature inhomogeneity inside a 4-stage turbine is analyzed at three different swirl ratios. Since the experimental setup allows a circumferential temperature streak, a radial temperature streak has also been applied at different swirl ratios to the same geometrical configuration for a numerical investigation. The first stage has a significant impact on the attenuation and change in form of a circumferential temperature streak depending on the swirl. For the radial streak the hot streak segregation effect can be eliminated by increasing the swirl. Consequently, the temperature equalization process is weakened.

scholarly journals Status of the Automotive Ceramic Gas Turbine Development Program: Year 3 Progress

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takane Itoh ◽  
Hidetomo Kimura
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Maximum Speed ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Thermal Test ◽  
The Individual

Under the ongoing seven-year program, designated “Research and Development of Automotive Ceramic Gas Turbine Engine (CGT Program)”, started in June 1990. Japan Automobile Research Institute. Inc. (JARI) is continuing to address the issues of developing and demonstrating the advantageous potentials of ceramic gas turbines for automotive use. This program has been conducted by the Petroleum Energy Center (PEC) with the financial support of MITI. The basic engine is a 100 kW, single-shaft regenerative engine having a turbine inlet temperature of 1350°C and a rotor speed of 110,000 rpm. In the third year of this program, the experimental evaluation of the individual engine components and various assembly tests in a static thermal test rig were continued. Exhaust emissions were also measured in a performance test rig for an initially designed pre-mixed, pre-vaporized lean (PPL) combustor. A maximum speed of 130,700 rpm was obtained during hot spin tests of delivered ceramic turbine rotors, which was almost the same level as during cold spin tests. A dynamic thermal test including a centrifugal compressor, a ceramic radial turbine rotor and all the ceramic stationary hot parts was initiated.

Unsteady 3D-Numerical Investigation of the Influence of the Blading Design on the Stator-Rotor Interaction in a 2-Stage Turbine

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter E. Bohn ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Christian Tu¨mmers ◽  
Michael Sell
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
Computer Code ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Blade Design ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
3D Flow ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Flow Through

An important goal in the development of turbine bladings is improving their efficiency to achieve an optimized usage of energy resources. This requires a detailed insight into the complex 3D-flow phenomena in multi-stage turbines. In order to investigate the flow characteristics of modern highly loaded turbine profiles, a test rig with a two-stage axial turbine has been set up at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, Aachen University. The test rig is especially designed to investigate different blading designs. In order to analyze the influence of the blade design on the unsteady blade row interaction, the 3D flow through the two-stage turbine is simulated numerically, using an unsteady Navier-Stokes computer code. The investigations include a comparison of two bladings with different design criteria. The reference blading is a commonly used cylindrical designed blading. This blade design will be compared with a bow-blading, which is designed to minimize the secondary flow phenomena near the endwall in order to achieve a balanced mass flow through nearly the whole passage height. The investigations will focus on the different loss behavior of the two bladings. Unsteady profile pressure distributions and radial efficiencies of the two blade designs will be discussed in detail. The flow conditions are taken from experimental investigations performed at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines. On the basis of the experiments a validation of the code will be performed by comparing the numerical results to the corresponding experimental data at the inlet and the outlet of the blading.

Operability Limits of Tubular Injectors With Vortex Generators for a Hydrogen-Fueled Recuperated 100 kW Class Gas Turbine

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bauer ◽  
Balbina Hampel ◽  
Thomas Sattelmayer
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Bulk Flow ◽  
Vortex Generators ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Temperature Range ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract Vortex generators are known to be effective in augmenting the mixing of fuel jets with air. The configuration investigated in this study is a tubular air passage with fuel injection from one single orifice placed in the side wall. In the range of typical gas turbine combustor inlet temperatures, the performance vortex generator premixers (VGPs) have already been investigated for natural gas as well as for blends of natural gas and hydrogen. However, for highly reactive fuels, the application of VGPs in recuperated gas turbines is particularly challenging because the high combustor inlet temperature leads to potential risk with regard to premature self-ignition and flame flashback. As the current knowledge does not cover the temperature range far above the self-ignition temperature, an experimental investigation of the operational limits of VGPs is currently being conducted at the Thermodynamics Institute of the Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany, which is particularly focused on reactive fuels and the thermodynamic conditions present in recuperated gas turbines with pressure ratios of 4–5. For the study presented in this paper, an atmospheric combustion VGP test rig has been designed, which facilitates investigations in a wide range of operating conditions in order to comply with the situation in recuperated microgas turbines (MGT), namely, global equivalence ratios between 0.2 and 0.7, air preheating temperatures between 288 K and 1100 K, and air bulk flow rates between 6 and 16 g/s. Both the entire mixing zone in the VGP and the primary combustion zone of the test rig are optically accessible. High-speed OH* chemiluminescence imaging is used for the detection of the flashback and blow-off limits of the investigated VGPs. Flashback and blow-off limits of hydrogen in a wide temperature range covering the autoignition regime are presented, addressing the influences of equivalence ratio, air preheating temperature, and momentum ratio between air and hydrogen on the operational limits in terms of bulk flow velocity. It is shown that flashback and blow-off limits are increasingly influenced by autoignition in the ultrahigh temperature regime.

Comparison of 2D and 3D Airfoils in Combination With Non Axisymmetric End Wall Contouring: Part 1 — Experimental Investigations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias W. Zimmermann ◽  
Oliver Curkovic ◽  
Manfred Wirsum ◽  
Andrew Fowler ◽  
Kush Patel
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Beneficial Impact ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
End Wall ◽  
Constant Section ◽  
Turbine Blading

Tangential end wall contouring is intended to improve turbomachinery blading efficiency. This paper is the first of a series of two papers. It summarizes the experimental investigation of a test turbine with end wall contoured vanes and blades. Constant section airfoils as well as optimized 3D high pressure steam turbine blading in baseline and end wall contoured configurations have been examined in a 2 stage axial turbine test rig at the Institute of Power Plant Technology, Steam and Gas Turbines (IKDG) of RWTH Aachen University. The test rig is driven with air. Brush seals are implemented within the casing sided cavities to minimize the leakage flow near the tip end walls, where the contouring is also applied. The pressure and temperature data that is recorded in three axial measuring planes are plotted to visualize the change in flow structure. This has shown that the efficiency is increased for 2D airfoils by means of end wall contouring, which is caused by a homogenized inflow to the second stage. However the efficiency of the first stage suffers, the end wall contouring is beneficial for the performance of the engine. Both phenomena (an efficiency loss in stage one and an improvement of the performance in stage two) have also been measured for the optimized 3D configurations thus it can be expected that end wall contouring has also a beneficial impact on the performance of multi row turbines. The second part of this paper presents the results of numerical investigations of end-wall contoured blades. It will demonstrate how the secondary flow phenomena are influenced by end-wall contours. The simulations are validated with measured data from the test rig.

Influence of the Radial and Axial Gap of the Shroud Cavities on the Flowfield in a 2-Stage Turbine

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Bohn ◽  
Robert Krewinkel ◽  
Christian Tu¨mmers ◽  
Michael Sell
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Guide Vane ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Test Rig ◽  
3D Flow ◽  
Design Point ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Radial Gap

An important goal in the development of turbine bladings is to improve their efficiency for an optimized usage of energy resources. This requires a detailed insight into the complex 3D-flow phenomena in multi-stage turbines. In order to investigate the flow characteristics of modern highly loaded turbine profiles a test rig with a two stage axial turbine has been set up at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, RWTH Aachen University. The test rig is especially designed to investigate the influence of different cavity sizes. In order to analyze the influence of the cavity size on the secondary flow and to discuss the effects of the blade loading, the 3D flow through the 2-stage turbine with shrouded blades is investigated numerically, using the steady Navier-Stokes inhouse computer code, CHT-Flow. The turbine blading is designed to concentrate the mass flow in the middle of the passage in order to keep the main flow away from the secondary flow regions at the endwalls of the blade. The simulations include a comparison of a configuration without cavities (design case) and two configurations, where the axial gap between the shroud and the endwalls is about 5 mm and the radial gap between the shroud and the endwall is varied between 0.8 mm (open radial gap) and radial gaps “near zero” (closed radial gap). The investigations are done with focus on the secondary flow phenomena in the second guide vane. For a detailed analysis of the blade load the design point and an off-design point are simulated for each blading. The flow conditions are taken from experimental investigations performed at the Institute of Steam and Gas Turbines, Aachen University. In the experimental setup, the turbine is operated at a low pressure ratio of 1.4 with an inlet pressure of 3.2·105 Pa. The numerical results will also be compared to the corresponding experimental data at the outlet of the second stage.

Experimental Studies of Crude Oil Combustion in a Top-Mounted Silo Combustor

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Nowak ◽  
Tomasz Dobski ◽  
Rafal Slefarski ◽  
Radoslaw Jankowski ◽  
Fulvio Magni
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Molar Fraction ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Degradation Process ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Measured Temperature ◽  
Test Rig

Crude oil is still an attractive fuel for electricity production due to its low extraction costs in relation to other fuels. However, combustion of crude oil in modern gas turbines must meet certain criteria, which mainly include the reduction of harmful gas emissions, the elimination of harmful dust from the exhaust gas, the improvement of turbine efficiency, the limiting of the power degradation process and elimination of hard deposits. Experimental studies are always needed to meet these requirements because of common complexity in CFD crude oil combustion models. This paper presents experimental investigations of the combustion process of crude oil. Using different sorts of crude oil, all experiments are performed in the atmospheric test rig of a top-mounted combustor, which was scaled down from the baseline system. The test rig was optimized for the typical silo gas turbine boundary conditions. The combustion process is described and quantified with the measured temperature and velocity field distributions in the top-mounted combustion chamber for different injector design’s parameters. Additionally, measured profiles of the molar fraction of CO2, are discussed and compared with respect to the injector parameters. Finally, based upon the experimental results gathered, the possibility of fuel flexibility in the top-mounted combustor chamber is discussed.

Experimental Investigations Into the Nonuniform Flow in a 4-Stage Turbine With Special Focus on the Flow Equalization in the First Turbine Stage

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter E. Bohn ◽  
Harald H.-W. Funke
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flow ◽  
Guide Vane ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Temperature Inhomogeneity ◽  
Turbine Stage ◽  
Reference Case ◽  
Control Stage ◽  
Multistage Turbine

Control stage turbines are in widespread use to control turbine power output in power generation and industrial applications. Depending on the point of operation and the turbine design the inflow to the multi-stage turbine is highly non-uniform. It is important to know how the inhomogeneities in mass flow and temperature distribution develop and attenuate inside a multistage flow passage. The object of this study is to experimentally measure and report the inhomogeneous flow structure and attenuation in a multistage turbine, especially in the first turbine stage. In a scaled down original turbine consisting of a control stage with cross-over channel and a 4-stage turbine velocities, pressures and temperatures are extensively measured at the 360° circumference at the inlet, within the first stage and at the outlet of the multistage turbine part. By closing a 20% sector of the control stage a circumferential flow inhomogeneity with significant pressure, velocity and temperature gradients is created at the inlet of the multistage turbine. For analyzing the equalization of the mass flow distribution in the first stage, the experimental results are normalized with a reference case at full admission in order to separate flow phenomena created by the turbine geometry. The results show that the flow inhomogeneity at the inlet of the multistage part is significant, but the flow is basically equalized after the third stage. Most of the flow equalization takes place within the first turbine stage while the guide vane is the main driver for this process. In opposite to this the temperature inhomogeneity does not attenuate significantly within the multistage turbine part.

Fuel System Suitability Considerations for Industrial Gas Turbines

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. G. Elliott ◽  
R. Kurz ◽  
C. Etheridge ◽  
J. P. O’Connell
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Equations Of State ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
Liquid Fuels ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Fuel System ◽  
Fuel Gas ◽  
Pressure Drops ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines

Industrial Gas Turbines allow operation with a wide variety of gaseous and liquid fuels. To determine the suitability for operation with a gas fuel system, various physical parameters of the proposed fuel need to be determined: heating value, dew point, Joule-Thompson coefficient, Wobbe Index, and others. This paper describes an approach to provide a consistent treatment for determining the above physical properties. Special focus is given to the problem of determining the dew point of the potential fuel gas at various pressure levels. A dew point calculation using appropriate equations of state is described, and results are presented. In particular the treatment of heavier hydrocarbons, and water is addressed and recommendations about the necessary data input are made. Since any fuel gas system causes pressure drops in the fuel gas, the temperature reduction due to the Joule-Thompson effect has to be considered and quantified. Suggestions about how to approach fuel suitability questions during the project development and construction phase, as well as in operation are made.

scholarly journals Numerical Investigation of a Radially Cooled Turbine Guide Vane Using Air and Steam as a Cooling Medium

Computation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Sondre Norheim ◽  
Shokri Amzin
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Model ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Guide Vane ◽  
Axial Direction ◽  
Average Error ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
Cooling Medium ◽  
Turbine Guide Vane ◽  
Steam Cooling

Gas turbine performance is closely linked to the turbine inlet temperature, which is limited by the turbine guide vanes ability to withstand the massive thermal loads. Thus, steam cooling has been introduced as an advanced cooling technology to improve the efficiency of modern high-temperature gas turbines. This study compares the cooling performance of compressed air and steam in the renowned radially cooled NASA C3X turbine guide vane, using a numerical model. The conjugate heat transfer (CHT) model is based on the RANS-method, where the shear stress transport (SST) k−ω model is selected to predict the effects of turbulence. The numerical model is validated against experimental pressure and temperature distributions at the external surface of the vane. The results are in good agreement with the experimental data, with an average error of 1.39% and 3.78%, respectively. By comparing the two coolants, steam is confirmed as the superior cooling medium. The disparity between the coolants increases along the axial direction of the vane, and the total volume average temperature difference is 30 K. Further investigations are recommended to deal with the local hot-spots located near the leading- and trailing edge of the vane.

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