Migration of Combustor Exit Profiles Through High Pressure Turbine Vanes

Author(s):  
M. D. Barringer ◽  
M. D. Polanka ◽  
J. P. Clark ◽  
P. J. Koch ◽  
K. A. Thole

The high pressure turbine stage within gas turbine engines is exposed to combustor exit flows that are nonuniform in both stagnation pressure and temperature. These highly turbulent flows typically enter the first stage vanes with significant spatial gradients near the inner and outer diameter endwalls. These gradients can result in secondary flow development within the vane passage that is different than what classical secondary flow models predict. The heat transfer between the working fluid and the turbine vane surface and endwalls is directly related to the secondary flows. The goal of the current study was to examine the migration of different inlet radial temperature and pressure profiles through the high turbine vane of a modern turbine engine. The tests were performed using an inlet profile generator located in the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Comparisons of area-averaged radial exit profiles are reported as well as profiles at three vane pitch locations to document the circumferential variation in the profiles. The results show that the shape of the total pressure profile near the endwalls at the inlet of the vane can alter the redistribution of stagnation enthalpy through the airfoil passage significantly. Total pressure loss and exit flow angle variations are also examined for the different inlet profiles.

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Barringer ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
M. D. Polanka ◽  
J. P. Clark ◽  
P. J. Koch

The high pressure turbine stage within gas turbine engines is exposed to combustor exit flows that are nonuniform in both stagnation pressure and temperature. These highly turbulent flows typically enter the first stage vanes with significant spatial gradients near the inner and outer diameter endwalls. These gradients can result in secondary flow development within the vane passage that is different than what classical secondary flow models predict. The heat transfer between the working fluid and the turbine vane surface and endwalls is directly related to the secondary flows. The goal of the current study was to examine the migration of different inlet radial temperature and pressure profiles through the high turbine vane of a modern turbine engine. The tests were performed using an inlet profile generator located in the Turbine Research Facility at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Comparisons of area-averaged radial exit profiles are reported as well as profiles at three vane pitch locations to document the circumferential variation in the profiles. The results show that the shape of the total pressure profile near the endwalls at the inlet of the vane can alter the redistribution of stagnation enthalpy through the airfoil passage significantly. Total pressure loss and exit flow angle variations are also examined for the different inlet profiles.


Author(s):  
Huimin Tang ◽  
Shuaiqiang Liu ◽  
Hualing Luo

Profiled endwall is an effective method to improve aerodynamic performance of turbine. This approach has been widely studied in the past decade on many engines. When automatic design optimisation is considered, most of the researches are usually based on the assumption of a simplified simulation model without considering cooling and rim seal flows. However, many researchers find out that some of the benefits achieved by optimization procedure are lost when applying the high-fidelity geometry configuration. Previously, an optimization procedure has been implemented by integrating the in-house geometry manipulator, a commercial three-dimensional CFD flow solver and the optimization driver, IsightTM. This optimization procedure has been executed [12] to design profiled endwalls for a turbine cascade and a one-and-half stage axial turbine. Improvements of the turbine performance have been achieved. As the profiled endwall is applied to a high pressure turbine, the problems of cooling and rim seal flows should be addressed. In this work, the effects of rim seal flow and cooling on the flow field of two-stage high pressure turbine have been presented. Three optimization runs are performed to design the profiled endwall of Rotor-One with different optimization model to consider the effects of rim flow and cooling separately. It is found that the rim seal flow has a significant impact on the flow field. The cooling is able to change the operation condition greatly, but barely affects the secondary flow in the turbine. The influences of the profiled endwalls on the flow field in turbine and cavities have been analyzed in detail. A significant reduction of secondary flows and corresponding increase of performance are achieved when taking account of the rim flows into the optimization. The traditional optimization mechanism of profiled endwall is to reduce the cross passage gradient, which has great influence on the strength of the secondary flow. However, with considering the rim seal flows, the profiled endwall improves the turbine performance mainly by controlling the path of rim seal flow. Then the optimization procedure with consideration of rim seal flow has also been applied to the design of the profiled endwall for Stator Two.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Yamamoto

The present study intends to give some experimental information on secondary flows and on the associated total pressure losses occurring within turbine cascades. Part 1 of the paper describes the mechanism of production and development of the loss caused by secondary flows in a straight stator cascade with a turning angle of about 65 deg. A full representation of superimposed secondary flow vectors and loss contours is given at fourteen serial traverse planes located throughout the cascade. The presentation shows the mechanism clearly. Distributions of static pressures and of the loss on various planes close to blade surfaces and close to an endwall surface are given to show the loss accumulation process over the surfaces of the cascade passage. Variation of mass-averaged flow angle, velocity and loss through the cascade, and evolution of overall loss from upstream to downstream of the cascade are also given. Part 2 of the paper describes the mechanism in a straight rotor cascade with a turning angle of about 102 deg.


Author(s):  
Kenta Mizutori ◽  
Koji Fukudome ◽  
Makoto Yamamoto ◽  
Masaya Suzuki

Abstract We performed numerical simulation to understand deposition phenomena on high-pressure turbine vane. Several deposition models were compared and the OSU model showed good adaptation to any flow field and material, so it was implemented on UPACS. After the implementation, the simulations of deposition phenomenon in several cases of the flow field were conducted. From the results, particles adhere on the leading edge and the trailing edge side of the pressure surface. Also, the calculation of the total pressure loss coefficient was conducted after computing the flow field after deposition. The total pressure loss coefficient increased after deposition and it was revealed that the deposition deteriorates aerodynamic performance.


Author(s):  
Marco Sacchi ◽  
Daniele Simoni ◽  
Marina Ubaldi ◽  
Pietro Zunino ◽  
Stefano Zecchi

The secondary flow field in a large-scale high-pressure turbine cascade with micro-holed endwall cooling has been investigated at the Genova Laboratory of Aerodynamics and Turbomachinery in cooperation with Avio S.p.A in the framework of the European Project AITEB-2. The experimental investigation has been performed for the baseline configuration, with a smooth solid endwall installed, and for the cooled configuration with a micro-holed endwall providing micro-jets ejection from the wall. Two different cooling flow rates were investigated and the experimental results are reported in the paper. Different measurement techniques have been employed to analyze the secondary flow field along the channel and in a downstream tangential plane. Particle Image Velocimetry has been utilized to quantify the blade-to-blade velocity components in a plane located close to the endwall and in the midspan plane. Hot-wire measurements have been performed in a tangential plane downstream of the blade trailing edges in order to survey the micro-jets effects on the secondary flows behavior. The total pressure distributions, for the different blowing conditions, have been measured in the downstream tangential plane by means of a Kiel pneumatic probe. The results, represented in color plots of velocity, pressure loss coefficient and turbulent kinetic energy distributions, allow the identification of the endwall effusion cooling effects on location and strength of the secondary vortical structures. The thermal investigation of the effusion system is discussed in Part 2 of the paper.


Author(s):  
A. Yamamoto

The present study intends to give some experimental information on secondary flows and on the associated total pressure losses occurring within turbine cascades. Part 1 of the paper describes the mechanism of production and development of the loss caused by secondary flows in a straight stator cascade with a turning angle of about 65°. A full representation of superimposed secondary flow vectors and loss contours is given at serial fourteen traverse planes located throughout the cascade, which shows the mechanism clearly. Distributions of static pressures and of the loss on various planes close to blade surfaces and close to an endwall surface are given to show the loss accumulation process over the surfaces of the cascade passage. Variation of mass-averaged flow angle, velocity and loss through the cascade, and evolution of overall loss from upstream to downstream of the cascade are also given. Part 2 of the paper describes the mechanism in a straight rotor cascade with a turning angle of about 102°.


Author(s):  
Zhao Qingjun ◽  
Tang Fei ◽  
Wang Huishe ◽  
Du Jianyi ◽  
Zhao Xiaolu ◽  
...  

In order to explore the influence of hot streak temperature ratio on the low pressure stage of a vaneless counter-rotating turbine, three-dimensional multiblade row unsteady Navier–Stokes simulations have been performed. The predicted results show that hot streaks are not mixed out by the time they reach the exit of the high pressure turbine rotor. The separation of colder and hotter fluids is observed at the inlet of the low pressure turbine rotor. After making interactions with the inner-extending and outer-extending shock waves in the high pressure turbine rotor, the hotter fluid migrates toward the pressure surface of the low pressure turbine rotor, and most of the colder fluid migrates to the suction surface of the low pressure turbine rotor. The migrating characteristics of the hot streaks are dominated by the secondary flow in the low pressure turbine rotor. The results also indicate that the secondary flow intensifies in the low pressure turbine rotor when the hot streak temperature ratio is increased. The effects of the hot streak temperature ratio on the relative flow angle at the inlet of the low pressure turbine rotor are very remarkable. The isentropic efficiency of the vaneless counter-rotating turbine decreases as the hot streak temperature ratio is increased.


Author(s):  
M. D. Barringer ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
M. D. Polanka

The goal of this work was to investigate the effects of different profiles representative of those exiting aero-engine combustors on high pressure turbine vane aerodynamics and heat transfer. The various profiles were produced using the non-reacting, inlet profile generator in the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) located at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This paper reports how the pressure loading and heat transfer along the vane surface is affected by different turbine inlet pressure and temperature profiles at several different span locations. The results indicate that the different inlet total pressure profiles affected the aerodynamic loading by as much as 10%. The results also reveal that the combination of different total pressure and total temperature profiles significantly affected the vane heat transfer for a baseline test with relatively uniform inlet total pressure and total temperature profiles. Near the ID endwall, the baseline heat transfer was reduced 30 to 40% over the majority of the vane surface. Near the OD endwall, it was found that certain inlet profiles could increase the baseline heat transfer by 20 to 30%, while other profiles resulted in a decrease of the baseline heat transfer by 30 to 40%.


Author(s):  
Sridhar Murari ◽  
Sathish Sunnam ◽  
Jong S. Liu

With the advent of fast computers and availability of less costly memory resources, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has emerged as a powerful tool for the design and analysis of flow and heat transfer of high pressure turbine stages. CFD gives an insight in to flow patterns that are difficult, expensive or impossible to study using experimental techniques. However, the application of CFD depends on its accuracy and reliability. This requires the CFD code to be validated with laboratory measurements to ensure its predictive capacity. In the continual effort to improve analysis and design techniques, Honeywell has been investigating in the use of CFD to predict the aerodynamic performance of a high pressure turbine. Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS), unsteady models like detached eddy simulation (DES), large eddy simulation (LES), and Scale Adaptive Simulation (SAS) are used to predict the aerodynamic performance of a high pressure turbine. Mixing plane approach is used to address the flow data transport across the stationary interface in RANS simulation. The film holes on blade surface and end walls for all the analysis are modeled by using actual film hole modeling technique. The validation is accomplished with the test results of a high pressure turbine, Energy Efficient Engine (E3). The aerodynamic performance data at design point, typical off-design points are taken as test cases for the validation study. One dimensional performance parameters such as corrected mass flow rate, total pressure ratio, cycle efficiency, and two dimensional spanwise distributions of total pressure, total temperature and flow angle that are obtained from CFD results are compared with test data. Streamlines and flow field results at different measurement planes are presented to understand the aerodynamic behavior.


Author(s):  
Shuzhen Hu ◽  
Hualing Luo

In this paper, non-axisymmetric endwall contouring optimizations in a high pressure turbine second vane passage were performed with and without including the rim seal flow. Aerodynamic performances of two contoured endwalls were studied and compared with the planar endwall case. The optimization was carried out with a commercial software package NUMECA Fine/Design 3D. A genetic algorithm was chosen as the optimization method. The objective was to minimize the total pressure loss in the high pressure turbine vane. Without the rim seal flow, the contoured endwall decreased the strength of the passage vortex, and reduced the total pressure loss coefficient up to 10.4%. However, the benefit achieved by this contoured endwall was lost when the rim seal flow was included by adding a under platform section in the computation model. With the existence of the rim seal flow, the flow field near the endwall was significantly changed. After recontouring the endwall using the optimization procedure with including rim seal flow, a 9.8% decrease in total pressure loss coefficient was achieved with the reduction of the vortex strength.


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