Effect of Nozzle Guide Vanes on Flow Parameters at the Exit of a Micro Gas Turbine Combustor

Author(s):  
Lei-Yong Jiang ◽  
Bill Carscallen ◽  
Paul Okulov ◽  
Rene Gallien ◽  
Guillaume Rigaudier

The combustor and turbine of a gas turbine engine are directly connected, and their flow fields and performance are closely coupled. However, to reduce turn-around time and avoid numerical difficulties in the development of gas turbine engines, numerical simulations of gas turbine combustors are usually performed without turbine components attached. This decoupling approach is investigated numerically in this paper. A micro gas turbine combustor is used as a test model, and the two-phase, turbulent, reacting flow fields of the combustor with and without nozzle guide vanes (NGV) have been simulated. Complex flow phenomena such as cross-jet flows, separations, recirculation zones, conjugate heat transfers, fuel droplet heating, vaporizing and combusting etc. are observed. The flow features of axial and tangential velocities, Mach number, and static pressure at the combustor exit are substantially different between these two cases. The effect of NGV on the combustor flow field decreases as the distance away from the NGV leading edge increases. At the cross-section, one span upstream of the NGV leading edge, the distributions of flow parameters with and without NGV are almost the same. The findings suggest that for the present combustor configuration, simulations of the combustor and turbine components could be decoupled if the interfacing cross-section or combustor exit is located at one span upstream of NGV. The present study is still preliminary and the results could be configuration dependent. Further study on the combustor-turbine decoupling issue for a traditional gas turbine combustor is on the way.

Author(s):  
Lei-Yong Jiang ◽  
Yinghua Han ◽  
Prakash Patnaik

To understand the physics of volcanic ash impact on gas turbine hot-components and develop much-needed tools for engine design and fleet management, the behaviors of volcanic ash in a gas turbine combustor and nozzle guide vanes (NGV) have been numerically investigated. High-fidelity numerical models are generated, and volcanic ash sample, physical, and thermal properties are identified. A simple critical particle viscosity—critical wall temperature model is proposed and implemented in all simulations to account for ash particles bouncing off or sticking on metal walls. The results indicate that due to the particle inertia and combustor geometry, the volcanic ash concentration in the NGV cooling passage generally increases with ash size and density, and is less sensitive to inlet velocity. It can reach three times as high as that at the air inlet for the engine conditions and ash properties investigated. More importantly, a large number of the ash particles entering the NGV cooling chamber are trapped in the cooling flow passage for all four turbine inlet temperature conditions. This may reveal another volcanic ash damage mechanism originated from engine cooling flow passage. Finally, some suggestions are recommended for further research and development in this challenging field. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first study on detailed ash behaviors inside practical gas turbine hot-components in the open literature.


Author(s):  
Mark D. Turrell ◽  
Philip J. Stopford ◽  
Khawar J. Syed ◽  
Eoghan Buchanan

CFD analysis of the flow within a high-swirl lean premixed gas turbine combustor and over the 1st row nozzle guide vanes is presented. The focus of the investigation is the fluid dynamics at the combustor/turbine interface and its impact on the turbine. For the configuration in question, temperature indicating paint observations of the nozzle guide vanes, acquired during engine development tests, show features consistent with the presence of a highly rotating vortex core emerging from the combustor. The configuration was modelled by a fully compressible reacting CFD analysis, whose domain stretched from the exit of the combustor swirl generator to downstream of the 1st row nozzle guide vanes. The CFD analysis, when using a Reynolds stress turbulence model, predicted a highly rotating vortex core. The predicted interaction between the core and the nozzle guide vanes were consistent with the temperature indicating paint observations. The interaction is dominated by the vortex core being attracted to the locus of lowest static pressure.


Author(s):  
Arash Farahani ◽  
Peter Childs

Strip seals are commonly used to prevent or limit leakage flows between nozzle guide vanes (NGV) and other gas turbine engine components that are assembled from individual segments. Leakage flow across, for example, a nozzle guide vane platform, leads to increased demands on the gas turbine engine internal flow system and a rise in specific fuel consumption (SFC). Careful attention to the flow characteristics of strip seals is therefore necessary. The very tight tolerances associated with strip seals provides a particular challenge to their characterisation. This paper reports the validation of CFD modelling for the case of a strip seal under very carefully controlled conditions. In addition, experimental comparison of three types of strip seal design, straight, arcuate, and cloth, is presented. These seals are typical of those used by competing manufacturers of gas turbine engines. The results show that the straight seal provides the best flow sealing performance for the controlled configuration tested, although each design has its specific merits for a particular application.


2012 ◽  
Vol 445 ◽  
pp. 1047-1052
Author(s):  
Alaaeldin H. Mustafa

Failure analysis investigation was conducted on 70 MW set of 1st stage turbine nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) of heavy industrial gas turbine. The failure was investigated using the light optical microscope (LOM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The results of the analysis indicate that the NGVs which were made of Co base superalloy FSX-414 had been operated above the recommended operating hours under different fuel types in addition to inadequate repair process in previous repair removal. The XRD analysis of the fractured areas sample shows presence ofwhich might indicate the prolonged operation at high temperature. Keywords: cobalt-base; nozzle guide vanes, gas turbine.


Author(s):  
Y. Gong ◽  
B. T. Sirakov ◽  
A. H. Epstein ◽  
C. S. Tan

Engineering foundation for micro-turbomachinery aerothermal design, as an enabling element of the MIT micro-gas turbine technology, is developed. Fundamental differences between conventional, large scale and micro turbomachinery operation are delineated and the implications on design are discussed. These differences are largely a consequence of low operating Reynolds number, hence a relatively higher skin friction and heat transfer rate. While the size of the micro-gas turbine engine is ∼ a few mm, several order of magnitude smaller than conventional gas turbine, the required compressor stage pressure ratio (∼3–4) and impeller tip Mach number (∼1 and greater) are comparable; however, the disparity in the size implies that the operating Reynolds number of the micro-turbomachiery components is correspondingly several order of magnitudes smaller. Thus the design and operating requirements for micro-turbomachinery are distinctly different from those of conventional turbomachinery used for propulsion and power generation. Important distinctions are summarized in the following. 1. The high surface-to-flow rate ratio has the consequence that the flow in micro-compressor flow path can no longer be taken as adiabatic; the performance penalty associated with heat addition to compressor flow path from turbine is a primary performance limiting factor. 2. Endwall torque on the flow can be significant compared to that from the impeller blade surfaces so that direct use of Euler Turbine Equation is no longer appropriate. 3. Losses in turbine nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) can be one order of magnitude higher than those in conventional sized nozzle guide vanes. 4. The high level of kinetic energy in the flow exiting the turbine rotor is a source of performance penalty, largely a consequence of geometrical constraints. It can be inferred from these distinctions that standard preliminary design procedures based on the Euler equation, the adiabatic assumption, the loss correlations for large Reynolds numbers, and the three-dimensional geometry, are inapplicable to micro-turbomachinery. The preliminary design procedure, therefore, must account for these important differences. Characterization of the effects of heat addition on compressor performance, modification of Euler turbine equation for casing torque, characterization of turbine NGV performance and turbine exhaust effects are presented.


Author(s):  
Koichi Yonezawa ◽  
Masahiro Takayasu ◽  
Genki Nakai ◽  
Kazuyasu Sugiyama ◽  
Katsuhiko Sugita ◽  
...  

Abstract Nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) and rotor blades deteriorate due to erosion, and this may affect the aerodynamic characteristics of gas turbines. According to previous studies, the erosion of first-stage NGVs significantly affected the blade loading of the first-stage rotor. An increase in the tip gap also may significantly affect the gas turbine performance. In the present study, numerical investigations have been carried out using a real eroded nozzle and blade geometries for two purposes. One purpose was to clarify the influences underlying the deterioration of the nozzle and the rotor blade, such as the effects on the erosion of NGVs in the first stage and the effects of the tip gap on the gas turbine performance. The other was to develop a method to estimate the total gas turbine performance using a CFD simulation and a heat balance analysis. The results show that the erosion of NGV leads to an increased flow rate and affects the operating condition of the gas turbine cycle. This, in turn, can decrease the total thermal efficiency. The experimental results suggest that an increase in the tip gap width decreases rotor output almost linearly, and the numerical results showed the same tendency. The influence of the tip gap in the real gas turbine condition was also examined, revealing that an increase in the tip gap leads to an increase in the pressure loss in the nozzle downstream as well as around the rotor blade itself. Consequently, the total power output and the isentropic efficiency of the turbine decreased.


2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-166
Author(s):  
A. V. Soudarev ◽  
A. A. Souryaninov ◽  
V. Ya. Podgorets ◽  
V. V. Grishaev ◽  
V.Yu Tikhoplav ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 202-215
Author(s):  
Faisal Shaikh ◽  
Budimir Rosic

The combustor-turbine interface in a gas turbine is characterised by complex, highly unsteady flows. In a combined experimental and large eddy simulation (LES) study including realistic combustor geometry, the standard model of secondary flows in the nozzle guide vanes (NGV) is found to be oversimplified. A swirl core is created in the combustion chamber which convects into the first vane passages. Four main consequences of this are identified: variation in vane loading; unsteady heat transfer on vane surfaces; unsteadiness at the leading edge horseshoe vortex, and variation in the position of the passage vortex. These phenomena occur at relatively low frequencies, from 50–300 Hz. It seems likely that these unsteady phenomena result in non-optimal film cooling, and that by reducing unsteadiness designs with greater cooling efficiency could be achieved. Measurements were performed in a high speed test facility modelling a large industrial gas turbine with can combustors, including nozzle guide vanes and combustion chambers. Vane surfaces and endwalls of a nozzle guide vane were instrumented with 384 high speed thin film heat flux gauges, to measure unsteady heat transfer. The high resolution of measurements was such to allow direct visualisation in time of large scale turbulent structures over the endwalls and vane surfaces. A matching LES simulation was carried out in a domain matching experimental conditions including upstream swirl generators and transition duct. Data reduction allowed time-varying LES data to be recorded for several cycles of the unsteady phenomena observed. The combination of LES and experimental data allows physical explanation and visualisation of flow events.


Author(s):  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Xin Yuan

The nonuniformity of the Hp turbine inlet flow field put forward higher requirements for NGV (Nozzle Guide Vanes) leading edge and gill region film cooling. The assumption of design condition in most of the experiments couldn’t reflect the true operation environment in the Hp turbine NGV. The factor of off-design condition was incorporated into the experiment in this research. The GE-E3 Hp turbine nozzle guide vanes were used in the experiment to investigate the cooling performance of injection from leading edge and gill region with inlet Reynolds numbers of Re = 3.5×105 and inlet Mach number of Ma = 0.1. The compound angle fan-shaped film cooling hole configuration was applied. The cooling characteristics at off-design condition were analyzed and compared in the paper. The leading edge and gill region film cooling performance was assessed with the incidence angle varying from i = −10deg to i = +10deg. The blowing ratio varying from M = 0.7 to M = 1.3, was also selected as an experimental variable. Film cooling effectiveness distribution was measured using PSP (Pressure Sensitive Paint) technique. The film cooling performance of the compound angle fan-shaped holes was assessed at both design and off-design conditions. The object of this research is to change the concept that NGV leading edge film cooling experiment only needs the data at design condition. Through the comparative analysis of experimental results at different inlet flow angle, the influence of off-design condition on NGV leading edge and gill region film cooling could be illustrated at a reasonable level.


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