Experimental Simulation of a Film Cooled Turbine Blade Leading Edge Including Thermal Barrier Coating Effects

Author(s):  
Jonathan Maikell ◽  
David Bogard ◽  
Justin Piggush ◽  
Atul Kohli

For this study a simulated film cooled turbine blade leading edge, constructed of a special high conductivity material, was used to determine the normalized “metal temperature” representative of actual engine conditions. The Biot number for the model was matched to that for operational engine conditions ensuring that the normalized wall temperature, i.e. the overall effectiveness, was matched to that for the engine. Measurements of overall effectiveness were made for models with and without TBC (thermal barrier coating) at various operating conditions. This was the first study to experimentally simulate TBC and the effects on overall effectiveness. Two models were used, one with a single row of holes along the stagnation line, and the second with three rows of holes straddling the stagnation line. Film cooling was operated using a density ratio of 1.5 and for range of blowing ratios from M = 0.5 to M = 3.0. Both models were tested using a range of angles of attack from 0.0 to ± 5.0 degrees. As expected, the TBC coated models had significantly higher external surface temperatures, but lower “metal temperatures.” These experimental results provide a unique database for evaluating numerical simulations of the effects of TBC on leading edge film cooling performance.

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Maikell ◽  
David Bogard ◽  
Justin Piggush ◽  
Atul Kohli

For this study, a simulated film cooled turbine blade leading edge, constructed of a special high conductivity material, was used to determine the normalized “metal temperature” representative of actual engine conditions. The Biot number for the model was matched to that for operational engine conditions, ensuring that the normalized wall temperature, i.e., the overall effectiveness, was matched to that for the engine. Measurements of overall effectiveness were made for models with and without thermal barrier coating (TBC) at various operating conditions. This was the first study to experimentally simulate TBC and the effects on overall effectiveness. Two models were used: one with a single row of holes along the stagnation line, and the second with three rows of holes straddling the stagnation line. Film cooling was operated using a density ratio of 1.5 and for range of blowing ratios from M=0.5 to M=3.0. Both models were tested using a range of angles of attack from 0.0 deg to ±5.0 deg. As expected, the TBC coated models had significantly higher external surface temperatures, but lower metal temperatures. These experimental results provide a unique database for evaluating numerical simulations of the effects of TBC on leading edge film cooling performance.


Author(s):  
Ross Johnson ◽  
Jonathan Maikell ◽  
David Bogard ◽  
Justin Piggush ◽  
Atul Kohli ◽  
...  

When a turbine blade passes through wakes from upstream vanes it is subjected to an oscillation of the direction of the approach flow resulting in the oscillation of the position of the stagnation line on the leading edge of the blade. In this study an experimental facility was developed that induced a similar oscillation of the stagnation line position on a simulated turbine blade leading edge. The overall effectiveness was evaluated at various blowing ratios and stagnation line oscillation frequencies. The location of the stagnation line on the leading edge was oscillated to simulate a change in angle of attack between α = ± 5° at a range of frequencies from 2 to 20 Hz. These frequencies were chosen based on matching a range of Strouhal numbers typically seen in an engine due to oscillations caused by passing wakes. The blowing ratio was varied between M = 1, M = 2, and M = 3. These experiments were carried out at a density ratio of DR = 1.5 and mainstream turbulence levels of Tu ≈ 6%. The leading edge model was made of high conductivity epoxy in order to match the Biot number of an actual engine airfoil. Results of these tests showed that the film cooling performance with an oscillating stagnation line was degraded by as much as 25% compared to the performance of a steady flow with the stagnation line aligned with the row of holes at the leading edge.


Author(s):  
Thomas E. Dyson ◽  
Dave G. Bogard ◽  
Justin D. Piggush ◽  
Atul Kohli

Overall effectiveness, φ, for a simulated turbine blade leading edge was experimentally measured using a model constructed with a relatively high conductivity material selected so that the Biot number of the model matched engine conditions. The model incorporated three rows of cylindrical holes with the center row positioned on the stagnation line. Internally the model used an impingement cooling configuration. Overall effectiveness was measured for pitch variation from 7.6d to 9.6d for blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 3.0, and angle of attack from −7.7° to +7.7°. Performance was evaluated for operation with a constant overall mass flow rate of coolant. Consequently when increasing the pitch, the blowing ratio was increased proportionally. The increased blowing ratio resulted in increased impingement cooling internally and increased convective cooling through the holes. The increased internal and convective cooling compensated, to a degree, for the decreased coolant coverage with increased pitch. Performance was evaluated in terms of laterally averaged φ, but also in terms of the minimum φ. The minimum φ evaluation revealed localized hot spots which are arguably more critical to turbine blade durability than the laterally averaged results. For small increases in pitch there was negligible decrease in performance.


Author(s):  
Mingjie Zhang ◽  
Nian Wang ◽  
Andrew F. Chen ◽  
Je-Chin Han

This paper presents the turbine blade leading edge model film cooling effectiveness with shaped holes, using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) mass transfer analogy method. The effects of leading edge profile, coolant to mainstream density ratio and blowing ratio are studied. Computational simulations are performed using the realizable k-ε turbulence model. Effectiveness obtained by CFD simulations are compared with experiments. Three leading edge profiles, including one semi-cylinder and two semi-elliptical cylinders with an after body, are investigated. The ratios of major to minor axis of two semi-elliptical cylinders are 1.5 and 2.0, respectively. The leading edge has three rows of shaped holes. For the semi-cylinder model, shaped holes are located at 0 degrees (stagnation line) and ± 30 degrees. Row spacing between cooling holes and the distance between impingement plate and stagnation line are the same for three leading edge models. The coolant to mainstream density ratio varies from 1.0 to 1.5 and 2.0, and the blowing ratio varies from 0.5 to 1.0 and 1.5. Mainstream Reynolds number is about 100,900 based on the diameter of the leading edge cylinder, and the mainstream turbulence intensity is about 7%. The results provide an understanding of the effects of leading edge profile and on turbine blade leading edge region film cooling with shaped-hole designs.


Author(s):  
Mingjie Zhang ◽  
Nian Wang ◽  
Andrew F. Chen ◽  
Je-Chin Han

This paper presents the turbine blade leading edge model film cooling effectiveness with shaped holes, using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) mass transfer analogy method. The effects of leading edge profile, coolant to mainstream density ratio, and blowing ratio are studied. Computational simulations are performed using the realizable k–ɛ (RKE) turbulence model. Effectiveness obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations is compared with experiments. Three leading edge profiles, including one semicylinder and two semi-elliptical cylinders with an after body, are investigated. The ratios of major to minor axis of two semi-elliptical cylinders are 1.5 and 2.0, respectively. The leading edge has three rows of shaped holes. For the semicylinder model, shaped holes are located at 0 deg (stagnation line) and ±30 deg. Row spacing between cooling holes and the distance between impingement plate and stagnation line are the same for three leading edge models. The coolant to mainstream density ratio varies from 1.0 to 1.5 and 2.0, and the blowing ratio varies from 0.5 to 1.0 and 1.5. Mainstream Reynolds number is about 100,000 based on the diameter of the leading edge cylinder, and the mainstream turbulence intensity is about 7%. The results provide an understanding of the effects of leading edge profile on turbine blade leading edge region film cooling with shaped hole designs.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Sundaram ◽  
K. A. Thole

With the increase in usage of gas turbines for power generation and given that natural gas resources continue to be depleted, it has become increasingly important to search for alternate fuels. One source of alternate fuels is coal derived synthetic fuels. Coal derived fuels, however, contain traces of ash and other contaminants that can deposit on vane and turbine surfaces affecting their heat transfer through reduced film cooling. The endwall of a first stage vane is one such region that can be susceptible to depositions from these contaminants. This study uses a large-scale turbine vane cascade in which the following effects on film cooling adiabatic effectiveness were investigated in the endwall region: the effect of near-hole deposition, the effect of partial film cooling hole blockage, and the effect of spallation of a thermal barrier coating. The results indicated that deposits near the hole exit can sometimes improve the cooling effectiveness at the leading edge, but with increased deposition heights the cooling deteriorates. Partial hole blockage studies revealed that the cooling effectiveness deteriorates with increases in the number of blocked holes. Spallation studies showed that for a spalled endwall surface downstream of the leading edge cooling row, cooling effectiveness worsened with an increase in blowing ratio.


Author(s):  
Brian D. Mouzon ◽  
Elon J. Terrell ◽  
Jason E. Albert ◽  
David G. Bogard

The external cooling performance of a film cooled turbine airfoil can be quantified as a net reduction in heat transfer relative to the turbine airfoil without film cooling. This quantification is generally accomplished by using measurements of the adiabatic effectiveness and the change in heat transfer coefficients (hf/h0) for the film cooled surface to determine the net heat flux reduction (Δqr). Although measurement of Δqr for laboratory models give an indication of the ultimate film cooling performance, this does not show how much the surface temperature of the airfoil is reduced by film cooling. Measurement of scaled surface temperatures can be accomplished by using laboratory models constructed so that the Biot number is matched with that of the actual airfoil. These measurements provide a scaled temperature distribution on the airfoil that is referred to as the overall effectiveness, φ. For the current study, measurements of Δqr and φ have been made for a simulated turbine blade leading edge. The simulated leading edge incorporated shaped coolant holes, and had three rows of coolant holes. Improvements due to the shaped holes were determined by comparisons with previously measured round hole configurations. Spatially distributed hf/h0 show increases of 5% to 15% for M = 1.0 and 10% to 30% for M = 2.0. Results show that local variation in Δqr much greater than variation in φ, but laterally averaged Δqr distributions are reasonable predictors of the laterally averaged φ distributions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Rutledge ◽  
Tylor C. Rathsack ◽  
Matthew T. Van Voorhis ◽  
Marc D. Polanka

It is necessary to understand how film cooling influences the external convective boundary condition involving both the adiabatic wall temperature and the heat transfer coefficient in order to predict the thermal durability of a gas turbine hot gas path component. Most studies in the past have considered only steady flow, but studies of the unsteadiness naturally present in turbine flow have become more prevalent. One source of unsteadiness is wake passage from upstream components which can cause fluctuations in the stagnation location on turbine airfoils. This in turn causes unsteadiness in the behavior of the leading edge coolant jets and thus fluctuations in both the adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient. The dynamics of h and η are now quantifiable with modern inverse heat transfer methods and nonintrusive infrared thermography. The present study involved the application of a novel inverse heat transfer methodology to determine time-resolved adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient waveforms on a simulated turbine blade leading edge with an oscillating stagnation position. The leading edge geometry was simulated with a circular cylinder with a coolant hole located 21.5 deg downstream from the leading edge stagnation line, angled 20 deg to the surface and 90 deg to the streamwise direction. The coolant plume is shown to shift in response to the stagnation line movement. These oscillations thus influence the film cooling coverage, and the time-averaged benefit of film cooling is influenced by the oscillation.


Author(s):  
Laurene D. Dobrowolski ◽  
David G. Bogard ◽  
Justin Piggush ◽  
Atul Kohli

A conjugate numerical method was used to predict the normalized “metal” temperature of a simulated turbine blade leading edge. This computational study was done in conjunction with a parallel effort to experimentally determine normalized metal temperature, i.e. overall effectiveness, using a specially designed model blade leading edge. Also examined in this study were adiabatic models which provided adiabatic effectiveness results. Two different film cooling configurations were employed. The first configuration consisted of one row of holes centered on the stagnation line. The second configuration had two additional rows located at ±25 degrees from the stagnation line. These simulations were run at two different blowing ratios, M = 1 and M = 2. The coolant to mainstream density ratio was 1.5. The computational simulation was conducted using the FLUENT code using the realizable k-ε turbulence model and with grid resolution within the viscous sublayer. Adiabatic effectiveness distributions were predicted well by the computational simulations, except for localized areas near the holes. Predictions of overall effectiveness were higher than experimentally measured values in the stagnation region, but lower along downstream section of the leading edge. Reasons for the differences between computational predictions and experimental measurements were examined.


Author(s):  
Silvia Ravelli ◽  
Laurene Dobrowolski ◽  
David G. Bogard

The main goal of this work was to evaluate the influence of impingement cooling on the cooling performance on a film cooled turbine blade leading edge. Cooling performance was quantified in terms of overall effectiveness, i.e. the normalized external surface temperature. Numerical simulations, using the commercial code FLUENT, were carried out for a leading edge model corresponding to an experimental model tested previously. The leading edge geometry consisted of three rows of holes positioned along the stagnation line and at ±25°. Three different impingement plate configurations were investigated. Two impingement plate configurations had a single row of holes along the center so that the impingement jets were directed on the stagnation line in between coolant hole entrances. These configurations had varying hole diameters such that impingement jet velocity varied by a factor of two. The third impingement plate configuration had two rows of holes with each row was placed in between the coolant hole entrances along the off stagnation lines. A configuration with no impingement plate was also investigated. For these simulations the realizable k-ε turbulence model was used. All experimental conditions were matched including the density ratio of 1.5 and blowing ratios of 1.0 and 2.0. The numerical simulations were consistent with experiments in showing that the overall effectiveness was only slightly improved by the impingement cooling. This small effect on overall effectiveness was shown to be due to conjugate effects including a reduction of convective cooling within the coolant holes when impingement cooling was used.


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