An Investigation of an Impingement / Pin-Fin Cooling System for Gas Turbine Combustor Applications

Author(s):  
Vivek Savarianandam ◽  
Steven J. Thorpe ◽  
Jon F. Carrotte ◽  
Marco Zedda

Pin-fin cooling geometries are used extensively in gas turbine engine components, typically in combination with film-cooling and thermal barrier coatings. The cooling performance of this cold-side arrangement is an important factor in maintaining hot-section components below prescribed life-limiting temperatures. At a time when engine manufacturers are pursuing combustor designs that require a reduced coolant flow, robust aerodynamic and heat transfer correlations, as well as the physical insight provided by a deeper understanding of the flow processes, are essential to efficient design. In this paper both experimental and computational findings are reported for the performance of a combustor pin-fin cooling system that employs a single row of impingement feed-holes. The geometry is representative of that employed in a double-skin combustor cooling system. The data includes spatially resolved end-wall heat transfer measurements, and hot-wire traverse data for the coolant velocity and turbulence parameters. Heat transfer measurements have been obtained for the cold-side of the hot-skin, and include the impact of a gap between the cold-skin and tips of the pin-fins. The flow conditions within the pin-fin geometry can be divided between an impingement zone immediately adjacent to the feed-holes, and a fully-developed zone further downstream. In general, the impingement zone is characterised by strongly varying flow and heat transfer behaviour up to approximately six pin-fin rows from the feed-hole centre-line, and then sensibly repeating conditions within the pin-fin array thereafter downstream. The impact of the cold-skin gap is to redistribute the coolant away from the hot-skin, leading to a reduction in the hot-skin heat transfer coefficient in the developed zone. Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations of the flow within the experimental geometry have been conducted and compared to the experimental results. Various standard turbulence models have been considered. Based on this comparison recommendations are made regarding the most appropriate computational modeling approach.

1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Evans ◽  
M. L. Noble

Traditionally, gas turbine combustor walls have been cooled by one or more of the various film cooling methods. The current motivation to control exhaust gas emission composition has led to the serious consideration of backside convection wall cooling, where the cooling air is introduced to the main gas stream not prior to the dilution zone. Due to the confined space and the severe nature of the wall cooling problem, it is essential to maximize the heat transfer/pumping power characteristic, which suggests an augmented convection technique. A particular heat transfer design of a combustor cooled by means of transverse rib turbulence promoters applied to the exterior wall of the annular spaces surrounding the primary and secondary zones is described. Analytical methods for designing such a cooling system are reviewed and a comparison between analytical and experimental results is presented.


Author(s):  
A. Andreini ◽  
A. Bacci ◽  
C. Carcasci ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
A. Asti ◽  
...  

A numerical study of a single can combustor for the GE10 heavy-duty gas turbine, which is being developed at GE-Energy (Oil & Gas), is performed using the STAR-CD CFD package. The topic of the present study is the analysis of the cooling system of the combustor liner’s upper part, named “cap”. The study was developed in three steps, using two different computational models. As first model, the flow field and the temperature distribution inside the chamber were determined by meshing the inner part of the liner. As second model, the impingement cooling system of the cold side of the cap was meshed to evaluate heat transfer distribution. For the reactive calculations, a closure of the BML (Bray-Moss-Libby) approach based on Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov theorem was used. The model was implemented in the STAR-CD code using its user coding features. Then the radiative thermal load on the liner walls was evaluated by means of the STAR-CD-native Discrete Transfer model. The selection of the radiative properties of the flame was performed using a correlation procedure involving the total emissivity of the gas, the mean beam length and the gas temperature. The estimated heat flux on the cap was finally used as boundary condition for the calculation of the cooling system, consisting of 68 staggered impingement jet lines on the cold side of the cap. The resulting temperature distribution shows a good agreement with the experimental values measured by thermocouples. The results confirm the validity of the implemented procedure, and point out the importance of a full CFD computation as an additional tool to support classic correlation design procedures.


Author(s):  
Y. Mick ◽  
B. Wörz ◽  
E. Findeisen ◽  
P. Jeschke ◽  
V. Caspary

This paper presents a study of the temperature distribution of a convection cooled gas turbine blade under realistic operating temperature conditions using experimental and numerical methods. The analysis is performed experimentally in a linear cascade with exhaust gas from a kerosene combustor. Detailed information at different operating points is taken from the experiments for which conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulations with ANSYS CFX are carried out. By comparing the experimental and numerical results, the required complexity of the simulations is defined. The subject of this study is a gas turbine rotor blade equipped with a state-of-the-art internal convection cooling system. The test rig enables the examination of the blade at temperatures up to 1300K. The temperature distribution of the blade is measured using thermocouples. The calculations are carried out using the SST turbulence model, the Gamma Theta transition model and the discrete transfer radiation model. The influence of hot gas properties and radiation effects are analysed at three different operating points. This paper gives a quantitative overview of the impact of the mentioned parameters on temperature level and distribution as well as thermal stresses in a convection cooled blade under realistic engine temperature conditions.


Author(s):  
Wenping Wang ◽  
Peng Sun ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Hongde Jiang

With the increasing of the gas turbine inlet temperature, the radiative heat transfer plays a more important role in the total heat transfer. In this paper, a high temperature test rig has been built to research the radiative effect in high temperature film cooling. The test section is made up of a high temperature hot gas channel and a middle temperature coolant air channel which are separated by a flat plate with a row of film cooling holes. The goal is to analyze the effects of radiation and its interaction between conduction and convection in the internal and film cooling which consider the heat transfer in both gas and solid. Meanwhile, the numerical study on the test cases are also carried out by combining conjugate heat transfer with radiative models. The fluid and solid regions were solved simultaneously. The Discrete Ordinates (DO) model and the Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Model (WSGGM) has been used to solve the radiative transfer equation for the radiation modeling. The results show that the temperature of the plate increase greatly when the radiation is taken into account and the temperature gradient through the plate becomes much larger. The temperature distribution has been changed and become smoother in spanwise direction. The results also indicate that the internal emissivity of the inlet has an influence mainly on the whole temperature of the plate, which suggests that the control of inlet emissivity is a good way for prevent over-high temperature on the first stage gas turbine vane.


Author(s):  
Carlo Carcasci ◽  
Stefano Zecchi ◽  
Gianpaolo Oteri

CO2 emissions reduction has become an important topic, especially after Kyoto protocol. There are several ways to reduce the overall amount of CO2 discharged into the atmosphere, for example using alternative fluids such as steam or CO2. It is therefore interesting to analyze the consequences of their usage on overall performances of gas turbine and blade cooling systems. The presence of steam can be associated with combined or STIG cycle, whereas pure carbon dioxide or air-carbon dioxide mixtures are present in innovative cycles, where the exhaust gas is recirculated partially or even totally. In this paper we will analyze a commercial gas turbine, comparing different fluids used as working and cooling fluids. The different nature of the fluids involved determines different external heat transfer coefficients (external blade surface), different internal heat transfer coefficients (cooling cavities) and affects film cooling effectiveness, resulting in a change of the blade temperature distribution. Results show that the presence of steam and CO2 could determine a non negligible effect on blade temperature. This means that cooling systems need a deep investigation. A redesign of the cooling system could be required. In particular, results show that steam is well suited for internal cooling, whereas CO2 is better used in film cooling systems.


Author(s):  
H. Saxer-Felici ◽  
S. Naik ◽  
M. Gritsch

This paper investigates the heat transfer and pressure loss characteristic in the internal cooling system of the trailing edge of a gas turbine blade. The geometrical profile of the blade trailing edge and the operating conditions considered are representative of that normally found in a heavy-duty gas turbine. The trailing edge geometry consists of two radial passages with inclined turbulators which are connected with a bend. The trailing edge section consists of pins rows and a flow ejection cut-out slot. The impact of a cross-over hole in the web connecting the serpentine passages is also investigated. Both numerical and experimental studies were conducted at several passage Reynolds numbers ranging from 104 to 106. Experiments were conducted in a Perspex model at atmospheric conditions. The internal heat transfer coefficients were measured via the transient liquid crystal method and the pressure drop was measured via pressure taps. The impact of blade rotation on the heat transfer and pressure drop was also assessed numerically. Comparison of the measured and predicted heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops shows a good agreement for several flow conditions. The three-dimensional flow field in the passage and in the downstream pin banks was well captured numerically, with and without coolant injection via cross-over hole.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Iris Gerken ◽  
Thomas Wetzel ◽  
Jürgen J. Brandner

Micro heat exchangers have been revealed to be efficient devices for improved heat transfer due to short heat transfer distances and increased surface-to-volume ratios. Further augmentation of the heat transfer behaviour within microstructured devices can be achieved with heat transfer enhancement techniques, and more precisely for this study, with passive enhancement techniques. Pin fin geometries influence the flow path and, therefore, were chosen as the option for further improvement of the heat transfer performance. The augmentation of heat transfer with micro heat exchangers was performed with the consideration of an improved heat transfer behaviour, and with additional pressure losses due to the change of flow path (pin fin geometries). To capture the impact of the heat transfer, as well as the impact of additional pressure losses, an assessment method should be considered. The overall exergy loss method can be applied to micro heat exchangers, and serves as a simple assessment for characterization. Experimental investigations with micro heat exchanger structures were performed to evaluate the assessment method and its importance. The heat transfer enhancement was experimentally investigated with microstructured pin fin geometries to understand the impact on pressure loss behaviour with air.


Author(s):  
Eelco Gehring ◽  
Mario F. Trujillo

A primary mechanism of heat transfer in spray cooling is the impingement of numerous droplets onto a heated surface. This mechanism is isolated in the present and ongoing work by numerically simulating the impact of a single train of FC-72 droplets employing an implicit free surface capturing methodology. The droplet frequency and velocity ranges from 2000–4000 Hz, and 0.5–2 m/s, respectively, with a fixed drop size of 239 μm. This gives a corresponding Weber and Reynolds range of 10–170 and 330–1300, respectively. Results show that the impingement zone is largely free of phase change effects due to the efficient suppression of the local temperature field well below the saturated value. Due in part to the relatively high value of the Prandtl number and the compression of the boundary layer from the impingement flow, a cell size on the order of 1 μm is necessary to adequately capture the heat transfer dynamics. It is shown that the cooling behavior increases in relation to increasing frequency and impact velocity, but is most sensitive to velocity. In fact, for sufficiently low velocities the calculations show that the momentum imparted on the film is insufficient to maintain a near stationary liquid crown. The consequence is a noticeable penalty on the cooling behavior.


2011 ◽  
Vol 84-85 ◽  
pp. 259-263
Author(s):  
Xun Liu ◽  
Song Tao Wang ◽  
Xun Zhou ◽  
Guo Tai Feng

In this paper, the trailing edge film cooling flow field of a heavy duty gas turbine cascade has been studied by central difference scheme and multi-block grid technique. The research is based on the three-dimensional N-S equation solver. By way of analysis of the temperature field, the distribution of profile pressure, and the distribution of film-cooling adiabatic effectiveness in the region of trailing edge with different cool air injection mass and different angles, it is found that the impact on the film-cooling adiabatic effectiveness is slightly by changing the injection mass. The distribution of profile pressure dropped intensely at the pressure side near the injection holes line with the large mass cooling air. The cooling effect is good in the region of trailing edge while the injection air is along the direction of stream.


Author(s):  
Vijay K. Garg ◽  
Ali A. Ameri

A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code has been used to compute the heat transfer coefficient on two film-cooled turbine blades, namely the VKI rotor with six rows of cooling holes including three rows on the shower head, and the C3X vane with nine rows of holes including five rows on the shower head. Predictions of heat transfer coefficient at the blade surface using three two-equation turbulence models, specifically, Coakley’s q-ω model, Chien’s k-ε model and Wilcox’s k-ω model with Menter’s modifications, have been compared with the experimental data of Camci and Arts (1990) for the VKI rotor, and of Hylton et al. (1988) for the C3X vane along with predictions using the Baldwin-Lomax (B-L) model taken from Garg and Gaugler (1995). It is found that for the cases considered here the two-equation models predict the blade heat transfer somewhat better than the B-L model except immediately downstream of the film-cooling holes on the suction surface of the VKI rotor, and over most of the suction surface of the C3X vane. However, all two-equation models require 40% more computer core than the B-L model for solution, and while the q-ω and k-ε models need 40% more computer time than the B-L model, the k-ω model requires at least 65% more time due to slower rate of convergence. It is found that the heat transfer coefficient exhibits a strong spanwise as well as streamwise variation for both blades and all turbulence models.


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