scholarly journals An Energy Based Fouling Model for Gas Turbines: EBFOG

Author(s):  
Nicola Casari ◽  
Michele Pinelli ◽  
Alessio Suman ◽  
Luca di Mare ◽  
Francesco Montomoli

Fouling is a major problem in gas turbines for aero-propulsion. The aerodynamics and heat load of the blades are severely affected by this phenomenon with local geometrical variations due to deposition and erosion. Currently two major models are available in literature for the evaluation of fouling effects in CFD: the first one is based on a critical threshold for the viscosity, whereas the second is characterized by the normal velocity to the surface. Both models aim to define a likelihood coefficient which estimates the probability a particle has to stick to a surface, known as sticking coefficient. However current models lack of generality being application specific. This work presents an innovative model for the estimation of the sticking probability. The fouling effect is defined as function of particle velocity, temperature and size through an energy based approach. Expressing the energy involved in the impact through an Arrhenius’ type equation a general formulation for the sticking coefficient is obtained. The method, named EBFOG (Energy Based FOulinG), is the first “energy” based model presented in the open literature that can account any common deposition effect in gas turbines. The EBFOG model is implemented into a Lagrangian tracking procedure, coupled to a full three-dimensional CFD solver. Particles are tracked inside the domain and the velocity, size and temperature of each ones are calculated. The local geometry of the blade is modified accordingly to the deposition rate, the mesh is modified and the CFD solver updates the flow field. The application of this model to particle deposition in high pressure turbine vanes is investigated showing the flexibility of the proposed methodology. Such model is particular important in aircraft engines where the effect of fouling for the turbine, in particular the reduction of the HP nozzle throat area, influences heavily the performance: the energy based approach is thus used to quantify the area modification and estimate the variation of the compressor performance. The compressor map as a function of the operating hours in a severe environment can be in this way predicted to estimate, for example, the time that an engine can fly in a cloud of volcanic ashes. For this reason the impact of the fouling on the throat area of the nozzle is quantified for different conditions.

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Casari ◽  
Michele Pinelli ◽  
Alessio Suman ◽  
Luca di Mare ◽  
Francesco Montomoli

Fouling is a major problem in gas turbines for aeropropulsion because the formation of aggregates on the wet surfaces of the machine affects aerodynamic and heat loads. The representation of fouling in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is based on the evaluation of the sticking probability, i.e., the probability a particle touching a solid surface has to stick to that surface. Two main models are currently available in literature for the evaluation of the sticking coefficient: one is based on a critical threshold for the viscosity, and the other is based on the normal velocity to the surface. However, both models are application specific and lack generality. This work presents an innovative model for the estimation of the sticking probability. This quantity is evaluated by comparing the kinetic energy of the particle with an activation energy which describes the state of the particle. The sticking criterion takes the form of an Arrhenius-type equation. A general formulation for the sticking coefficient is obtained. The method, named energy-based fouling (EBFOG), is the first “energy”-based model presented in the open literature able to account any common deposition effect in gas turbines. The EBFOG model is implemented into a Lagrangian tracking procedure, coupled to a fully three-dimensional CFD solver. Particles are tracked inside the domain, and equations for the momentum and temperature of each particle are solved. The local geometry of the blade is modified accordingly to the deposition rate. The mesh is modified, and the CFD solver updates the flow field. The application of this model to particle deposition in high-pressure turbine vanes is investigated, showing the flexibility of the proposed methodology. The model is particularly important in aircraft engines where the effect of fouling for the turbine, in particular the reduction of the high pressure (HP) nozzle throat area, influences heavily the performance by reducing the core capacity. The energy-based approach is used to quantify the throat area reduction rate and estimate the variation in the compressor operating condition. The compressor operating point as a function of the time spent operating in a harsh environment can be in this way predicted to estimate, for example, the time that an engine can fly in a cloud of volcanic ashes. The impact of fouling on the throat area of the nozzle is quantified for different conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nainaru Tarakaramu ◽  
P.V. Satya Narayana ◽  
Bhumarapu Venkateswarlu

AbstractThe present investigation deals with the steady three-dimensional flow and heat transfer of nanofluids due to stretching sheet in the presence of magnetic field and heat source. Three types of water based nanoparticles namely, copper (Cu), aluminium oxide (Al2O3), and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are considered in this study. The temperature dependent variable thermal conductivity and thermal radiation has been introduced in the energy equation. Using suitable similarity transformations the dimensional non-linear expressions are converted into dimensionless system and are then solved numerically by Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg scheme along with well-known shooting technique. The impact of various flow parameters on axial and transverse velocities, temperature, surface frictional coefficients and rate of heat transfer coefficients are visualized both in qualitative and quantitative manners in the vicinity of stretching sheet. The results reviled that the temperature and velocity of the fluid rise with increasing values of variable thermal conductivity parameter. Also, the temperature and normal velocity of the fluid in case of Cu-water nanoparticles is more than that of Al2O3- water nanofluid. On the other hand, the axial velocity of the fluid in case of Al2O3- water nanofluid is more than that of TiO2nanoparticles. In addition, the current outcomes are matched with the previously published consequences and initiate to be a good contract as a limiting sense.


Author(s):  
Nicola Aldi ◽  
Nicola Casari ◽  
Devid Dainese ◽  
Mirko Morini ◽  
Michele Pinelli ◽  
...  

Solid particle ingestion is one of the principal degradation mechanisms in the compressor and turbine sections of gas turbines. In particular, in industrial applications, the micro-particles not captured by the air filtration system can cause deposits on blades and, consequently, can result in a decrease in compressor performance. It is of great interest to the industry to determine which zones of the compressor blades are impacted by these small particles. However, this information often refers to single stage analysis. This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulations of the micro-particle ingestion (0.15 μm – 1.50 μm) in a multistage (i.e. eight stage) subsonic axial compressor, carried out by means of a commercial CFD code. Particle trajectory simulations use a stochastic Lagrangian tracking method that solves the equations of motion separately from the continuous phase. The effects of humidity, or more generally, the effects of a third substance at the particle/surface interface (which is considered one of the major promoters of fouling) is then studied. The behavior of wet and oiled particles, in addition to the usual dry particles, is taken into consideration. In the dry case, the particle deposition is established only by using the sticking probability. This quantity links the kinematic characteristics of particle impact on the blade with the fouling phenomenon. In the other two cases, the effect of the presence of a third substance at the particle/surface interface is considered by means of an energy-based model. Moreover, the influence of the tangential impact velocity on particle deposition is analyzed. Introducing the effect of a third substance, such as humidity or oil, the phenomenon of fouling concerns the same areas of the multistage compressor. The most significant results are obtained by combining the effect of the third substance with the effect of the tangential component of the impact velocity of the particles. The deposition trends obtained with these conditions are comparable with those reported in literature, highlighting how the deposits are mainly concentrated in the early stages of a multistage compressor. Particular fluid dynamic phenomena, such as corner separations and clearance vortices, strongly influence the location of particle deposits.


Author(s):  
R. Friso ◽  
N. Casari ◽  
M. Pinelli ◽  
A. Suman ◽  
F. Montomoli

Abstract Gas turbines (GT) are often forced to operate in harsh environmental conditions. Therefore, the presence of particles in their flow-path is expected. With this regard, deposition is a problem that severely affects gas turbine operation. Components’ lifetime and performance can dramatically vary as a consequence of this phenomenon. Unfortunately, the operating conditions of the machine can vary in a wide range, and they cannot be treated as deterministic. Their stochastic variations greatly affect the forecasting of life and performance of the components. In this work, the main parameters considered affected by the uncertainty are the circumferential hot core location and the turbulence level at the inlet of the domain. A stochastic analysis is used to predict the degradation of a high-pressure-turbine (HPT) nozzle due to particulate ingestion. The GT’s component analyzed as a reference is the HPT nozzle of the Energy-Efficient Engine (E3). The uncertainty quantification technique used is the probabilistic collocation method (PCM). This work shows the impact of the operating conditions uncertainties on the performance and lifetime reduction due to deposition. Sobol indices are used to identify the most important parameter and its contribution to life. The present analysis enables to build confidence intervals on the deposit profile and on the residual creep-life of the vane.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Verstraete ◽  
Z. Alsalihi ◽  
R. A. Van den Braembussche

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the heat transfer inside a micro gas turbine and its impact on the performance. The large temperature difference between turbine and compressor in combination with the small dimensions results in a high heat transfer causing a drop in efficiency of both components. Present study aims to quantify this heat transfer and to reveal the different mechanisms that contribute to it. A conjugate heat transfer solver has been developed for this purpose. It combines a three-dimensional (3D) conduction calculation inside the rotor and the stator with a 3D flow calculation in the radial compressor, turbine and gap between stator and rotor. The results for micro gas turbines of different size and shape and different material characteristics are presented and the impact on performance is evaluated.


2004 ◽  
Vol 287 (3) ◽  
pp. H1410-H1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E. Richards ◽  
Dimitri Deserranno ◽  
Erwan Donal ◽  
Neil L. Greenberg ◽  
James D. Thomas ◽  
...  

Doppler-derived gradients may overestimate total pressure loss in degenerative and prosthetic aortic valve stenosis (AS) due to unaccounted pressure recovery distal to the orifice. However, in congenitally bicuspid valves, jet eccentricity may result in a higher anatomic-to-effective orifice contraction ratio, resulting in an increased pressure loss at the valve and a reduced pressure recovery distal to the orifice leading to greater functional severity. The objective of our study was to determine the impact of local geometry on the total versus Doppler-derived pressure loss and therefore the assessed severity of the stenosis in bicuspid valves. On the basis of clinically obtained measurements, two- and three-dimensional computer simulations were created with various local geometries by altering the diameters of the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT; 1.8–3.0 cm), orifice diameter (OD; 0.8–1.6 cm), and aortic root diameter (AR; 3.0–5.4 cm). Jet eccentricity was altered in the models from 0 to 25°. Simulations were performed under steady-flow conditions. Axisymmetric simulations indicate that the overall differences in pressure recovery were minor for variations in LVOT diameter (<3%). However, both OD and AR had a significant impact on pressure recovery (6–20%), with greatest recovery being the larger OD and the smaller recovery being the AR. In addition, three-dimensional data illustrate a greater pressure loss for eccentric jets with the same orifice area, thus increasing functional severity. In conclusion, jet eccentricity results in greater pressure loss in bicuspid valve AS due to reduced effective orifice area. Functional severity may also be enhanced by larger aortic roots, commonly occurring in these patients, leading to reduced pressure recovery. Thus, for the same anatomic orifice area, functional severity is greater in bicuspid than in degenerative tricuspid AS.


Author(s):  
Alessio Suman ◽  
Rainer Kurz ◽  
Nicola Aldi ◽  
Mirko Morini ◽  
Klaus Brun ◽  
...  

Solid particle ingestion is one of the principal degradation mechanisms in the turbine and compressor sections of gas turbines. In particular, in industrial applications, the micro-particles not captured by the air filtration system cause fouling and, consequently, a performance drop of the compressor. This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulations of the micro-particle ingestion (0–2 μm) on an axial compressor rotor carried out by means of a commercial computational fluid dynamic code. Particles of this size can follow the main air flow with relatively little slip, while being impacted by flow turbulence. It is of great interest to the industry to determine which areas of the compressor airfoils are impacted by these small particles. Particle trajectory simulations use a stochastic Lagrangian tracking method that solves the equations of motion separate from the continuous phase. Then, the NASA Rotor 37 is considered as a case study for the numerical investigation. The compressor rotor numerical model and the discrete phase treatment have been validated against the experimental and numerical data available in literature. The number of particles, sizes, and concentrations are specified in order to perform a quantitative analysis of the particle impact on the blade surface. The results show that micro-particles tend to follow the flow by impacting at full span with an higher impact concentration on the pressure side. The suction side is affected only by the impact of the smaller particles (up to 1 μm). Particular fluid-dynamic phenomena such as separation, stagnation point and tip leakage vortex strongly influence the impact location of the particles.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Suman ◽  
Rainer Kurz ◽  
Nicola Aldi ◽  
Mirko Morini ◽  
Klaus Brun ◽  
...  

Solid particle ingestion is one of the principal degradation mechanisms in the turbine and compressor sections of gas turbines. In particular, in industrial applications, the microparticles that are not captured by the air filtration system cause fouling and, consequently, a performance drop of the compressor. This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulations of the microparticle ingestion (0 μm–2 μm) on an axial compressor rotor carried out by means of a commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code. Particles of this size can follow the main air flow with relatively little slip, while being impacted by flow turbulence. It is of great interest to the industry to determine which areas of the compressor airfoils are impacted by these small particles. Particle trajectory simulations use a stochastic Lagrangian tracking method that solves the equations of motion separate from the continuous phase. Then, the NASA Rotor 37 is considered as a case study for the numerical investigation. The compressor rotor numerical model and the discrete phase treatment have been validated against the experimental and numerical data available in literature. The number of particles, sizes, and concentrations are specified in order to perform a quantitative analysis of the particle impact on the blade surface. The results show that microparticles tend to follow the flow by impacting at full span with a higher impact concentration on the pressure side (PS). The suction side (SS) is affected only by the impact of the smaller particles (up to 1 μm). Particular fluid dynamic phenomena, such as separation, stagnation point, and tip leakage vortex, strongly influence the impact location of the particles.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1102
Author(s):  
Ke Tian ◽  
Zicheng Tang ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Milan Vujanović ◽  
Min Zeng ◽  
...  

As a vital power propulsion device, gas turbines have been widely applied in aircraft. However, fly ash is easily ingested by turbine engines, causing blade abrasion or even film hole blockage. In this study, a three-dimensional turbine cascade model is conducted to analyze particle trajectories at the blade leading edge, under a film-cooled protection. A deposition mechanism, based on the particle sticking model and the particle detachment model, was numerically investigated in this research. Additionally, the invasion efficiency of the AGTB-B1 turbine blade cascade was investigated for the first time. The results indicate that the majority of the impact region is located at the leading edge and on the pressure side. In addition, small particles (1 μm and 5 μm) hardly impact the blade’s surface, and most of the impacted particles are captured by the blade. With particle size increasing, the impact efficiency increases rapidly, and this value exceeds 400% when the particle size is 50 μm. Invasion efficiencies of small particles (1 μm and 5 μm) are almost zero, and the invasion efficiency approaches 12% when the particle size is 50 μm.


Author(s):  
Alessio Suman ◽  
Mirko Morini ◽  
Rainer Kurz ◽  
Nicola Aldi ◽  
Klaus Brun ◽  
...  

In heavy-duty gas turbines, the micro-particles not captured by the air filtration system can cause fouling and, consequently, a performance drop of the compressor. This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulations of the micro-particle ingestion (0–2 μm) on an axial compressor rotor carried out by means of a commercial computational fluid dynamic code. Particle trajectory simulations use a stochastic Lagrangian tracking method that solves the equations of motion separately from the continuous phase. The NASA Rotor 37 is considered as a case study for the numerical investigation. The compressor rotor numerical model and the discrete phase model were previously validated by the authors in the first part of this work. The kinematic characteristics (velocity and angle) of the impact of micrometric and sub-micrometric particles with the blade surface of an axial transonic compressor are shown. The blade zones affected by particle impact were extensively analyzed and reported in the first part of this work, forming the starting point for the analyses shown in this paper. The kinematic analysis showed a high tendency of particle adhesion on the suction side, especially for the particles with a diameter equal to 0.25 μm. Fluid dynamic phenomena and airfoil shape play a key role regarding particle impact velocity and angle. This work has the goal of combining, for the first time, the kinematic characteristics of particle impact on the blade with fouling phenomenon by the use of a quantity called sticking probability adopted from literature. From these analyses, some guidelines for a proper management of the power plant (in terms of filtration and washing strategies) are highlighted.


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