Evaluating the Effect of Vane Trailing Edge Flow on Turbine Rim Sealing

Author(s):  
Iván Monge-Concepción ◽  
Reid A. Berdanier ◽  
Michael D. Barringer ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Abstract Modern gas turbine development continues to move toward increased overall efficiency, driven in part by higher firing temperatures that point to a need for more cooling air to prevent catastrophic component failure. However, using additional cooling flow bled from the upstream compressor causes a corresponding detriment to overall efficiency. A primary candidate for cooling flow optimization is purge flow, which contributes to sealing the stator-rotor cavity and prevents ingestion of hot main gas path flow into the wheelspace. Previous research has identified that the external main gas path flow physics play a significant role in driving rim seal ingestion. However, the potential impact of other cooling flow features on ingestion behavior, such as vane trailing edge (VTE) flow, is absent in the open literature. This paper presents experimental measurements of rim cavity cooling effectiveness collected from a one-stage turbine operating at engine-representative Reynolds and Mach numbers. Carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as a tracer gas in both the purge flow and vane trailing edge flow to investigate flow migration into and out of the wheelspace. Results show that the vane trailing edge flow does in fact migrate into the rim seal and that there is a superposition relationship between individual cooling flow contributions. Radial and circumferential traverse surveys were performed to quantify cooling flow radial migration through the main gas path with and without vane trailing edge flow. The surveys confirmed that vane trailing edge flow is entrained into the wheelspace as purge flow is reduced. Local CO2 measurements also confirmed the presence of VTE flow deep in the wheelspace cavity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Monge-Concepción ◽  
Reid A. Berdanier ◽  
Michael D. Barringer ◽  
Karen A. Thole ◽  
Christopher Robak

Abstract Modern gas turbine development continues to move toward increased overall efficiency, driven in part by higher firing temperatures that point to a need for more cooling air to prevent catastrophic component failure. However, using additional cooling flow bled from the upstream compressor causes a corresponding detriment to overall efficiency. A primary candidate for cooling flow optimization is purge flow, which contributes to sealing the stator–rotor cavity and prevents ingestion of hot main gas path (MGP) flow into the wheelspace. Previous research has identified that the external main gas path flow physics play a significant role in driving rim seal ingestion. However, the potential impact of other cooling flow features on ingestion behavior, such as vane trailing edge (VTE) flow, is absent in the open literature. This paper presents experimental measurements of rim cavity cooling effectiveness collected from a one-stage turbine operating at engine-representative Reynolds and Mach numbers. Carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as a tracer gas in both the purge flow and vane trailing edge flow to investigate flow migration into and out of the wheelspace. Results show that the vane trailing edge flow does in fact migrate into the rim seal and that there is a superposition relationship between individual cooling flow contributions. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) were used to confirm VTE flow ingestion into the rim seal cavity. Radial and circumferential traverse surveys were performed to quantify cooling flow radial migration through the main gas path with and without vane trailing edge flow. The surveys confirmed that vane trailing edge flow is entrained into the wheelspace as purge flow is reduced. Local CO2 measurements also confirmed the presence of VTE flow deep in the wheelspace cavity.


Author(s):  
Xueying Li ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Hongde Jiang

Phantom cooling is defined as the cooling redistribution on airfoil surfaces and endwalls due to airfoil cooling discharges and leakages. Understanding of this effect has become especially critical in recent years, because of the restricted amount of cooling air for the achievement of higher efficiency. The phantom cooling effect of the first stage nozzle trailing edge discharge on the first stage blade surfaces and platform are studied numerically with URANS. Both time-dependent and time-averaged cooling effectiveness distributions on the rotor under the influence of vane trailing edge discharge are presented with different discharge velocity ratios. The results show that the nozzle trailing edge ejection affects the suction and pressure side cooling of the blade as well as the platform. The effects on the triangular zones of suction surface are evident, especially the bottom and top zones which are better cooled. Under the influence of passage secondary flows and rotating, different coolant discharge velocity ratios which resulted in different inlet angles have an effect on the phantom cooling distribution. In general, the cooling air discharged from the trailing edge of the first stage nozzle influences the temperature distribution on the blade, which can substantially improve the cooling efficiency in the bottom triangular zone. This suggests that accounting for phantom cooling can improve the cooling design and if actively controlled save cooling flow.


Author(s):  
Luzeng Zhang ◽  
Hee Koo Moon

Endwall inlet film cooling serves two purposes: to suppress the secondary flows and to provide effective cooling. To optimize endwall inlet film cooling, the combined effects of a back facing step and jet velocity ratio were studied in a warm cascade simulating realistic engine conditions. Film effectiveness distribution was measured on a nozzle endwall surface using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. A double staggered row of holes was used to supply cooling air in front of the nozzle leading edges. Changing the diameter of the film injection hole varied the velocity ratio and the back-facing step was designed to simulate the discontinuity of the nozzle inlet to the combustor exit cone. Nitrogen gas was used to simulate cooling flow as well as a tracer gas to indicate oxygen concentration such that film effectiveness by the mass transfer analogy could be obtained. Cooling mass flow was controlled to be from 0.5% to 3.0% of the mainstream mass flow. The film effectiveness distribution was locally measured for each of the cooling mass flows. It was demonstrated that by optimizing the jet velocity ratio the adverse effect of the back-facing step could be reduced, particularly for the range of mass flow practical in design. The pattern of the film effectiveness distribution suggested the opposite effect of the film injection and the back-facing step on the secondary flows, while one suppresses and the other enhances it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reid A. Berdanier ◽  
Iván Monge-Concepción ◽  
Brian F. Knisely ◽  
Michael D. Barringer ◽  
Karen A. Thole ◽  
...  

As engine development continues to advance toward increased efficiency and reduced fuel consumption, efficient use of compressor bypass cooling flow becomes increasingly important. In particular, optimal use of compressor bypass flow yields an overall reduction of harmful emissions. Cooling flows used for cavity sealing between stages are critical to the engine and must be maintained to prevent damaging ingestion from the hot gas path. To assess cavity seals, the present study utilizes a one-stage turbine with true-scale engine hardware operated at engine-representative rotational Reynolds number and Mach number. Past experiments have made use of part-span (PS) rather than full-span (FS) blades to reduce flow rate requirements for the test rig; however, such decisions raise questions about potential influences of the blade span on sealing effectiveness measurements in the rim cavity. For this study, a tracer gas facilitates sealing effectiveness measurements in the rim cavity to compare data collected with FS engine airfoils and simplified, PS airfoils. The results from this study show sealing effectiveness does not scale as a function of relative purge flow with respect to main gas path flow rate when airfoil span is changed. However, scaling the sealing effectiveness for differing spans can be achieved if the fully purged flow rate is known. Results also suggest reductions of purge flow may have a relatively small loss of seal performance if the design is already near a fully purged condition. Rotor tip clearance is shown to have no effect on measured sealing effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Reid A. Berdanier ◽  
Iván Monge-Concepción ◽  
Brian F. Knisely ◽  
Michael D. Barringer ◽  
Karen A. Thole ◽  
...  

As engine development continues to advance toward increased efficiency and reduced fuel consumption, efficient use of compressor bypass flow, commonly used as cooling flow, becomes increasingly important. In particular, optimal use of compressor bypass flow yields an overall reduction of harmful emissions. The cooling flows used for cavity sealing between stages are critical to the engine and must be sufficiently maintained to prevent damaging ingestion from the hot gas path. To assess these cavity seals, the present study utilizes a one-stage turbine with true-scale engine hardware operated at engine-representative rotational Reynolds number and Mach number. Past experimental studies have made use of part-span rather than full-span blades to reduce flow rate requirements for the turbine test rig; however, such decisions raise questions about potential influences of the blade span on sealing effectiveness measurements in the rim cavity. For this study, a tracer gas facilitates measurements of sealing effectiveness in the rim cavity to compare measurements collected with full-span engine airfoils and simplified, part-span airfoils. The results from this study show sealing effectiveness does not scale as a function of relative purge flow with respect to main gas path flow rate when airfoil span is changed. However, scaling the sealing effectiveness for differing spans can be achieved if the fully-purged flow rate is known. Results also suggest reductions of purge flow may have a relatively small loss of seal performance if the design is already near a fully-purged condition. Rotor tip clearance is shown to have no effect on measured sealing effectiveness.


1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-139
Author(s):  
S. F. Konovalov ◽  
Yu. A. Lashkov ◽  
V. V. Mikhailov

1971 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-576
Author(s):  
C. J. Wood

An experiment has been performed, using pulsed dye injection on an aerofoil in a Hele-Shaw cell. The purpose was to observe the form of the trailing-edge flow when the Reynolds number was high enough to permit separation and the initiation of a Kutta condition. The experiment provides a successful confirmation of the existence of a ‘viscous tail’ as predicted by Buckmaster (1970) although there is an unexplained quantitative discrepancy.


Author(s):  
Alessandro Armellini ◽  
Filippo Coletti ◽  
Tony Arts ◽  
Christophe Scholtes

The present contribution addresses the aero-thermal experimental and computational study of a trapezoidal cross-section model simulating a trailing edge cooling cavity with one rib-roughened wall. The flow is fed through tilted slots on one side wall and exits through straight slots on the opposite side wall. The flow field aerodynamics is investigated in part I of the paper. The reference Reynolds number is defined at the entrance of the test section and set at 67500 for all the experiments. A qualitative flow model is deduced from surface-streamline flow visualizations. Two-dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry measurements are performed in several planes around mid-span of the channel and recombined to visualize and quantify three-dimensional flow features. The jets issued from the tilted slots are characterized and the jet-rib interaction is analyzed. Attention is drawn to the motion of the flow deflected by the rib-roughened wall and impinging on the opposite smooth wall. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions obtained from the finite volume, RANS solver CEDRE.


Author(s):  
L. W. Soma ◽  
F. E. Ames ◽  
S. Acharya

The trailing edge of a vane is one of the most difficult areas to cool due to a narrowing flow path, high external heat transfer rates, and deteriorating external film cooling protection. Converging pedestal arrays are often used as a means to provide internal cooling in this region. The thermally induced stresses in the trailing edge region of these converging arrays have been known to cause failure in the pedestals of conventional solidity arrays. The present paper documents the heat transfer and pressure drop through two high solidity converging rounded diamond pedestal arrays. These arrays have a 45 percent pedestal solidity. One array which was tested has nine rows of pedestals with an exit area in the last row consistent with the convergence. The other array has eight rows with an expanded exit in the last row to enable a higher cooling air flow rate. The expanded exit of the eight row array allows a 30% increase in the coolant flow rate compared with the nine row array for the same pressure drop. Heat transfer levels correlate well based on local Reynolds numbers but fall slightly below non converging arrays. The pressure drop across the array naturally increases toward the trailing edge with the convergence of the flow passage. A portion of the cooling air pressure drop can be attributed to acceleration while a portion can be attributed to flow path losses. Detailed array static pressure measurements provide a means to develop a correlation for the prediction of pressure drop across the cooling channel. Measurements have been acquired over Reynolds numbers based on exit flow conditions and the characteristic pedestal length scale ranging from 5000 to over 70,000.


Author(s):  
Sulfickerali Noor Mohamed ◽  
John Chew ◽  
Nick Hills

The cooling air in a rotating machine is subject to windage as it passes over the rotor surface, particularly for cases where nonaxisymmetric features such as boltheads are encountered. The ability to accurately predict windage can help reduce the quantity of cooling air required, resulting in increased efficiency. Previous work has shown that the steady computational fluid dynamics solutions can give reasonable predictions for the effects of bolts on disc moment for a rotor–stator cavity with throughflow but flow velocities and disc temperature are not well predicted. Large fluctuations in velocities have been observed experimentally in some cases. Time-dependent computational fluid dynamics simulations reported here bring to light the unsteady nature of the flow. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes calculations for 120° and 360° models of the rotor–stator cavity with 9 and 18 bolts were performed in order to better understand the flow physics. Although the rotor–stator cavity with bolts is geometrically steady in the rotating frame of reference, it was found that the bolts generate unsteadiness which creates time-dependent rotating flow features within the cavity. At low throughflow conditions, the unsteady flow significantly increases the average disc temperature.


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