Three-Tier Impingement Cooling Design for Gas Turbine Blade Trailing Edge

Author(s):  
Kishore Ranganath Ramakrishnan ◽  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad

Gas turbine blades are subjected to elevated heat loads due to highly turbulent hot gases exiting the combustor section. Several internal and external cooling techniques are used to protect the blades from such hostile environment. Trailing edge of a turbine blade is usually cooled with array of staggered cylindrical pins, which connects the pressure and suction side internal walls and hence provide improved structural integrity. However, the heat transfer enhancement levels for array of pin-fins is generally lower than jet impingement and ribbed channels. In this study, we present a three-tier impingement cooling design for blade trailing-edge and part of mid-chord region. In this design, pressure and suction side internal walls are subjected to oblique jet impingement. Three different configurations have been studied where we have systematically varied the jet diameters and number of jets in an array for different tiers. Numerical simulations have been carried out for different flow conditions, which corresponds to Reynolds numbers (based on 1st-passage jet diameter) ranging between 3000 and 46000. First two plenums had high levels of heat transfer due to oblique jet impingement, where the suction side internal wall representative surface, had higher heat transfer compared to the pressure side internal wall. Third tier had the lowest heat transfer due to triangle-like configuration where jets were almost parallel to pressure and suction side surfaces, and hence their effectiveness was lower than the oblique jet impingement in upstream two tiers.

Author(s):  
Sarwesh Parbat ◽  
Li Yang ◽  
Minking Chyu ◽  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Ching-Pang Lee

Abstract The strive to achieve increasingly higher efficiencies in gas turbine power generation has led to a continued rise in the turbine inlet temperature. As a result, novel cooling approaches for gas turbine blades are necessary to maintain them within the material’s thermal mechanical performance envelope. Various internal and external cooling technologies are used in different parts of the blade airfoil to provide the desired levels of cooling. Among the different regions of the blade profile, the trailing edge (TE) presents additional cooling challenges due to the thin cross section and high thermal loads. In this study, a new wavy geometry for the TE has been proposed and analyzed using steady state numerical simulations. The wavy TE structure resembled a sinusoidal wave running along the span of the blade. The troughs on both pressure side and suction side contained the coolant exit slots. As a result, consecutive coolant exit slots provided an alternating discharge between the suction side and the pressure side of the blade. Steady state conjugate heat transfer simulations were carried out using CFX solver for four coolant to mainstream mass flow ratios of 0.45%, 1%, 1.5% and 3%. The temperature distribution and film cooling effectiveness in the TE region were compared to two conventional geometries, pressure side cutback and centerline ejection which are widely used in vanes and blades for both land-based and aviation gas turbine engines. Unstructured mesh was generated for both fluid and solid domains and interfaces were defined between the two domains. For turbulence closer, SST-kω model was used. The wall y+ was maintained < 1 by using inflation layers at all the solid fluid interfaces. The numerical results depicted that the alternating discharge from the wavy TE was able to form protective film coverage on both the pressure and suction side of the blade. As a result, significant reduction in the TE metal was observed which was up to 14% lower in volume averaged temperature in the TE region when compared to the two baseline conventional configurations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdel Rahman Salem ◽  
Farah Nazifa Nourin ◽  
Mohammed Abousabae ◽  
Ryoichi S. Amano

Abstract Internal cooling of gas turbine blades is performed with the combination of impingement cooling and serpentine channels. Besides gas turbine blades, the other turbine components such as turbine guide vanes, rotor disks, and combustor wall can be cooled using jet impingement cooling. This study is focused on jet impingement cooling, in order to optimize the coolant flow, and provide the maximum amount of cooling using the minimum amount of coolant. The study compares between different nozzle configurations (in-line and staggered), two different Reynold's numbers (1500 and 2000), and different stand-off distances (Z/D) both experimentally and numerically. The Z/D considered are 3, 5, and 8. In jet impingement cooling, the jet of fluid strikes perpendicular to the target surface to be cooled with high velocity to dissipate the heat. The target surface is heated up by a direct current (DC) power source. The experimental results are obtained by means of thermal image processing of the captured infra-red (IR) thermal images of the target surface. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis were employed to predict the complex heat transfer and flow phenomena, primarily the line-averaged and area-averaged Nusselt number and the cross-flow effects. In the current investigation, the flow is confined along with the nozzle plate and two parallel surfaces forming a bi-directional channel (bi-directional exit). The results show a comparison between heat transfer enhancement with in-line and staggered nozzle arrays. It is observed that the peaks of the line-averaged Nusselt number (Nu) become less as the stand-off distance (Z/D) increases. It is also observed that the fluctuations in the stagnation heat transfer are caused by the impingement of the primary vortices originating from the jet nozzle exit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srivatsan Madhavan ◽  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad

Abstract Detailed heat transfer measurements using transient liquid crystal thermography were performed on a novel cooling design covering the mid-chord and trailing edge region of a typical gas turbine blade under stationary and rotating conditions. The test section comprised of two channels with aspect ratio (AR) of 2:1 (mid-chord) and 4:1 (trailing edge), where the coolant was fed into the AR = 2:1 channel from the root. Rib turbulators with a pitch-to-rib height ratio (p/e) of 10 and rib height-to-channel hydraulic diameter ratio (e/Dh) of 0.075 were placed in the AR = 2:1 channel at an angle of 60° relative to the direction of flow. The coolant after entering this section was routed to the AR = 4:1 section through a set of crossover jets. The purpose of the crossover jets was to induce sideways impingement onto the pin fins that were placed in the 4:1 section to enhance heat transfer. The 4:1 section had a realistic trapezoidal shape that mimics the trailing edge of an actual gas turbine blade. The pin fins were arranged in a staggered array with a center-to-center spacing of 2.5 times the pin diameter in both spanwise and streamwise directions. The trailing edge section consisted of both radial and cutback exit holes for flow exit. Experiments were performed for a Reynolds number (ReDh(AR = 2:1)) of 20,000 at Rotation numbers (RoDh(AR = 2:1)) of 0, 0.1 and 0.14. The channel averaged heat transfer coefficient on trailing side was ∼28% (AR = 2:1) and ∼7.6% (AR = 4:1) higher than the leading side for Rotation number (Ro) of 0.1. It is shown that the combination of crossover jets and pin-fins can be an effective method for cooling wedge shaped trailing edge channels over axial cooling flow designs.


Author(s):  
Hsiao-Wei D. Chiang ◽  
Hsin-Lung Li

Both jet impingement and forced convection are attractive cooling mechanisms and have been widely used in cooling of gas turbine blades. Convective heat transfer from impinging jets is known to yield high local and area averaged heat transfer coefficients. Impingement jets are of particular interest in the cooling of gas turbine components where advancement relies on the ability to dissipate extremely large heat loads. The current research is concerned with the measurement and comparison of both jet impingement and forced convection heat transfer in the Reynolds number range of 10,000 to 30,000. The present study is aimed at experimentally testing two different setups with forced convection and jet impingement in rotating turbine blades up to 700 rpm. This research also focused on to observe how Coriolis forces and impingement cooling inside the passage in rotating conditions within a cooling passage. Local heat transfer coefficients are obtained for each test section through thermal-couple technique with slip rings. The cross section of the passage is 10 mm × 10 mm without ribs. The surface heating condition has a uniform heat flux enforced. The forced convection cooling effects were studied using serpentine passages with three corner turns under different rotating speeds and different inlet Reynolds numbers. The impingement cooling study uses a straight passage with a single jet hole under different Reynolds numbers of the impingement flow and the cross flow. In summary, the main purpose is to study the rotation effects on both the jet impingement and the serpentine convection cooling types. Our study shows that rotation effects increase the serpentine cooling and, on the other hand, reduce the jet impingement cooling.


Author(s):  
Karthik Krishnaswamy ◽  
◽  
Srikanth Salyan ◽  

The performance of a gas turbine during the service life can be enhanced by cooling the turbine blades efficiently. The objective of this study is to achieve high thermohydraulic performance (THP) inside a cooling passage of a turbine blade having aspect ratio (AR) 1:5 by using discrete W and V-shaped ribs. Hydraulic diameter (Dh) of the cooling passage is 50 mm. Ribs are positioned facing downstream with angle-of-attack (α) of 30° and 45° for discrete W-ribs and discerte V-ribs respectively. The rib profiles with rib height to hydraulic diameter ratio (e/Dh) or blockage ratio 0.06 and pitch (P) 36 mm are tested for Reynolds number (Re) range 30000-75000. Analysis reveals that, area averaged Nusselt numbers of the rib profiles are comparable, with maximum difference of 6% at Re 30000, which is within the limits of uncertainty. Variation of local heat transfer coefficients along the stream exhibited a saw tooth profile, with discrete W-ribs exhibiting higher variations. Along spanwise direction, discrete V-ribs showed larger variations. Maximum variation in local heat transfer coefficients is estimated to be 25%. For experimented Re range, friction loss for discrete W-ribs is higher than discrete-V ribs. Rib profiles exhibited superior heat transfer capabilities. The best Nu/Nuo achieved for discrete Vribs is 3.4 and discrete W-ribs is 3.6. In view of superior heat transfer capabilities, ribs can be deployed in cooling passages near the leading edge, where the temperatures are very high. The best THPo achieved is 3.2 for discrete V-ribs and 3 for discrete W-ribs at Re 30000. The ribs can also enhance the power-toweight ratio as they can produce high thermohydraulic performances for low blockage ratios.


Author(s):  
Suhyun Kim ◽  
Seungwon Suh ◽  
Seungchan Baek ◽  
Wontae Hwang

Abstract Convective cooling in a gas turbine blade internal trailing edge channel is often insufficient at the sharp trailing edge. This study examines convective heat transfer and pressure drop within a simplified trailing edge channel. The internal passage has been modeled as a right triangular channel with a 9&amp;#176; angle sharp corner. Smooth baseline and ribbed copper plates were heated from underneath via a uniform heat flux heater and examined via infrared thermography. Non-uniformity in the heat flux due to conduction is corrected by a RANS conjugate heat transfer calculation, which was validated by the mean velocity, friction factor, and temperature fields from experiments and LES simulations. Nusselt number distributions illustrate that surface heat transfer is increased considerably with ribs, and coupled with the vortices in the flow. Heat transfer at the sharp corner is increased by more than twofold due to ribs placed at the center of the channel, due to secondary flow. The present partially ribbed channel utilizes secondary flow toward the corner, and is presumed to have better thermal performance than a fully ribbed channel. Thus, it is important to set the appropriate rib length within the channel.


Author(s):  
Karsten Kusterer ◽  
Gang Lin ◽  
Takao Sugimoto ◽  
Dieter Bohn ◽  
Ryozo Tanaka ◽  
...  

The Double Swirl Chambers (DSC) cooling technology, which has been introduced and developed by the authors, has the potential to be a promising cooling technology for further increase of gas turbine inlet temperature and thus improvement of the thermal efficiency. The DSC cooling technology establishes a significant enhancement of the local internal heat transfer due to the generation of two anti-rotating swirls. The reattachment of the swirl flows with the maximum velocity at the center of the chamber leads to a linear impingement effect on the internal surface of the blade leading edge nearby the stagnation line of gas turbine blade. Due to the existence of two swirls both the suction side and the pressure side of the blade near the leading edge can be very well cooled. In this work, several advanced DSC cooling configurations with a row of cooling air inlet holes have been investigated. Compared with the standard DSC cooling configuration the advanced ones have more suitable cross section profiles, which enables better accordance with the real blade leading edge profile. At the same time these configurations are also easier to be manufactured in a real blade. These new cooling configurations have been numerically compared with the state of the art leading edge impingement cooling configuration. With the same configuration of cooling air supply and boundary conditions the advanced DSC cooling presents 22–26% improvement of overall heat transfer and 3–4% lower total pressure drop. Along the stagnation line the new cooling configuration can generate twice the heat flux than the standard impingement cooling channel. The influence of spent flow in the impinging position and impingement heat transfer value is in the new cooling configurations much smaller, which leads to a much more uniform heat transfer distribution along the chamber axial direction.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Shevchenko ◽  
Nikolay Rogalev ◽  
Andrey Rogalev ◽  
Andrey Vegera ◽  
Nikolay Bychkov

Numerical simulation of temperature field of cooled turbine blades is a required element of gas turbine engine design process. The verification is usually performed on the basis of results of test of full-size blade prototype on a gas-dynamic test bench. A method of calorimetric measurement in a molten metal thermostat for verification of a thermal model of cooled blade is proposed in this paper. The method allows obtaining local values of heat flux in each point of blade surface within a single experiment. The error of determination of local heat transfer coefficients using this method does not exceed 8% for blades with radial channels. An important feature of the method is that the heat load remains unchanged during the experiment and the blade outer surface temperature equals zinc melting point. The verification of thermal-hydraulic model of high-pressure turbine blade with cooling allowing asymmetrical heat removal from pressure and suction sides was carried out using the developed method. An analysis of heat transfer coefficients confirmed the high level of heat transfer in the leading edge, whose value is comparable with jet impingement heat transfer. The maximum of the heat transfer coefficients is shifted from the critical point of the leading edge to the pressure side.


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