Part II. Research on the Performance of a Type of Internally Air-cooled Turbine Blade

1953 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 351-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Ainley

A comprehensive series of tests have been made on an experimental single-stage turbine to determine the cooling characteristics and the overall stage performance of a set of air-cooled turbine blades. These blades, which are described fully in Part I of this paper had, internally, a multiplicity of passages of small diameter along which cool air was passed through the whole length of the blade. Analysis of the, test data indicated that, when a quantity of cooling air amounting to 2 per cent, by weight, of the total gas-flow through the turbine is fed to the row of rotor blades, an increase in gas temperature of about 270 deg. C. (518 deg. F.) should be permissible above the maximum allowable value for a row of uncooled blades made from the same material. The degree of cooling achieved throughout each blade was far from uniform and large thermal stresses must result. It appears, however, that the consequences of this are not highly detrimental to the performance of the present type of blading, it being demonstrated that the main effect of the induced thermal stress is apparently to transfer the major tensile stresses to the cooler (and hence stronger) regions of the blade. The results obtained from the present investigations do not represent a limit to the potentialities of internal air-cooling, but form merely a first exploratory step. At the same time the practical feasibility of air cooling is made apparent, and advances up to the present are undoubtedly encouraging.

Author(s):  
J. M. McDonough ◽  
V. E. Garzón ◽  
D. E. Schulte

Numerical results demonstrating the effect of film-cooling hole placement on turbulator heat transfer effectiveness in internal convective cooling air circuits of turbine blades in high-performance gas turbine engines is presented for a two-dimensional model problem. Of particular interest will be the performance of a new turbulence modeling formalism similar to large-eddy simulation (LES) but employing subgrid-scale models constructed from nonlinear discrete dynamical systems, and not requiring filtering of the resolved-scale governing equations. Computed results for temperature distribution, flow streamlines, pressure coefficient and heat transfer Stanton number are compared for three different cooling hole/turbulator configurations, and turbulence kinetic energy is compared with results from a standard k-ε model.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 609-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Ranson ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
F. J. Cunha

Traditional cooling schemes have been developed to cool turbine blades using high-pressure compressor air that bypasses the combustor. This high-pressure forces cooling air into the hot main gas path through seal slots. While parasitic leakages can provide a cooling benefit, they also represent aerodynamic losses. The results from the combined experimental and computational studies reported in this paper address the cooling benefit from leakage flows that occur along the platform of a first stage turbine blade. A scaled-up, blade geometry with an upstream slot, a mid-passage slot, and a downstream slot was tested in a linear cascade placed in a low-speed wind tunnel. Results show that the leakage flow through the mid-passage gap provides only a small cooling benefit to the platform. There is little to no benefit to the blade platform that results by increasing the coolant flow through the mid-passage gap. Unlike the mid-passage gap, leakage flow from the upstream slot provides good cooling to the platform surface, particularly in certain regions of the platform. Relatively good agreement was observed between the computational and experimental results, although computations overpredicted the cooling.


Author(s):  
V. I. Gnesin ◽  
L. V. Kolodyazhnaya ◽  
R. Rzadkowski

In real flows nonstationary phenomena connected with the circumferential non-uniformity of the main flow and those caused by oscillations of blades are observed only jointly. An understanding of the physics of the mutual interaction between gas flow and oscillating blades, and the development of predictive capabilities is essential for improved overall efficiency, durability and reliability. In the study presented the algorithm proposed involves the coupled solution of 3D unsteady flow through a turbine stage and dynamic problem for rotor blades motion by action of aerodynamic forces without separating of outer and inner flow fluctuations. The partially integrated method involves the solution of the fluid and structural equations separately, but information is exchanged at each time step, so that solution from one domain is used as boundary condition for the other domain. 3D transonic gas flow through the mutually moving stator and rotor blades with periodicity on the whole annulus is described by the unsteady Euler conservation equations, which are integrated using the explicit monotonous finite-volume difference scheme of Godunov-Kolgan. The structure analysis uses the modal approach and 3D finite element model of a blade. The blade moving is assumed to be constituted as a linear combination of the first natural modes of blade oscillations with the modal coefficients depending on time. There has been performed the calculation for the last stage of the steam turbine. The numerical results for unsteady aerodynamic forces due to stator-rotor interaction are compared with results obtained with taking into account the blades oscillations. It has investigated the mutual influence of both outer flow nonuniformity and blades oscillations. It has shown that amplitude-frequency spectrum of blade oscillations contains the high frequency harmonics, corresponding to rotor moving past one stator blade pitch, and low frequency harmonics caused by blade oscillations and flow nonuniformity downstream from the blade row. Moreover, the spectrum involves the harmonics which are not multiple to the rotation frequency.


Author(s):  
A. G. Stamatis ◽  
K. Mathioudakis

A method allowing the evaluation of the effects related to heat transfer to the turbine blades on its performance characteristics is presented. The effects investigated are the change of passage dimensions, resulting from heat transfer and the change in flow field, exhibited mainly as a different boundary layer development. Change of hot gas temperature combined with cooling air temperature and possibly flow rate, result in a change of the temperature of the blade material, leading to dimension changes, because of the thermal expansion (dilatation). The changes in dimensions have a direct effect on turbine performance. An immediate consequence is a modification of the mass flow characteristic, due to a change of the throat area. Heat transfer also influences the properties of the gas flowing through the passage and in particular the characteristics of the boundary layers developing on the nozzle vanes and hub, tip endwals. Change of the thickness of this layer results in a change of blockage through the passage, a fact that influences directly the turbine flow function. The influence of both effects on turbine performance is studied. The study is performance oriented, aiming to the derivation of simplified models, which can be introduced in engine cycle decks.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. McMillin ◽  
S. C. Lau

Experiments are conducted to study the local heat transfer distribution and pressure drop in a pin fin channel that models the cooling passages in modern gas turbine blades. The detailed heat/mass transfer distribution is determined via the naphthalene sublimation technique for flow through a channel with a 16-row, staggered 3 × 2 array of short pin fins (with a height-to-diameter ratio of 1.0, and streamwise and spanwise spacing-to-diameter ratios of 2.5) and with flow ejection through holes in one of the side walls and at the straight flow exit (to simulate ejection through holes along the trailing edges and through tip bleed holes of turbine blades). The pin fin heat/mass transfer and the channel wall heat/mass transfer are obtained for the straight-flow-only and the ejection-flow cases. The results show that the regional pin heat/mass transfer coefficients are generally higher than the corresponding regional wall heat/mass transfer coefficients in both cases. When there is side wall flow ejection, a portion of the flow turns to exit through the ejection holes and the rate of heat/mass transfer decreases in the straight flow direction as a result of the reducing mass flow rate along the channel. The rate of cooling air flow through a pin fin channel in a gas turbine blade must be increased to compensate for the “loss” of the cooling air through trailing edge ejection holes, so that the blade tip is cooled sufficiently.


1962 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. H. Howe

SummaryDuring thermal fatigue testing of a specimen with a thin edge, or during rapid temperature changes in the gas flow past turbine blades, the thin edges are deformed plastically in compression during heating and subsequently creep in tension as the bulk of the specimen or blade heats up. The plastic deformation is determined from temperature distributions, which are calculated by Biot’s variational method. The creep deformation is determined as a function of time by a differential equation, which expresses the balance between increasing elastic stress and reduction of stress due to creep relaxation, and which is solved(i)by digital computer,(ii)by transformation to a Riccati equation soluble in terms of Bessel functions, or(iii)by transformation to a second-order differential equation with a periodic coefficient. Using the thermal stresses obtained from the solution of the differential equation, the theoretical thermal fatigue endurance is determined from cyclic (mechanical) stress endurance data. Agreement between theoretical and experimental thermal fatigue endurances is obtained, over ranges of temperature, strain and strain rate, or, equivalently, over ranges of temperature, edge radius and heat transfer coefficient. This agreement supports the use of the theoretical methods in wider contexts. The accuracy of the temperature distributions is better than the accuracy of other factors entering into the correlation between theoretical and experimental endurances. Improvement in the interpretation of experimental results requires consideration of the alteration of the stress cycles during the course of thermal fatigue testing. This requirement is catered for partially by the various solutions of the differential equation for thermal stress.


Author(s):  
Romuald Rzadkowski ◽  
Vitaly Gnesin ◽  
Lubov Kolodyazhnaya ◽  
Ryszard Szczepanik

Presented here are the numerical calculations of the 3D transonic flow of an ideal gas through an LP steam turbine last stage with exhaust hood, taking into account blade oscillations. The approach is based on a solution to the coupled aerodynamic-structure problem for 3D flow through a turbine stage using the partially integrated method. The blade oscillations and loads acting on the blades are a part of the solution. An ideal gas flow through the stator and moving rotor blades with periodicity on the whole annulus is described by unsteady Euler conservation equations, integrated with the Godunov-Kolgan explicit monotonous finite-volume difference scheme and a moving hybrid H-H rotor blade grid. The structural analysis uses the modal approach and a 3D finite element model of a blade. The proposed algorithm allows for the calculation of turbine stages with an arbitrary pitch ratio of stator and rotor blades, taking into account unsteady-load induced blade oscillations. The pressure distribution behind the rotor blades was non-uniform on account of the exhaust hood. As a result of the fluid-structure interaction and exhaust hood induced nonsymmetrical pressure distribution behind the rotor blades, the first blade mode was no longer bending but bending-torsion.


Author(s):  
Romuald Rza˛dkowski ◽  
Vitaly Gnesin

Numerical calculations of the 3D transonic flow of an ideal gas through turbomachinery blade rows moving relatively one to another with taking into account the blades oscillations is presented. The approach is based on the solution of the coupled aerodynamic-structure problem for the 3D flow through the turbine stage in which fluid and dynamic equations are integrated simultaneously in time, thus providing the correct formulation of a coupled problem, as the blades oscillations and loads, acting on the blades, are a part of solution. An ideal gas flow through the mutually moving stator and rotor blades with periodicity on the whole annulus is described by the unsteady Euler conservation equations, which are integrated using the explicit monotonous finite-volume difference scheme of Godunov-Kolgan and moving hybrid H-H grid. The structure analysis uses the modal approach and 3D finite element model of a blade. The blade motion is assumed to be constituted as a linear combination of the first natural modes of blade oscillations with the modal coefficients depending on time. The algorithm proposed allows to calculate turbine stages with an arbitrary pitch ratio of stator and rotor blades, taking into account the blade oscillations by action of unsteady loads caused both outer flow nonuniformity and blades motion. There has been performed the calculation for the stage of the turbine with rotor blades of 0.765 m. The numerical results for unsteady aerodynamic forces due to stator-rotor interaction are compared with results obtained with taking into account the blades oscillations.


Author(s):  
W. W. Ranson ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
F. J. Cunha

Traditional cooling schemes have been developed to cool turbine blades using high-pressure compressor air that bypasses the combustor. This high pressure forces cooling air into the hot main gas path through seal slots. While parasitic leakages can provide a cooling benefit, they also represent aerodynamic losses. The results from the combined experimental and computational studies reported in this paper address the cooling benefit from leakage flows that occur along the platform of a first stage turbine blade. A scaled-up, blade geometry with an upstream slot, a mid-passage slot, and a downstream slot was tested in a linear cascade placed in a low speed wind tunnel. Results show that the leakage flow through the mid-passage gap provides only a small cooling benefit to the platform. There is little to no benefit to the blade platform that results by increasing the coolant flow through the mid-passage gap. Unlike the mid-passage gap, leakage flow from the upstream slot provides good cooling to the platform surface, particularly in certain regions of the platform. Relatively good agreement was observed between the computational and experimental results although computations overpredicted the cooling.


Author(s):  
S. M. Wan ◽  
T. C. T. Lam ◽  
J. M. Allen ◽  
T. H. McCloskey

A time-marching approach is adopted in developing a thermal/structural program with linked flow-solid modeling capability. The Blade Life Analysis & Design Evaluation for Combustion Turbines (BLADE-CT) program analyzes gas turbine blade thermal-mechanical stress and natural frequencies under the boundary conditions which result from the gas flow and the cooling/barrier flow within a given turbine stage. Using the finite element method, the blade temperatures obtained from transient/steady-state thermal solutions can be utilized to compute thermal stresses and dynamic stresses under operating conditions for assessing thermal-mechanical fatigue damage in combustion turbine blades. A customized and automated mesh generation routine is developed to model cooled (spanwise multihole configurations) and solid gas turbine blades. By coupling the NASA flow programs, PCPANEL (potential flow), STAN5 (heat transfer boundary layer), and CPF (coolant passage flow) as part of an automated flow-structural analysis approach, a more efficient and accurate thermal and thermal stress calculation can be achieved. The calculated blade temperatures can be also applied for the frequency analysis to account for temperature effects. The coupled fluid-structure interaction program approach for thermal-mechanical analysis and an example of a spanwise cooled blade steady state analysis are presented.


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