Using the Similarity Theory in the Design of Gas Turbine Engines

Author(s):  
V.D. Molyakov ◽  
B.A. Kunikeev

At present, in the promising development of gas turbine engines compared to at least the fourth generation products, there have been significant changes in the approaches to the design of engine. First of all, it is an increase in maximum values of temperature, gas pressure and circumferential flow speeds, an increase in power of the turbine stage, as well as improvement of the turbine manufacturing technology. All these factors lead to the fact that when designing the flow parts of the gas turbine, it is necessary at the fixed design flow rate of the working medium in the engine, i.e. at the fixed diameters, lengths of the nozzle and rotor blades forming the outline of the inter-blade channels, to increase the blade chords with the corresponding reduction of the number of blades in the row. The increase in turbine stage power associated with the increase in temperature, pressure (density), and circumferential velocity increases the bending stresses leading to the need to increase chords at a fixed blade length. Significant reduction of number of blades in stages, simplifies technology of blades manufacturing. A substantial increase in the maximum gas temperature, in the perspective of more than 2000 K, also leads to the need to increase the blade chords, due to the need to place cooling cavities in the blades. As a result, contradictions arise with the use of similarity theory in the design of stages of turbines of different purpose, as some of the main requirements of similarity are violated — geometric similarity of blade channels of the flow part and then the use of the generally accepted number Re by the chord of blades loses meaning. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out detailed investigations of all flow parameters in four stages of turbines with detection of influence of change of rotor blade chords at equal length of blades. And justify the effect of change of rotor blade chords on physical processes in flow parts of turbines in engines of various purpose.

Author(s):  
Hejie Li ◽  
Guanghua Wang ◽  
Nirm Nirmalan ◽  
Samhita Dasgupta ◽  
Edward R. Furlong

A novel technique is developed to simultaneously measure hot surface and gas temperatures based on passive absorption/emission spectroscopy (PAS). This non-intrusive, in situ technique is the extension of multi-wavelength pyrometry to also measure gas temperature. The PAS technique uses hot surface (e.g., turbine blade) as the radiation source, and measures radiation signals at multiple wavelengths. Radiation signals at wavelengths with minimum interference from gas (mostly from water vapor and CO2) can be used to determine the hot surface temperature, while signals at wavelengths with gas absorption/emission can be used to determine the gas temperature in the line-of-sight. The detection wavelengths are optimized for accuracy and sensitivity for gas temperature measurements. Simulation results also show the effect of non-uniform gas temperature profile on measurement results. High pressure/temperature tests are conducted in single nozzle combustor rig to demonstrate sensor proof-of-concept. Preliminary engine measurement results shows the potential of this measurement technique. The PAS technique only requires one optical port, e.g., existing pyrometer or borescope port, to collect the emission signal, and thus provide practical solution for gas temperature measurement in gas turbine engines.


Author(s):  
Paolo Chiesa ◽  
Stefano Consonni ◽  
Giovanni Lozza ◽  
Ennio Macchi

It is well known that the history of gas turbine engines has been characterized by a very clear trend toward higher and higher operating temperatures, a growth which in the past 40 years has progressed at the impressive pace of approximately 13°C/year. Expected improvements in blade cooling techniques and advancements in materials indicate that this tendency is going to last for long time, leading to firing temperatures of over 1500°C within the next two decades. This paper investigates the impact of such temperature increase on optimal cycle arrangements and on ultimate performance improvements achievable by future advanced gas/steam cycles for large-scale power generation. Performance predictions have been carried out by a modified, improved version of a computer code originally devised and calibrated for “1990 state-of-the-art” gas/steam cycles. The range of performances to be expected in the next decades has been delimited by considering various scenarios of cooling technology and materials, including the extreme situations of adiabatic expansion and stoichiometric combustion. The results of parametric thermodynamic analyses of several cycle configurations are presented for a number of technological scenarios, including cycles with intercooling and reheat. A specific section discusses how the optimum configuration of the bottoming steam cycle changes to keep up with exhaust gas temperature increases. Calculations show that, under plausible assumptions on future technology advancements, within two decades the proper selection of plant configuration and operating parameters can yield net efficiencies of over 60%.


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Korczewski

Exhaust gas temperature measurements in diagnostic examination of naval gas turbine engines: Part II Unsteady processes The second part of the article presents the results of operating diagnostic tests of a two- and three-shaft engine with a separate power turbine during the start-up and acceleration of the rotor units. Attention was paid to key importance of the correctness of operation of the automatic engine load control system, the input for which, among other signals, is the rate of increase of the exhaust gas flow temperature. The article presents sample damages of the engine flow section which resulted from disturbed functioning of this system. The unsteady operation of the compressor during engine acceleration was the source of excessive increase of the exhaust gas temperature behind the combustion chamber and partial burning of the turbine blade tips.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Arisi ◽  
S. Xue ◽  
W. F. Ng ◽  
H. K. Moon ◽  
L. Zhang

In modern gas turbine engines, the blade tips and near-tip regions are exposed to high thermal loads caused by the tip leakage flow. The rotor blades are therefore carefully designed to achieve optimum work extraction at engine design conditions without failure. However, very often gas turbine engines operate outside these design conditions which might result in sudden rotor blade failure. Therefore, it is critical that the effect of such off-design turbine blade operation be understood to minimize the risk of failure and optimize rotor blade tip performance. In this study, the effect of varying the exit Mach number on the tip and near-tip heat transfer characteristics was numerically studied by solving the steady Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equation. The study was carried out on a highly loaded flat tip rotor blade with 1% tip gap and at exit Mach numbers of Mexit = 0.85 (Reexit = 9.75 × 105) and Mexit = 1.0 (Reexit = 1.15 × 106) with high freestream turbulence (Tu = 12%). The exit Reynolds number was based on the rotor axial chord. The numerical results provided detailed insight into the flow structure and heat transfer distribution on the tip and near-tip surfaces. On the tip surface, the heat transfer was found to generally increase with exit Mach number due to high turbulence generation in the tip gap and flow reattachment. While increase in exit Mach number generally raises he heat transfer over the whole blade surface, the increase is significantly higher on the near-tip surfaces affected by leakage vortex. Increase in exit Mach number was found to also induce strong flow relaminarization on the pressure side near-tip. On the other hand, the size of the suction surface near-tip region affected by leakage vortex was insensitive to changes in exit Mach number but significant increase in local heat transfer was noted in this region.


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Korczewski

Exhaust gas temperature measurements in diagnostic examination of naval gas turbine engines The third part of the article presents a method for detecting failures of the automatic engine control system with the aid of an exhaust gas temperature setter, specially designed and machined for this purpose. It also presents a procedure of identifying the operating tolerances and determining the diagnostic tolerances for the exhaust gas temperature recorded in the naval turbine engine during the start-up and acceleration processes. The diagnostic tolerances were determined using the statistic inference, based on the hypothesis about the normal distribution of the starting exhaust gas temperature dispersion at the initial time of engine operation. The above hypothesis was verified using the non-parametric statistic test χ2 for examining the consistency of the empirical distribution with the assumed normal distribution. As a result of the examination, satisfactory convergence of the compared distributions was obtained which made the basis for assuming the three-sigma limits of the diagnostic tolerance for the analysed engine control parameter.


1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
I. A. Makovetskaya ◽  
O. I. Marusii ◽  
B. A. Gryaznov ◽  
Yu. S. Nalimov

2020 ◽  
Vol 897 ◽  
pp. 190-194
Author(s):  
Margarita Urbaha ◽  
Alexander Urbah ◽  
Mukharbiy Banov ◽  
Vladimir Shestakov ◽  
Pavel Pogorodny

Diagnostics of the rotor blades of aircraft gas turbine engines at pre-operational stage and later on during repairs is carried out by instrumental methods of non-destructive testing. The requirements for increasing operational reliability and safety of flights require a search for new solutions in assessing the strength of rotor blades at an early stage of damage development. For these purposes, one of the perspective directions is the development of acoustic emission methods. This article represents an experimental setup and a measuring-diagnostic system for assessing the operational reliability of rotor blades by the acoustic emission method. It also discusses the results of testing.


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