THE INFLUENCE OF PURGE FLOW PARAMETERS ON HEAT TRANSFER AND FILM COOLING IN TURBINE CENTER FRAMES

The imperative improvement in the efficiency of turbofan engines is commonly facilitated by increasing the turbine inlet temperature. This development has reached a point where also components downstream of the high-pressure turbine have to be adequately cooled. Such a component is the turbine center frame (TCF), known for a complex aerodynamic flow highly influenced by purge-mainstream interactions. The purge air, being injected through the wheelspace cavities of the upstream high-pressure turbine, bears a significant cooling potential for the TCF. Despite this, fundamental knowledge of the influencing parameters on heat transfer and film cooling in the TCF is still missing. This paper examines the influence of purge-to-mainstream blowing ratio, density ratio and purge swirl angle on heat transfer and film cooling in the TCF. The experiments are conducted in a sector-cascade test rig specifically designed for such heat transfer studies using infrared thermography and tailor-made flexible heating foils with constant heat flux. Three purge-to-mainstream blowing ratios and an additional no purge case are investigated. The purge flow is injected without swirl and also with engine-similar swirl angles. The purge swirl and blowing ratio significantly impact the magnitude and the spread of film cooling in the TCF. Increasing blowing ratios lead to an intensification of heat transfer. By cooling the purge flow, a moderate variation in purge-to-mainstream density ratio is investigated, and the influence is found to be negligible.

Multi-model structured H-infinity design of a robust and aggressive turbofan jet engine controller

Jet engine control comprises tracking either the fan speed or engine pressure ratio setpoints. Further, safe operation entails maintaining several additional parameters, such as high-pressure turbine temperature, combustor pressure, core shaft acceleration and other ones within prescribed limits. A Min-Max selector that features PI controllers is frequently used to handle these requirements. However, this arrangement is overly conservative in the limits management, which unnecessarily slows down the engine response. To overcome this shortcoming, a new controller that adopts the traditional Min-Max structure in combination with the Ndot control, the Conditionally Active and the Conditioning Technique approaches is developed. PI regulators are replaced by dynamic output feedback controllers, which are designed according to a multi-model structured H-infinity methodology. This approach makes it possible to marry robustness with performance, which are two conflicting objectives. Singular value analysis tools demonstrate the robustness of the resulting design. Linear and nonlinear simulations indicate that the proposed controller optimizes the engine response time under the constraint of keeping a set of parameters within prescribed bounds. The features of the proposed design are lucrative for actual implementation in the industry.

Cyclic Thermal Shock Damage Behavior in CVI SiC/SiC High-Pressure Turbine Twin Guide Vanes

In this paper, the SiC/SiC high-pressure turbine twin guide vanes were fabricated using the chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method. Cyclic thermal shock tests at different target temperatures (i.e., 1400, 1450, and 1480 °C) in a gas environment were conducted to investigate the damage mechanisms and failure modes. During the thermal shock test, large spalling areas appeared on the leading edge and back region. After 400 thermal shock cycles, the spalling area of the coating at the basin and back region of the guide vane was more than 30%, and the whole guide vane turned gray, due to the formation of SiO2. When the thermal shock temperature increased from 1400 to 1450 and 1480 °C, the spalling area of the basin and the back region of the guide vane did not increase significantly, but the delamination occurred at the tenon, upper surface of the guide vane near the trailing edge of the guide vane. Through the X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) analysis for the guide vanes before and after thermal shock, there was no obvious damage inside of guide vanes. The oxidation of SiC coating and the formation of SiO2 protects the internal fibers from oxidation and damage. Further investigation on the effect of thermal shock on the mechanical properties of SiC/SiC composites should be conducted in the future.

COMPARISON OF FILM COOLING PERFORMANCE FOR DIFFERENT PURGE SLOT CONFIGURATIONS IN A CYLINDRICAL AND STATE-OF-THE-ART NOZZLE GUIDE VANE

This comparative study is concerned with the advances in nozzle guide vane (NGV) design developments and their influence on endwall film cooling performance by injecting coolant through the purge slot. This experimental study compares the film cooling effectiveness and the aerodynamic effects for different purge slot configurations on both a flat and an axisymmetrically contoured endwall of a NGV. While the flat endwall cascade was equipped with cylindrical vanes, the contoured endwall cascade consisted of modern NGVs which represent state-of-the-art high-pressure turbine design standards. Geometric variations, e.g. the slot width and injection angle, as well as different blowing ratios were realized. The mainstream flow parameters were set to meet real engine conditions with regard to Reynolds and Mach numbers. Pressure Sensitive Paint was used to determine the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. Five-hole probe measurements were performed to measure the flow field in the vane wake region. For a more profound insight into the origin of the secondary flows, oil dye visualizations were carried out. The results show that the advances in NGV design have a significantly positive influence on the distribution of the coolant. This has to be attributed to lesser disturbance of the coolant propagation by secondary flow for the optimized NGV design, since the design features are intended to suppress the formation of secondary flow. It is therefore advisable to take these effects into account when designing the film cooling system of a modern high-pressure turbine.

Impact of Swirling Entropy Waves on a High Pressure Turbine

The harsh environment exiting modern gas turbine combustion chamber is characterized by vorticity and temperature perturbations, the latter commonly referred as entropy waves. The interaction of these unsteadiness with the first turbine stage causes non-negligible effects on the aerodynamic performance, blade cooling and noise production. The first of these drawbacks is addressed in this paper by means of an experimental campaign: entropy waves and swirl profile are injected upstream of an axial turbine stage through a novel combustor simulator. Two injection positions and different inlet conditions are considered. Steady and unsteady experimental measurements are carried out through the stage to address the combustor-turbine interaction characterizing the injected disturbance, the nozzle and rotor outlet aerothermal field. The experimental outcomes show a severe reduction of the temperature perturbation already at stator outlet. The generated swirl profile influences significantly the aerodynamic, as it interacts with the stator and rotor secondary flows and wakes. Furthermore, the clocking position changes the region most affected by the disturbance, showing a potential modifying the injection position to minimize the entropy wave and swirl profile impact on the stage. Finally, this work shows that in order to proficiently study entropy waves, the unsteady aerodynamic flow field stator downstream has to be addressed.