Uncertainty Analysis of Inflow Conditions on an HPT Gas Turbine Nozzle: Effect on Particle Deposition

Gas turbines (GT) are often forced to operate in harsh environmental conditions. Therefore, the presence of particles in their flow-path is expected. With this regard, deposition is a problem that severely affects gas turbine operation. Components’ lifetime and performance can dramatically vary as a consequence of this phenomenon. Unfortunately, the operating conditions of the machine can vary in a wide range, and they cannot be treated as deterministic. Their stochastic variations greatly affect the forecasting of life and performance of the components. In this work, the main parameters considered affected by the uncertainty are the circumferential hot core location and the turbulence level at the inlet of the domain. A stochastic analysis is used to predict the degradation of a high-pressure-turbine (HPT) nozzle due to particulate ingestion. The GT’s component analyzed as a reference is the HPT nozzle of the Energy-Efficient Engine (E3). The uncertainty quantification technique used is the probabilistic collocation method (PCM). This work shows the impact of the operating conditions uncertainties on the performance and lifetime reduction due to deposition. Sobol indices are used to identify the most important parameter and its contribution to life. The present analysis enables to build confidence intervals on the deposit profile and on the residual creep-life of the vane.

Numerical Study on the Secondary Air Performance of the Film Holes for the Combined Impingement and Film Cooled First Stage of High Pressure Gas Turbine Nozzle Guide Vane

The present numerical investigation of Leading Edge (LE) Nozzle Guide Vane (NGV) is considered with five rows of impingement holes combined with five rows of film cooled for the secondary coolant flow path analysis. The coolant mass flow rate variations in all the LE rows of the film holes externally subjected to the hot main stream were obtained by making a three-dimensional computational analysis of NGV with a staggered array of film cooled rows. The experiments were carried out for the same NGV using Particle Image Velocimetry technique to determine the effused coolant jet exit velocity at the stagnation row of film holes as mentioned in reference [Kukutla PR, Prasad BVSSS. Secondary flow visualization on stagnation row of a combined impingement and film cooled high pressure gas turbine nozzle guide vane using PIV technique, J Visualization, 2017; DOI: 10.1007/s12650-017-0434-6]. In this paper, results are presented for three different mass flow rates ranges from 0.0037 kg/s to 0.0075 kg/s supplied at the Front Impingement Tube (FIT) plenum. And the mainstream velocity 6 m/s was maintained for all the three coolant mass flow rates. The secondary coolant flow distribution was performed from SH1 to SH5 row of film holes. Each row of a showerhead film hole exit coolant mass flow rate varied in proportion to the amount of coolant mass rates supplied at the FIT cooling channel. The corresponding minimum and maximum values and their film hole locations were altered. The same behaviour was continued for the coolant pressure drop and temperature rise from SH1 to SH5 row of film holes. Owing to the interaction between hot main stream and the coolant that effuses out of the film holes, occasional presence of hot gas ingestion was noticed for certain flow rates. This caused nonlinear distribution in mass flow, pressure drop and temperature rise. The minimum flow rate results estimate oxidation of NGV material near the film cooled hole. And the effect of hot gas ingestion on the ejected film cooled jet which would recommends effective oxidation resistant material which in turn leads to better durability of the NGV surface.

Computational Aid to AEDsys for Designing a Variable-Area Gas Turbine Nozzle

This paper presents a practical approach to designing a gas turbine nozzle with the help of the Aircraft Engine Design textbook as well as the software program Nozzle, a subprogram within the Aircraft Engine Design System Analysis Software suite AEDsys. The current textbook and software allow for a variable wetted length of the converging and diverging nozzle sections. Critical feedback from industry experts has inspired an attempt to design a nozzle with fixed wetted material lengths. This paper is written to augment classroom treatment, but will also support others who use the Aircraft Engine Design text and software for a preliminary engine design capstone. This approach is further guided by the actual scaling of the Pratt & Whitney F100 variable geometry converging-diverging nozzle, where wetted lengths are fixed. The chief goal is to equip students at the United States Air Force Academy with a refined approach that is more realistic of a manufactured nozzle design, producing a graphical representation of a nozzle schedule at different speed and altitude flight conditions, both with and without afterburner.