Thermal-Fluid–Solid Coupling—Parametrical Numerical Analysis of Hot Turbine Nozzle Guide Vane

The cooling technology of hot turbine components has been a subject of continuous improvement for decades. In high-pressure turbine blades, the regions most affected by the excessive corrosion are the leading and trailing edges. In addition, high Kt regions at the hot gas path are exposed to cracking due to the low and high cycle fatigue failure modes. Especially in the case of a nozzle guide vane, the ability to predict thermally driven loads is crucial to assess its life and robustness. The difficulties in measuring thermal properties in hot conditions considerably limit the number of experimental results available in the literature. One of the most popular test cases is a NASA C3X vane, but coolant temperature is not explicitly revealed in the test report. As a result of that, numerous scientific works validated against that vane are potentially inconsistent. To address that ambiguity, the presented work was performed on a fully structural and a very fine mesh assuming room inlet temperature on every cooling channel. Special attention was paid to the options of the SST (shear-stress transport) viscosity model, such as Viscous heating (VH), Curvature correction (CC), Production Kato-Launder (KT), and Production limiter (PL). The strongest impact was from the Viscous heating, as it increases local vane temperature by as much as 40 deg. The significance of turbulent Prandtl number impact was also investigated. The default option used in the commercial CFD code is set to 0.85. Presented study modifies that value using equations proposed by Wassel/Catton and Kays/Crawford. Additionally, the comparison between four, two, and one-equation viscosity models was performed.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE ENDWALL HEAT TRANSFER OF A TRANSONIC NOZZLE GUIDE VANE WITH UPSTREAM JET PURGE COOLING PART 1 - EFFECT OF DENSITY RATIO

Nozzle guide vane platforms often employ complex cooling schemes to mitigate the ever-increasing thermal loads on endwall. This study analyzes, experimentally and numerically, and describes the effect of coolant to mainstream blowing ratio, momentum ratio and density ratio for a typical axisymmetric converging nozzle guide vane platform with an upstream doublet staggered, steep-injection, cylindrical hole purge cooling scheme. Nominal flow conditions were engine-representative and as follows: Maexit = 0.85, Reexit,Cax = 1.5×106 and an inlet large-scale freestream turbulence intensity of 16%. Two blowing ratios were investigated, each corresponding to the design condition and its upper extrema at M = 2.5 and 3.5, respectively. For each blowing ratio, the coolant to mainstream density ratio was varied between DR=1.2, representing typical experimental neglect of coolant density, and DR=1.95, representative of typical engine conditions. The results show that with a fixed coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratio, the density ratio plays a vital role in the coolant-mainstream mixing and the interaction between coolant and horseshoe vortex near the vane leading edge. A higher density ratio leads to a better coolant coverage immediately downstream of the cooling holes but exposes the in-passage endwall near the pressure side. It also causes the in-passage coolant coverage to decay at a higher rate in the flow direction. From the results gathered, both density ratio and blowing ratio should be considered for accurate testing, analysis, and prediction of purge jet cooling scheme performance.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE ENDWALL HEAT TRANSFER OF A TRANSONIC NOZZLE GUIDE VANE WITH UPSTREAM JET PURGE COOLING PART 2 - EFFECT OF COMBUSTOR-NGV MISALIGNMENT

A misalignment between the combustor exit and the nozzle guide vane (NGV) platform commonly exists due to manufacturing tolerances and thermal transience. This study investigated, experimentally and computationally, the effect of the combustor-turbine misalignment on the heat transfer for an axisymmetric converging endwall with a jet purge cooling scheme at transonic conditions. The studies were conducted at engine-representative Maexit = 0.85, inlet turbulence intensity of 16%, Reexit,Cax = 1.5×106. A film cooling blowing ratio of 2.5 (design condition) and 3.5 and an engine-representative density ratio of 1.95 were used in the study. Three various step misalignments, combustor exit being 4.9% span higher than turbine inlet (backward-facing), no step (baseline), and combustor exit being 4.9% span lower than turbine inlet (forward-facing), were tested to demonstrate the misalignment effect on endwall heat transfer. Results indicated that the step misalignment affects the cooling performance by altering the interaction between the coolant and the cavity vortex, horseshoe vortex, and passage vortex. At the design blowing ratio of 2.5, the backward-facing step leads to increased coolant dissipation, causing the coolant to be later dominated by the passage vortex and leading to poor cooling performance. Meanwhile, a forward-facing step induced more coolant lift-off. At the blowing ratio of 3.5, the additional momentum ensures that enough coolant enters the passage to form a stable boundary layer. Therefore, the step misalignment no longer has a first-order effect.

Clocking and Potential Effects in Combustor–Turbine Stator Interactions

Investigations of combustors and turbines separately have been carried out for years by research institutes and aircraft engine companies, but there are still many questions about the interaction effect. In this paper, a prediction of a turbine stator’s potential effect on flow in a combustor and the clocking effect on temperature distribution in a nozzle guide vane are discussed. Numerical simulation results for the combustor simulator and the nozzle guide vane (NGV) of the first turbine stage are presented. The geometry and flow conditions were defined according to measurements carried out on a test section within the framework of the EU FACTOR (full aerothermal combustor–turbine interactions research) project. The numerical model was validated by a comparison of results against experimental data in the plane at a combustor outlet. Two turbulence models were employed: the Spalart–Allmaras and Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress models. It was shown that the NGV potential effect on flow distribution at the combustor–turbine interface located at 42.5% of the axial chord is weak. The clocking effect due to the azimuthal position of guide vanes downstream of the swirlers strongly affects the temperature and flow conditions in a stator cascade.

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.

A new experimental approach for heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic wall temperature measurements on a Nozzle Guide Vane with inlet temperature distortions

Modern gas turbines lean combustors are used to limit NOx pollutant emissions; on the other hand, their adoption presents other challenges, especially concerning the combustor-turbine interaction. Turbine inlet conditions are generally characterized by severe temperature distortions and swirl degree, which is responsible for very high turbulence intensities. Past studies have focused on the description of the effects of these phenomena on the behavior of the high pressure turbine. Nevertheless, very limited experimental results are available when it comes to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) on the nozzle guide vane surface, since relevant temperature distortions present a severe challenge for the commonly adopted measurement techniques. The work presented in this paper was carried out on a non-reactive, annular, three-sector rig, made by a combustor simulator and a NGV cascade. It can reproduce a swirling flow, with temperature distortions at the combustor-turbine interface plane. This test apparatus was exploited to develop an experimental approach to retrieve heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic wall temperature distributions simultaneously, to overcome the known limitations imposed by temperature gradients on state-of-the-art methods for HTC calculation from transient tests. A non-cooled mockup of a NGV doublet, manufactured using low thermal diffusivity plastic material, was used for the tests, carried out using IR thermography with a transient approach. In the authors' knowledge, this presents the first experimental attempt of measuring a nozzle guide vane heat transfer coefficient in the presence of relevant temperature distortions and swirl.

Influence of Swirl Clocking on the Performance of Turbine Stage with Three-Dimensional Nozzle Guide Vane

The effect of the swirl clocking on three-dimensional nozzle guide vane (NGV) is investigated using computational fluid dynamics. The research reports the loss characteristics of leaned and swept NGVs and the influence of swirl clocking. The three-dimensional NGVs are built by stacking the same 2D profile along different linear axes, characterized by different angles with respect to the normal or radial direction: ε = −12° ~ +12° for the leaned and γ = −5° ~ +10° for the swept airfoils. A total of 40 models are analyzed to study the effects of lean and sweep on aerodynamic performance. To investigate the influence of swirl clocking, the analysis cases include the center of the swirl that was positioned at the leading edge as well as the middle of the passage. The prediction results show that the relationship of the changes in mass flow rate and throat area are not monotonic. Further observation confirms the redistribution of loading and flow angle under different lean and sweep angles; thus, three-dimensional design is a key influencing factor on aerodynamic performance. In the presence of swirl clocking, NGV performance is changed significantly and the findings offer new insight and opportunities to improve three-dimensional NGV airfoil design.