Effect of Buoyancy and Density Ratio on Heat Transfer in a Smooth Cooling Channel of a Gas Turbine Blade

The present work investigates the effects of buoyancy and density ratio on the thermal performance of a rotating two-pass square channel. The U-bend configuration with smooth walls is selected for this study. The channel has a square cross-section with a hydraulic diameter of 5.08 cm (2 inches). The lengths of the first and second passes are 514 mm and 460 mm, respectively. The turbulent flow enters the channel with Reynolds numbers of up to 34,000. The rotational speed varies from 0 to 600 rpm with the rotational numbers up to 0.75. For this study, two approaches are considered for tracking the buoyancy effect on heat transfer. In the first case, the density ratio is set constant, and the rotational speed is varied. In the second case, the density ratio is changed in the stationary case, and the effect of density ratio is discussed. The range of Buoyancy number along the channel is 0–6. The objective is to investigate the impact of Buoyancy forces on a broader range of rotation number (0–0.75) and Buoyancy number scales (0–6), and their combined effects on heat transfer coefficient for a channel with aspect ratio of 1:1. Several computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation are carried out for this study, and some of the results are validated against experimental data.

Numerical Investigation of the Cooling Performance on the Endwall With and Without Fillet

High inlet temperature of turbine vane increases the demand of high film cooling effectiveness. Vane endwall region was extensively cooled due to the high and flat exit temperature distribution of combustor. Leakage flow from the combustor-turbine gap was used to cool the endwall region except for preventing hot gas ingestion. Numerical predictions were conducted to investigate the flow structure and adiabatic film cooling effectiveness of endwall region in a linear cascade with vane-endwall junction fillet. The simulations were completed by solving the three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS) equations with shear stress transport(SST) k-ω turbulence model, meanwhile, the computational method and turbulence model were validated by comparing computational result with the experiment. Three types of linear fillet with the length-to-height ratio of 0.5, 1 and 2, named fillet A, fillet B and fillet C respectively, were studied. In addition, circular fillet with radius of 2mm was compared with linear fillet B. The interrupted slot, produced by changing the way of junction of combustor and turbine vane endwall, is introduced at X/Cax = −0.2 upstream of the vane leading edge. Results showed that fillet can significantly affect the cooling performance on the endwall due to suppressing the strength of the secondary flow. Fillet C presented the best cooling performance comparing to fillet A and fillet B because a portion of the coolant which climbs to the fillet was barely affected by secondary flow. Results also showed the effect of fillet on the total pressure loss. The result indicated that only fillet A slightly decreases endwall loss.

A Numerical Study of Heat Transfer and Flow Structure in Channels With Miniature V Rib-Dimple Hybrid Structure on One Wall

This paper presents a numerical study on turbulent flow and heat transfer in the channels with a novel hybrid cooling structure with miniature V-shaped ribs and dimples on one wall. The heat transfer characteristics, pressure loss and turbulent flow structures in the channels with the rib-dimples with three different rib heights of 0.6 mm, 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm are obtained for the Reynolds numbers ranging from 18,700 to 60,000 by numerical simulations, which are also compared with counterpart of a pure dimpled and pure V ribbed channel. The results show that the overall Nusselt numbers of the V rib-dimple channel with the rib height of 1.5 mm is up to 70% higher than that of the channels with pure dimples. The numerical simulations show that the arrangement of the miniature V rib upstream each dimple induces complex secondary flow near the wall and generates downwashing vortices, which intensifies the flow mixing and turbulent kinetic energy in the dimple, resulting in significant improvement in heat transfer enhancement and uniformness.

Numerical Investigation of Unsteady Film Cooling on the Turbine Shroud With the Blade Passing

Numerical simulations have been performed on the turbine shroud unsteady film cooling under the blade passing. There are many published experimental studies for turbine shroud heat transfer and a few computational fluid dynamics data. In this paper, unsteady RANS method has been performed to study the effect of the blade rotation speeds and the film blowing ratios on the behavior of film cooling effectiveness. And the sliding mesh in Fluent was used to achieve relative rotation between blade and shroud. These results are reported for blowing ratios of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, blade rotation speeds of 1600 rpm, 1800rpm, 2089rpm, 2400rpm. The results show that the time instantaneous film cooling effectiveness on the shroud have a notable different distribution with the steady blade case. And at the rotation results, the film cooling effectiveness is even coverage with the blowing ratio increasing. The time-averaged film cooling effectiveness on the shroud increases by increasing the blowing ratio on all blade rotational velocities. And in this study, the blade at different rotation speeds, the distribution of time-averaged film cooling effectiveness has a significantly reduce on the shroud because of the relative movement of blade and shroud.

Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in a Converging Pedestal Array With Exit Area Variation

The trailing edge of a vane is one of the most difficult areas to cool due to a narrowing flow path, high external heat transfer rates, and deteriorating external film cooling protection. Converging pedestal arrays are often used as a means to provide internal cooling in this region. The thermally induced stresses in the trailing edge region of these converging arrays have been known to cause failure in the pedestals of conventional solidity arrays. The present paper documents the heat transfer and pressure drop through two high solidity converging rounded diamond pedestal arrays. These arrays have a 45 percent pedestal solidity. One array which was tested has nine rows of pedestals with an exit area in the last row consistent with the convergence. The other array has eight rows with an expanded exit in the last row to enable a higher cooling air flow rate. The expanded exit of the eight row array allows a 30% increase in the coolant flow rate compared with the nine row array for the same pressure drop. Heat transfer levels correlate well based on local Reynolds numbers but fall slightly below non converging arrays. The pressure drop across the array naturally increases toward the trailing edge with the convergence of the flow passage. A portion of the cooling air pressure drop can be attributed to acceleration while a portion can be attributed to flow path losses. Detailed array static pressure measurements provide a means to develop a correlation for the prediction of pressure drop across the cooling channel. Measurements have been acquired over Reynolds numbers based on exit flow conditions and the characteristic pedestal length scale ranging from 5000 to over 70,000.

Investigations on the Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics in a Trapezoid Duct for Turbine Blade Leading Edge

To evaluate the application of the impingement cooling in a trapezoidal duct, particularly the influence on internal cooling of the cross flow and swirl flow. Experimental and numerical studies have been performed. The experiment focuses on the heat transfer characteristics in the duct, when the numerical simulation focuses on the flow characteristics. Four Reynolds numbers (10000, 20000, 30000 and 40000), six cross flow mass flow ratios (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) and two impingement angle (35° and 45°) are considered in both the experiment and the numerical simulation. The temperature on the target wall and the exit side wall is measured by the thermocouples, when the realizable k-ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment are performed using a commercial code Fluent. The results show that only part of the jets contribute in the heat transfer enhancement on the target wall, the other jets improve a large anticlockwise vortex occupied the upper part of the duct and drive strong swirl flow. The heat transfer on the exit side wall is enhanced by the swirl flow. The cross flow is induced in the duct by the outflow of the end exit hole. It deflects the jets and abates the impingement cooling on the target wall in the downstream region but has no evidently effect on the heat transfer on the exit side wall. Higher impingement angle helps to augment the impingement cooling on the target wall and improves the resistance ability of the jets against the effect of the cross flow. The heat transfer enhancement ability on the target wall and exit side wall in the present duct is compared to that of a smooth duct. The Nusselt number of the former is about 3 times higher than that of the latter. It indicates that the impingement and swirl play equally important roles in the heat transfer enhancement in the present duct. Empirical dimensionless correlations based on the present experiment data are presented in the paper.

Application of the Transient Heat Transfer Measurement Technique Using TLC in a Network Configuration With Intersecting Circular Passages

The present study deals with the application of the transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique in a flow network of intersecting circular passages as a potential internal turbine component cooling geometry. The investigated network consists of six circular passages with a diameter d = 20mm that intersect coplanar at an angle θ = 40°, the innermost in three, the outermost in one intersection level. Two additional non-intersecting passages serve as references. Such a flow network entails specific characteristics associated with the transient TLC method that have to be accounted for in the evaluation process: the strongly curved surfaces, the mixing and mass flow redistribution at each intersection point, and the resulting gradients between the wall and passage centerline temperatures. All this impedes the choice of a representative fluid reference temperature, which results in deviations using established evaluation methods. An alternative evaluation approach is introduced, which is supported by computational results obtained from steady-state three-dimensional RANS simulations using the SST turbulence model. The presented analysis uncouples local heat transfer coefficients from actually measured local temperatures but uses the time information of the thermocouples instead that represents the fluid temperature step change and evolution along the passages. This experimental time information is transferred to the steady-state numerical bulk temperatures, which are finally used as local references to evaluate the transient TLC experiments. As effective local mass flow rates in the passage sections are considered, the approach eventually allows for a conclusion whether heat transfer is locally enhanced due to higher mass flow rates or the intersection effects.

Application of Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis to Improvement of Cooled Turbine Vane and Blade for Industrial Gas Turbine

In this paper, the Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) analysis, which utilizes commercial software STAR-CCM+ with detailed models and practical mesh size, was performed to the first stage cooled turbine airfoils for an industrial gas turbine produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI). First its estimation accuracy was evaluated by comparing with the measurement results obtained with thermal index paint (TIP) and a pyrometer. After the validation of the CHT analysis, the metal temperature distribution was understood with the flow phenomena associated with it from the analysis results. To the parts where the metal temperature is locally high, then, the improvements of the cooling performance were considered with the CHT analysis and their effects were finally confirmed by measuring the metal temperature in the actual engine. The investigation reveals that the CHT analysis, which is validated with measurement results, makes it possible for cooling designers to efficiently improve the cooling performance of turbine airfoils with the adequate estimation accuracy, thus enhancing their durability for the reliability of gas turbines.

Full Surface Heat Transfer Measurement of a Turbine Internal Cooling System Using a Large Scaled Model

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the detailed heat transfer characteristics of a large scaled model of a turbine blade internal cooling system. The cooling system has one passage in the leading edge and a triple passage for the remained region with two U-bends. A large scaled model (2 times) is designed to acquire high resolution measurement. The similarity of the test model was conducted with Reynolds number at the inlet of the internal cooling system. The model is designed to simulate the flow at engine condition including film extractions to match the changes in flowrates through the internal cooling system. Also, 45 deg ribs were installed for heat transfer enhancement. The experiments were performed varying Reynolds number in the range of 20,000 to 100,000 with and without ribs under stationary condition. This study employs transient heat transfer technique using thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) to obtain full surface heat transfer distributions. The results show the detailed heat transfer distributions and pressure loss. The characteristics of pressure loss is largely dependent on the changes in cross-sectional area along the passages, the presence of U-bends and the extraction of coolant flow through film holes. The local and area averaged Nusselt number were compared to available correlations. Finally, the thermal performance counting the heat transfer enhancement as well as pressure penalty is presented.

Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Models of Turbine Blade Tip-Walls With Three Kinds of Turning Vanes

In this paper, effects of three kinds of turning vanes on flow and heat transfer of turbine blade tip-walls with a U-shaped channel have been numerically studied. Numerical simulations are performed to solve three-dimensional, steady, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the standard k-ω turbulence model. The aspect ratio (AR) and the hydraulic diameter of the channel are 2 and 93.13 mm, respectively. The effects of single-layer, double-layer and double-layer dome-shaped turning vanes in the turn region on the tip-wall heat transfer and overall pressure loss of rectangular U-shaped channels are analyzed. Detailed flow and heat transfer characteristics over the tip-walls, as well as the overall performance, are presented and compared with each other. Results show that the tip-wall heat transfer coefficients with double-layer dome-shaped turning vanes are the highest among the three cases. Double-layer dome-shaped turning vanes can promote the lateral spreading of secondary flow and effectively increase the uniformity of heat transfer on the tip-wall. More importantly, this structure can make the cooling air expand and accelerate at the center region of the top of the U-shaped channel, resulting in more heat to be removed from the tip-wall. Additionally, double-layer dome-shaped turning vanes can effectively reduce the pressure loss of the channel.