The Fluid Dynamics of LPT Blade Separation Control Using Pulsed Jets

The effects of pulsed vortex generator jets on a naturally separating low pressure turbine boundary layer have been investigated experimentally. Blade Reynolds numbers in the linear turbine cascade match those for high altitude aircraft engines and industrial turbine engines with elevated turbine inlet temperatures. The vortex generator jets (30 degree pitch and 90 degree skew angle) are pulsed over a wide range of frequency at constant amplitude and selected duty cycles. The resulting wake loss coefficient vs. pulsing frequency data add to previously presented work by the authors documenting the loss dependency on amplitude and duty cycle. As in the previous studies, vortex generator jets are shown to be highly effective in controlling laminar boundary layer separation. This is found to be true at dimensionless forcing frequencies (F+) well below unity and with low (10%) duty cycles. This unexpected low frequency effectiveness is due to the relatively long relaxation time of the boundary layer as it resumes its separated state. Extensive phase-locked velocity measurements taken in the blade wake at an F+ of 0.01 with 50% duty cycle (a condition at which the flow is essentially quasi-steady) document the ejection of bound vorticity associated with a low momentum fluid packet at the beginning of each jet pulse. Once this initial fluid event has swept down the suction surface of the blade, a reduced wake signature indicates the presence of an attached boundary layer until just after the jet termination. The boundary layer subsequently relaxes back to its naturally separated state. This relaxation occurs on a timescale which is 5–6 times longer than the original attachment due to the starting vortex. Phase-locked boundary layer measurements taken at various stations along the blade chord illustrate this slow relaxation phenomenon. This behavior suggests that some economy of jet flow may be possible by optimizing the pulse duty cycle and frequency for a particular application. At higher pulsing frequencies, for which the flow is fully dynamic, the boundary layer is dominated by periodic shedding and separation bubble migration, never recovering its fully separated (uncontrolled) state.

The W501G Testing and Validation in the Siemens Westinghouse Advanced Turbine Systems Program

The Siemens Westinghouse Advanced Turbine System (ATS) has the ultimate goal of achieving greater than 60% LHV-based net plant thermal efficiency, less than 10 parts per million NOx emissions, a 10% reduction in cost of electricity, and reliability-availability-maintainability (RAM) equivalent to modern advanced power generation systems. The ATS program, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, introduces advanced technologies in three evolutionary steps to minimize risks and to increase the net benefits of the program. The W501G, the first step in the ATS engine introduction, incorporates many ATS technologies such as closed-loop steam cooling, advanced compressor design, and high temperature materials. The lead unit has completed full-load testing at the City of Lakeland McIntosh #5 site in Lakeland, FL and has produced power and revenue for Lakeland Electric since May 2000. Results from the testing are presented and future developments are discussed. Building on the current W501G, advancements will include steam-cooled turbine vanes and leakage enhancements. Continuing this low risk step-wise introduction of new technology, the W501ATS engine adds further advanced designs that achieve the program objectives. Siemens Westinghouse is also infusing ATS technologies into its mature frames in both new units and service upgrades to maximize the benefit of the program.

Thermal Field and Flow Visualization Within the Stagnation Region of a Film Cooled Turbine Vane

To develop quality computational codes for the film cooling of a turbine vane, a detailed understanding is needed of the physical mechanisms of the mainstream-coolant interactions. In this study flow visualization, thermal profiles, and laser Doppler velocimetry measurements were used to define the thermal and velocity fields of the film cooled showerhead region of a turbine vane. The showerhead consisted of six rows of spanwise oriented coolant holes, and blowing ratios ranged from 0.8 to 2.5. Performances with low and high mainstream turbulence levels were tested. Coolant jets from the showerhead were completely separated from the surface even at relatively low blowing ratios. However, the interaction of the coolant jets from laterally adjacent holes created a barrier to the mainstream flow, resulting in relatively high adiabatic effectiveness.

Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Flow Passage With Long Pin Fins and Improving Heat Transfer Coefficient by Adding Turbulence Promoters on a Endwall

Pin fins are normally used for cooling the trailing edge region of a turbine, where their aspect ratio (height H/diameter D) is characteristically low. In small turbine vanes and blades, however, pin fins may also be located in the middle region of the airfoil. In this case, the aspect ratio can be quite large, usually obtaining values greater than 4. Heat transfer tests, which are conducted under atmospheric conditions for the cooling design of turbine vanes and blades, may overestimate the heat transfer coefficient of the pin-finned flow channel for such long pin fins. The fin efficiency of a long pin fin is almost unity in a low heat transfer situation as it would be encountered under atmospheric conditions, but can be considerably lower under high heat transfer conditions and for pin fins made of low thermal conductivity material. A series of tests with corresponding heat transfer models has been conducted in order to clarify the heat transfer characteristics of the long pin-finned flow channel. It is assumed that heat transfer coefficients can be predicted by the linear combination of two heat transfer equations, which were separately developed for the pin fin surface and for tubes in crossflow. To confirm the suggested combined equations, experiments have been carried out, in which the aspect ratio and the thermal conductivity of the pin were the test parameters. To maintain a high heat transfer coefficient for a long pin fin under high-pressure conditions, the heat transfer was augmented by adding a turbulence promoter on the pin-finned endwall surface. A corresponding equation that describes this situation has been developed. The predicted and measured values showed good agreement. In this paper, a comprehensive study on the heat transfer of a long pin-fin array will be presented.

Comparison of Cooling Film Development Calculations for Transpiration Cooled Flat Plates With Different Turbulence Models

A transpiration cooled flat plate configuration is investigated numerically by application of a 3-D conjugate fluid flow and heat transfer solver, CHT-Flow. The geometrical setup and the fluid flow conditions are derived from modern gas turbine combustion chambers. The plate is composed of three layers, a substrate layer (CMSX-4) with a thickness of 2 mm, a bondcoat (MCrAlY) with thickness 0,15 mm, and a thermal barrier coating (EB-PVD, Yttrium stabilized ZrO2) with thickness 0,25 mm, respectively. The numerical grid contains the coolant supply (plenum), the solid body, and the main flow area upon the plate. The transpiration cooling is realized by finest drilled holes with a diameter of 0,2 mm that are shaped in the region of the thermal barrier coating. The holes are inclined with an angle of 30°. Two different configurations are investigated that differ in the shaping of the holes in their outlet region. The numerical investigation focus on the influence of different turbulence models on the results. Regarding the secondary flow, the cooling film development and complex jet mixing vortex systems are analyzed. Additionally, the impact on the temperature distribution both on the plate surface and in the plate is investigated. It is shown that the choice of the turbulence model has a significant influence on the prediction of the flow structure, and, consequently, on the calculation of the thermal load of the solid body.

Shock Wave - Film Cooling Interactions in Transonic Flows

Interactions between shock waves and film cooling are described as they affect magnitudes of local and spanwise-averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions. A row of three cylindrical holes is employed. Spanwise spacing of holes is 4 diameters, and inclination angle is 30 degrees. Freestream Mach numbers of 0.8 and 1.10–1.12 are used, with coolant to freestream density ratios of 1.5–1.6. Shadowgraph images show different shock structures as the blowing ratio is changed, and as the condition employed for injection of film into the cooling holes is altered. Investigated are film plenum conditions, as well as perpendicular film injection cross-flow Mach numbers of 0.15, 0.3, and 0.6. Dramatic changes to local and spanwise-averaged adiabatic film effectiveness distributions are then observed as different shock wave structures develop in the immediate vicinity of the film-cooling holes. Variations are especially evident as the data obtained with a supersonic Mach number are compared to the data obtained with a freestream Mach number of 0.8. Local and spanwise-averaged effectiveness magnitudes are generally higher when shock waves are present when a film plenum condition (with zero cross-flow Mach number) is utilized. Effectiveness values measured with a supersonic approaching freestream and shock waves then decrease as the injection cross-flow Mach number increases. Such changes are due to altered flow separation regions in film holes, different injection velocity distributions at hole exits, and alterations of static pressures at film hole exits produced by different types of shock wave events.

Computational Design and Experimental Evaluation of Using a Leading Edge Fillet on a Gas Turbine Vane

With the desire for increased power output for a gas turbine engine comes the continual push to achieve higher turbine inlet temperatures. Higher temperatures result in large thermal and mechanical stresses particularly along the nozzle guide vane. One critical region along a vane is the leading edge-endwall juncture. Based on the assumption that the approaching flow to this juncture is similar to a two-dimensional boundary layer, previous studies have shown that a horseshoe vortex forms. This vortex forms because of a radial total pressure gradient from the approaching boundary layer. This paper documents the computational design and experimental validation of a fillet placed at the leading edge-endwall juncture of a guide vane to eliminate the horseshoe vortex. The fillet design effectively accelerated the incoming boundary layer thereby mitigating the effect of the total pressure gradient. To verify the CFD studies used to design the leading edge fillet, flow field measurements were performed in a large-scale, linear, vane cascade. The flow field measurements were performed with a laser Doppler velocimeter in four planes orientated orthogonal to the vane. Good agreement between the CFD predictions and the experimental measurements verified the effectiveness of the leading edge fillet at eliminating the horseshoe vortex. The flowfield results showed that the turbulent kinetic energy levels were significantly reduced in the endwall region because of the absence of the unsteady horseshoe vortex.

Turbulent Spots in Strong Adverse Pressure Gradients: Part 2 — Spot Propagation and Spreading Rates

The study of turbulent spots in strong adverse pressure gradients is of current interest in turbomachinery research. The aim of this investigation is to use information gathered from boundary layer transition and laminar separation, in wind tunnel tests on flat plates, to predict the equivalent phenomena occurring on turbomachinery blade surfaces. In Part 1 turbulent spot behavior was documented for two Reynolds numbers, corresponding to a laminar separation bubble (LSB) and an incipient separation condition (IS). In Part 2 further results are reported characterizing typical spot propagation and spreading rates and serving to validate or modify existing correlations for predicting transition length.

Secondary Air Systems in Aeroengines Employing Vortex Reducers

A secondary air system in modern aero engines is required to cool the compressor and turbine discs and make sure that no hot gas ingestion occurs into the cavities between the turbine discs, which could cause an inadvertent reduction of disc life. A high integrity solution for guiding the air from the compressor to the turbine is through an inner bleed from the compressor platform and through the space between the disc bores and the shaft connecting the fan with the low pressure turbine. Since strongly swirling air is taken from the compressor platforms to a much lower radius, a means of deswirling the air has to be used to avoid excessive pressure losses along the flow path. The paper describes a system utilizing tubeless vortex reducers to accomplish this deswirl, which are compared to a more conventional air system utilizing tubes. The working principles of both types of vortex reducer and guidelines for the design of a secondary air system using vortex reducers are explained with supporting evidence from rig tests and CFD calculations. Opportunities for the aerodynamic optimisation of the tubeless vortex reducer are elaborated and the experience gained using the system during the development of the BR700 engine is described.

Numerical Prediction of Combustor Heatshield Flow and Heat Transfer With Sub-Grid-Scale Modelling of Pedestals

A goal for computational analysis of combustors is to produce a tool for life prediction. An important part of this will be the prediction of the temperature field in the combustor walls. The complex geometries of combustor components make this a formidable task. In this paper a 3D coupled numerical flow/conjugate heat transfer calculation procedure is presented for a combustor heatshield. Proper account must be taken of the blockage and heat transfer effects of pedestals. A scheme has been developed to account for these effects without resolving the pedestals in the computational grid. Extra sink terms are included in the momentum equations to account for pedestal pressure drop. An extra energy equation is solved to determine the local pedestal temperature and to account for heat transfer between pedestals and fluid. This treatment has been validated against empirical data for arrays of pedestals in ducts with good agreement for friction factor and Nusselt number. The methodology is then applied to a generic heatshield geometry to indicate that a viable computational route has been developed for combustor heatshield analysis.