Effect of Annulus Flow Conditions on Turbine Rim Seal Ingestion

A systematic study of sealing performance for a chute style turbine rim seal using URANS methods is reported. This extends previous studies from a configuration without external flow in the main annulus to cases with a circumferentially uniform axial flow and vane generated swirling annulus flow (but without rotor blades). The study includes variation of the mean seal-to-rotor velocity ratio, main annulus-to-rotor velocity ratio, and seal clearance. The effects on the unsteady flow structures and the degree of main annulus flow ingestion into the rim seal cavity are examined. Sealing effectiveness is quantified by modeling a passive scalar, and the timescales for the convergence of this solution are considered. It has been found that intrinsic flow unsteadiness occurs in most cases, with the presence of vanes and external flow modifying, the associated flow structures and frequencies. Some sensitivities to the annulus flow conditions are identified. The circumferential pressure asymmetry generated by the vanes has a clear influence on the flow structure but does not lead to higher ingestion rates than the other conditions studied.

Sweeping Jet Film Cooling at High Blowing Ratio on a Turbine Vane

Experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to study the effects of high blowing ratios and high freestream turbulence on sweeping jet film cooling. Experiments were conducted on a nozzle guide vane suction surface in a low-speed linear cascade. Experiments were performed at blowing ratios of 0.5–3.5 and freestream turbulence of 0.6% and 14.3%. Infrared thermography was used to estimate the adiabatic cooling effectiveness. Thermal field and boundary layer measurement were conducted at a cross-plane (x/D = 12) downstream of the hole exit. Results were compared with a baseline 777-shaped hole and showed that sweeping jet hole has a better cooling performance at high blowing ratios. The Thermal field data revealed that the coolant separates from the surface at high blowing ratios for the 777-shaped hole while the coolant remains attached for the sweeping jet hole. Boundary layer measurement further confirmed that due to the sweeping action of the jet, the jet momentum of the sweeping jet hole is much lower than that of a 777-shaped hole. Thus the coolant remains closer to the wall even at high blowing ratios. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were performed for both sweeping jet and the 777-shaped hole to evaluate the interaction between the coolant and the freestream at the near hole regions. Results showed that 777-shaped hole has a strong jetting action at high blowing ratio that originates inside the hole breakout edges thus causing the jet to blow off from the surface. In contrast, the sweeping jet hole does not show this behavior due to its internal geometry and the sweeping action of the jet.

Topology Optimization of Serpentine Channels for Minimization of Pressure Loss and Maximization of Heat Transfer Performance As Applied for Additive Manufacturing

Gas Turbine blade cooling is an important topic of research, as a high turbine inlet temperature (TIT) essentially means an increase in efficiency of gas turbine cycles. Internal cooling channels in gas turbine blades are key to the cooling and prevention of thermal failure of the material. Serpentine channels are a common feature in internal blade cooling. Optimization methods are often employed in the design of blade internal cooling channels to improve heat-transfer and reduce pressure drop. Topology optimization uses a variable porosity approach to manipulate flow geometries by adding or removing material. Such a method has been employed in the current work to modify the geometric configuration of a serpentine channel to improve total heat transferred and reduce the pressure drop. An in-house OpenFOAM solver has been used to create non-traditional geometries from two generic designs. Geometry-1 is a 2-D serpentine passage with an inlet and 4 bleeding holes as outlets for ejection into the trailing edge. Geometry-2 is a 3-D serpentine passage with an aspect ratio of 3:1 and consists of two 180-degree bends. The inlet velocity for both the geometries was used as 20 m/s. The governing equations employ a “Brinkman porosity parameter” to account for the porous cells in the flow domain. Results have shown a change in shape of the channel walls to enhance heat-transfer in the passage. Additive manufacturing can be employed to make such unconventional shapes.

A Parametric Investigation of Vane Showerhead Film Cooling by PSP Technique

In this study a parametric analysis of the thermal performance of a nozzle vane cascade with a showerhead cooling system made of four rows of cylindrical holes was carried out by using the Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) technique. Coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratio (BR), density ratio (DR), main flow isentropic exit Mach number (Ma2is) and turbulence intensity level (Tu1) were the considered parameters. The cascade was tested in an atmospheric wind tunnel at Ma2is values ranging from 0.2 to 0.6, with an inlet turbulence intensity level of 1.6% and 9%, at variable injection conditions of BR = 2.0, 3.0, 4.0. Moreover, the influence of DR on the leading edge film cooling performance was investigated: testing was carried out at DR = 1.0, using nitrogen as foreign gas, and DR = 1.5, with carbon dioxide serving as coolant. In the near-hole region, higher BR and Ma2is resulted in higher effectiveness, while higher mainstream turbulence intensity reduced the thermal coverage in between the rows of holes, whatever the BR. Further downstream along the vane pressure side, the effectiveness was negatively affected by rising BR, but positively influenced by lowering the mainstream turbulence intensity. Moreover, a decrease in DR caused a reduction in the film cooling performance, whose extent depends on the injection condition.

3D Heat Transfer Assessment of Full-Scale Inlet Vanes With Surface-Optimized Film Cooling: Part 1 — Experimental Results

Full-scale annular experimental evaluation of two different high pressure turbine first stage vane cooling designs was carried out using high frequency surface heat-flux measurements in the Turbine Research Facility at the Air Force Research Laboratory. A baseline film cooling geometry was tested simultaneously with a genetically optimized vane aimed to improve efficiency and part life. Part 1 of this two-part paper describes the experimental instrumentation, test facility, and surface heat flux measurements used to evaluate both cooling schemes. Part 2 of this paper describes the result of companion conjugate heat transfer posttest predictions, and gives numerical background on the design and modelling of both film cooling geometries. Time-resolved surface heat flux data is captured at multiple airfoil span and chord locations for each cooling design. Area based assessment of surface flux data verifies the genetic optimization redistributes excessive cooling away from midspan areas to improve efficiency. Results further reveal key discrepancies between design intent and real hardware behavior. Elevated heat flux above intent in some areas led to investigation of backflow margin and unsteady hot gas ingestion at certain film holes. Analysis shows areas toward the vane inner and outer endwalls of the aft pressure side were more sensitive to reduced aft cavity backflow margin. In addition, temporal analysis shows film cooled heat flux having large high frequency fluctuations that can vary across nearly the full range of film cooling effectiveness at some locations. Velocity and acceleration of these large unsteady heat flux events moving near the endwall of the vane pressure side is reported for the first time. The temporal nature of the unsteady 3-D film cooling features are a large factor in determining average local heat flux levels. This study determined this effect to be particularly important in areas on real hardware along the HPT vane pressure side endwalls towards the trailing edge, where numerical assumptions are often challenged. Better understanding of the physics of the highly unsteady 3D film cooled flow features occurring in real hardware is necessary to accurately predict distress progression in localized areas, prevent unforeseen part failures, and enable improvements to turbine engine efficiency. The results of this two-part paper are relevant to engines in extended service today.

Unsteady Analysis of Adiabatic Film Cooling Effectiveness Behind a Row of Circular Holes Fed by Internal Crossflow

The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness behind a single row of circular holes fed by internal crossflow was measured by fast-response pressure-sensitive paint technique. During the experiment, the coolant flow was discharged from the coolant holes via either plenum or crossflow channel. The test model has a row of circular holes with 3D spacing, 6.5D entry length, and 35° inclination angle. Two blowing ratios (M = 0.40 and 0.80) were tested with a density ratio of 0.97. A numerical steady-state RANS simulation, using SST k-ω and Realizable k-ε turbulence models, was conducted to understand the internal crossflow behaviors. The unsteadiness caused by the flow structures (counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) and horseshoe vortex) was quantified by the root mean square and the cross-correlations. In addition, the proper orthogonal decomposition was used to identify the large-scale unsteady coherent structures and their contributions. The fluctuations of the crossflow feed were asymmetric, which were significantly weaker compared with the plenum case. The CRVP, as the most significant coherent structures, were demonstrated to play the main role in the unsteadiness of the crossflow feed.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Film Cooling Performance and Flow Structure of Film Holes

Discrete hole film cooling has been commonly used as an effective cooling technique to protect gas turbine blades from hot gas. There have been numerous investigations on the cylindrical hole and shaped hole, but few experimental investigations on the cooling mechanism of the novel film holes with side holes (anti-vortex hole and sister hole) are available. This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation to study the film cooling performance and flow structure of four kinds of film holes (cylindrical hole, fan-shaped hole, anti-vortex hole and sister hole) on the flat plate. The film holes have the same main hole diameter of 4mm and the same inclination angle of 45°. The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness is obtained by the steady-state Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC). The flow visualization experiment and numerical investigation are performed to investigate the flow structure and counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) intensity. The smoke is selected as the tracer particle in the flow visualization experiment. The mainstream Reynolds number is 2900, the blowing ratio ranges from 0.3 to 2.0, and the density ratio of coolant to mainstream is 1.065. Experimental results show that compared with the cylindrical hole, the film cooling performance of the anti-vortex hole and sister hole shows significant improvement at all blowing ratios. The sister hole can achieve the best cooling performance at blowing ratios of 0.3 to 1.5. The fan-shaped hole only performs well at high blowing ratios and it performs best at the blowing ratio of 2.0. Flow visualization experiment and numerical investigation reveal that the anti-vortex hole and sister hole can decrease the CRVP intensity of the main hole and suppress the coolant lift-off because of side holes, which increases the film coverage and cooling effectiveness. For the sister hole, the side holes are parallel to the main hole, but for the anti-vortex hole, there are lateral angles between them. The coolant interaction between the side holes and main hole of the sister hole is stronger than that of the anti-vortex hole. Therefore, the sister hole provides better film cooling performance than the anti-vortex hole.

Experimental Film Cooling Effectiveness of Multi-Row Patterns on Flat and Step-Down Surfaces

Multiple rows of film cooling holes have been widely used for the protection of gas turbine airfoils and other hot sections. In the common approach, however, the streamwise surfaces between the film holes may not receive enough protection. The objective of this research was to overcome this issue by introducing a new layout of film cooling, the step-down surfaces. Pressure-sensitive paint technique was used to test three pairs of geometries. Each pair consists of a flat and a step-down surface for back to back comparisons, under otherwise identical conditions. Two rows of 30° angled cylindrical holes of 3.175 mm diameter, exiting at the step bottom corner, introduced the coolant to the surface. Two spanwise pitch-to-diameter ratios of 2 and 4, two row distance to hole diameter of 4 and 8, four blowing ratios of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1, all at a constant density ratio of 1 were tested. Adding a step-down of the order of 0.8 hole-diameter proved to significantly increase the overall film cooling effectiveness. Two major improvements compared to a flat surfaces were observed: (a) longer streamwise film cooling effectiveness (b) more uniform spanwise distribution of coolant. The main reason of all the improvements is the aerodynamic phenomenon governing the flow evolution, the Coanda effect. The latter, indeed, enhances the flow attachment to the airfoil surface downstream the step.

Turbine Vane Endwall Film Cooling Effectiveness of Different Purge Slot Configurations in a Linear Cascade

This study is concerned with the film cooling effectiveness of the flow issuing from the gap between the NGV and the transition duct on the NGV endwall, i.e. the purge slot. Different slot widths, positions and injection angles were examined in order to represent changes due to thermal expansion as well as design modifications. Apart from these geometric variations, different blowing ratios (BR) and density ratios (DR) were realized to investigate the effects of the interaction between secondary flow and film cooling effectiveness. The experimental tests were performed in a linear scale-1 cascade equipped with four highly loaded turbine vanes at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Machinery of the University of Kaiserslautern. The mainstream flow parameters were, with a Reynolds number of 300,000 and a Mach number (outlet) of 0.6, set to meet real engine conditions. By using various flow conditioners, periodic flow was obtained in the region of interest (ROI). The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness was determined by using the Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) technique. In this context, nitrogen and carbon dioxide were used as tracer gases realizing two different density ratios DR = 1.0 and 1.6. The investigation was conducted for a broad range of blowing ratios with 0.25 ≤ BR ≤ 1.50. In combination with 10 geometry variations and the aforementioned blowing and density ratio variations 100 single operating points were investigated. For a better understanding of the coolant distribution, the secondary flows on the endwall were visualized by oil dye. The measurement results will be discussed based on the areal distribution of film cooling effectiveness, its lateral spanwise as well as its area average. The results will provide a better insight into various parametric effects of gap variations on turbine vane endwall film cooling performance — notably under realistic engine conditions.

Multi-Fidelity Analysis of Acoustic Streaming in Forced Convection Heat Transfer

The behavioral characteristics of thermal boundary layer dictate the relative efficiency of forced convection heat transfer. This research effort is related to the detailed analysis of the temporal evolution of thermal boundary layer under periodic excitations. In presence of oscillations, a distinct thin Stokes layer is formed inside the attached boundary layer, which interacts nonlinearly with the mean flow in the near wall region. This interaction leads to modification of temporally averaged flow fields, commonly known as acoustic streaming. As a result, the aero-thermal wall gradients are modified leading to significant changes in wall shear stress and heat flux. However, the small spatial scales and the inherent unsteady nature of streaming has presented challenges for prior numerical investigations, preventing the identification of optimal parameters. In order to address this void in numerical framework, the development of a three-tier numerical approach is presented. As a first layer of fidelity, a laminar model is developed for fluctuations and streaming flow calculations in laminar flows subjected to travelling wave disturbances. This technique is an extension of the Lin’s method to traveling wave disturbances of various speeds (absent of previously employed assumptions), along with inclusion of energy equation. With low computational cost, this level of abstraction is intended to identify the broad parameter space that yield desirable heat transfer alterations. At the next level of fidelity, 2D U-RANS simulations are conducted across both laminar and turbulent flow regimes. This is geared towards extending the parameter space obtained from laminar model to turbulent flow conditions. As the third level of fidelity, temporally and spatially resolved DNS simulations are conducted to simulate the application relevant compressible flow environment. The exemplary findings indicate that in certain parameter space, both enhancement and reduction in heat transfer can be obtained through acoustic streaming. Moreover, the extent of heat transfer modulations is greater than alterations in wall shear, thereby surpassing Reynolds analogy.