Numerical Investigation of Local Cooling Enhancement Using Pin-Finned Channel With Incremental Impingement

Flow and heat transfer in a low aspect ratio pin-finned channel, representative of an internally cooled turbine airfoil, is investigated using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). To achieve greater control of surface cooling distribution, a novel approach has been recently proposed in which coolant is injected incrementally through a series of holes located immediately behind a specially designed cutout region downstream of the pin-fins. Sheltering the coolant injection behind the pin-fins avoids the impact of the cross-flow buildup that deflects the impingement jet and isolates the surface from cooling. The longitudinal and transverse spacing of the pin-fins, arranged in a staggered fashion, is X/D = 1.046 and S/D = 1.625, respectively. The aspect ratio (H/D) of pin-fin channel is 0.5. Due to the presence of the sequential jets in the configuration, the local cooling rates can be controlled by controlling the jet-hole diameter which impacts the jet mass flow rate. Hence, four different hole diameters, denoted as Large (L), Medium (M) , Small (S), Petite (P) are tested for impingement holes, and their effects are studied. Several patterns of the hole-size distributions are studied. It is shown that the peak Nusselt number in the stagnation region below the jet correlates directly with the jet-velocity, while downstream the Nusselt numbers correlate with the total mass flow rates or the average channel velocity. The local cooling parameter defined as (Nu/Nu0)(1-ε) correlates with the jet/channel mass flow rates.

Comparison of 3D Unsteady Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis on a High Pressure Cooled Turbine Stage With Experimental Data

In order to have higher power to weight ratio and higher efficiency gas turbine engines, turbine inlet temperatures continue to rise. State-of-the-art turbine inlet temperatures now exceed the turbine rotor material capability. Accordingly, one of the best methods to protect turbine airfoil surfaces is to use film cooling on the airfoil external surfaces. In general, sizable amounts of expensive cooling flow delivered from the core compressor are used to cool the high temperature surfaces. That sizable cooling flow, on the order of 20% of the compressor core flow, adversely impacts the overall engine performance and hence the engine power density. With better understanding of the cooling flow and accurate prediction of the heat transfer distribution on airfoil surfaces, heat transfer designers can have a more efficient design to reduce the cooling flow needed for high temperature components and improve turbine efficiency. This in turn lowers the overall specific fuel consumption (SFC) for the engine. Accurate prediction of rotor metal temperature is also critical for calculations of cyclic thermal stress, oxidation, and component life. The utilization of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) codes for turbomachinery aerodynamic design and analysis is now a routine practice in the gas turbine industry. The accurate heat-transfer and metal-temperature prediction capability of any CFD code, however, remains challenging. This difficulty is primarily due to the complex flow environment of the high-pressure turbine, which features high speed rotating flow, coupling of internal and external unsteady flows, and film-cooled, heat transfer enhancement schemes. In this study, conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulations are performed on a high-pressure cooled turbine stage, and the heat flux results at mid span are compared to experimental data obtained at The Ohio State University Gas Turbine Laboratory (OSUGTL). Due to the large difference in time scales between fluid and solid, the fluid domain is simulated as steady state while the solid domain is simulated as transient in CHT simulation. This paper compares the unsteady and transient results of the heat flux on a high-pressure cooled turbine rotor with measurements obtained at OSUGTL.

Heat Transfer and Pressure Loss Characteristics of Pin-Fins With Different Shapes in a Wide Channel

Convective heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss characteristics in a wide rectangular channel (AR = 4) with staggered pin fin arrays are investigated experimentally. Six sets of pin fins with the same nominal diameter (Dn = 8mm) are tested, including: Circular, Elliptic, Oblong, Dropform, NACA and Lancet. The relative spanwise pitch (S/Dn = 2) and streamwise pitch (X/Dn = 4.5) are kept the same for all six sets. Same nominal diameter and arrangement guarantee the same blockage area in the channel for each set. Reynolds number based on channel hydraulic diameter is from 10000 to 70000 with an increment of 10000. Using thermochromic liquid crystal (R40C20W), heat transfer coefficients on bottom surface of the channel are achieved. The obtained friction factor, Nusselt number and overall thermal performance are compared with the previously published data from other groups. The averaged Nusselt number of Circular pin fins is the largest in these six pin fins under different Re. Though Elliptic has a moderate level of Nusselt number, its pressure loss is next to the lowest. Elliptic pin fins have pretty good overall thermal performance in the tested Reynolds number range. When Re>40000, Lancet has a same level of performance as Circular, but its pressure loss is much lower than Circular. These two types are both promising alternative configuration to Circular pin fin used in gas turbine blade.

Effects of Hole Pitch to Diameter Ratio P/D of Impingement and Film Hole on Laminated Cooling Effectiveness

The laminated cooling, also known as impingement-effusion cooling, is believed to be a promising gas turbine blade cooling technique. In this paper, conjugate heat transfer analysis was employed to investigate the overall cooling effectiveness and total pressure loss of the laminated cooling configuration. The pitch to film hole diameter ratio P/Df of 3, 4, 5, 6, combined with pitch to impingement hole diameter ratio P/Di of 4, 6, 8, 10, are studied at the coolant mass flux G of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 kg/(sm2bar) respectively. The results show that overall cooling effectiveness of laminated cooling configuration increases with the decreasing of P/Df and the increasing of the coolant mass flux in general. However P/Df smaller than 3 may leads to a serious blocking in first few film holes at low coolant mass flux. The large P/Di that makes the Mach number of impingement flow greater than 0.16 may cause unacceptable pressure loss. The increment of overall cooling effectiveness depends on the difference between the deterioration of external cooling and the enhancement of internal cooling. Pressure loss increases exponentially with P/Di and G, and it increases more slowly with P/Df that compared to P/Di and G. The mixing loss takes up the most pressure loss at low coolant mass flux. With the increasing of the whole pressure loss, the proportion of throttling loss and laminated loss becomes larger and finally takes up the most of the whole pressure loss. When the sum of throttling loss and laminated loss is greater than mixing loss, the increment of system pressure ratio is unreasonable that compared to the increment of overall cooling effectiveness.

State-of-the-Art Cooling Technology for a Turbine Rotor Blade

Effective internal and external cooling of airfoils is key to maintaining component life for efficient gas turbines. Cooling designs have spanned the range from simple internal convective channels to more advanced double-walls with shaped film-cooling holes. This paper describes the development of an internal and external cooling concept for a state-of-the-art cooled turbine blade. These cooling concepts are based on a review of literature and patents, as well as, interactions with academic and industry turbine cooling experts. The cooling configuration selected and described in this paper is referred to as the “baseline” design, since this design will simultaneously be tested with other more advanced blade cooling designs in a rotating turbine test facility using a “rainbow turbine wheel” configuration. For the baseline design, the leading edge is cooled by internal jet impingement and showerhead film cooling. The mid-chord region of the blade contains a three-pass serpentine passage with internal discrete V-shaped trip strips to enhance the internal heat transfer coefficient. The film cooling along the mid-chord of the blade uses multiple rows of shaped diffusion holes. The trailing edge is internally cooled using jet impingement and externally film cooled through partitioned cuts on the pressure side of the blade.

Numerical Study on the Influence of Trench Width on Film Cooling Characteristics of Double-Wave Trench

Film cooling performance of the double-wave trench was numerically studied to improve the film cooling characteristics. Double-wave trench was formed by changing the leading edge and trailing edge of transverse trench into cosine wave. The film cooling characteristics of transverse trench and double-wave trench were numerically studied using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations with realizable k-ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment. The film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient of double-wave trench at different trench width (W = 0.8D, 1.4D, 2.1D) conditions are investigated, and the distribution of temperature field and flow field were analyzed. The results show that double-wave trench effectively improves the film cooling effectiveness and the uniformity of jet at the downstream wall of the trench. The span-wise averaged film cooling effectiveness of the double-wave trench model increases 20–63% comparing with that of the transverse trench at high blowing ratio. The anti-counter-rotating vortices which can press the film on near-wall are formed at the downstream wall of the double-wave trench. With the double-wave trench width decreasing, the film cooling effectiveness gradually reduces at the hole center-line region of the downstream trench. With the increase of the blowing ratio, the span-wise averaged heat transfer coefficient increases. The span-wise averaged heat transfer coefficient of the double-wave trench with 0.8D and 2.1D trench width is higher than that of the double-wave trench with 1.4D trench width at the high blowing ratio conditions.

Implicit LES for Shaped-Hole Film Cooling Flow

Results of a recent joint experimental and computational investigation of the flow through a plenum-fed 7-7-7 shaped film cooling hole are presented. In particular, we compare the measured adiabatic effectiveness and mean temperature against implicit large eddy simulation (iLES) for blowing ratio approximately 2, density ratio 1.6, and Reynolds number 6000. The results overall show reasonable agreement between the iLES and the experimental results for the adiabatic effectiveness and gross features of the mean temperature field. Notable discrepancies include the centerline adiabatic effectiveness near the hole, where the iLES under-predicts the measurements by Δη ≈ 0.05, and the near-wall temperature, where the simulation results show features not present in the measurements. After showing this comparison, the iLES results are used to examine features that were not measured in the experiments, including the in-hole flow and the dominant fluxes in the mean internal energy equation downstream of the hole. Key findings include that the flow near the entrance to the hole is highly turbulent and that there is a large region of backflow near the exit of the hole. Further, the well-known counter-rotating vortex pair downstream of the hole is observed. Finally, the typical gradient diffusion hypothesis for the Reynolds heat flux is evaluated and found to be incorrect.

Numerical Investigation of Coolant-to-Mainstream Scaling Parameters With Film Cooling on Pressure and Suction Side of a Gas Turbine Blade

Most experiments of blade film cooling are conducted with density ratio lower than that of turbine conditions. In order to accurately model the performance of film cooling under a high density ratio, choosing an appropriate coolant to mainstream scaling parameter is necessary. The effect of density ratio on film cooling effectiveness on the surface of a gas turbine twisted blade is investigated from a numerical point of view. One row of film holes are arranged in the pressure side and two rows in the suction side. All the film holes are cylindrical holes with a pitch to diameter ratio P/d = 8.4. The inclined angle is 30°on the pressure side and 34° on the suction side. The steady solutions are obtained by solving Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes equations with a finite volume method. The SST turbulence model coupled with γ-θ transition model is applied for the present simulations. A film cooling experiment of a turbine vane was done to validate the turbulence model. Four different density ratios (DR) from 0.97 to 2.5 are studied. To independently vary the blowing ratio (M), momentum flux ratio (I) and velocity ratio (VR) of the coolant to the mainstream, seven conditions (M varying from 0.25 to 1.6 on the pressure side and from 0.25 to 1.4 on the suction side) are simulated for each density ratio. The results indicate that the adiabatic effectiveness increases with the increase of density ratio for a certain blowing ratio or a certain momentum flux ratio. Both on the pressure side and suction side, none of the three parameters listed above can serve as a scaling parameter independent of density ratio in the full range. The velocity ratio provides a relative better collapse of the adiabatic effectiveness than M and I for larger VRs. A new parameter describing the performance of film cooling is introduced. The new parameter is found to be scaled with VR for nearly the whole range.

Characterization of the Surface Curvature Effect Using LES for a Single Round Impinging Jet

In this paper, wall resolved Large Eddy Simulation is used to study the effect of the surface curvature for two impinging jet configurations. The reference case is a single round jet impinging on a flat plate at a Reynolds number (based on the bulk velocity Ub and the pipe diameter D) Re = 23 000 and for a nozzle to plate distance H = 2D. The results on this configuration have been previously analyzed and validated against experimental results. This paper compares for the same operating point, the flat plate impingement to an impinging jet on a concave hemispherical surface with a relative curvature d/D = 0.089 where d is the concave surface diameter. Mean and Root Mean Square (RMS) quantities are compared to highlight differences and similarities between the two cases. In addition high order statistic such as Skewness of the temporal distribution of wall heat flux is analyzed. Probability density functions (PDF) are also built to further characterize the effect of surface curvature. It is shown that the surface curvature has a destabilizing effect on the vortical structures present in such a flow leading to a modification of the wall heat transfer compared to the flat plate case. The flow topology in the concave case is dominated by a large toroidal stationary vortex. This vortex generates a natural confinement that causes the increase of the mean temperature of the ambient air around the jet. The main effect is the reduction of the capacity of the vortical structures to enhance heat transfer. Finally, the confinement effect combined with the destabilization due to the concave curvature lead to an alleviation of the secondary peak in the Nusselt distribution and a reduction of the heat transfer at the wall.

Large Eddy Simulation of Flow and Heat Transfer Mechanism in Matrix Cooling Channel

Gas turbine engines have been widely used in modern industry especially in the aviation, marine and energy fields. The efficiency of gas turbines directly affects the economy and emissions. It’s acknowledged that the higher turbine inlet temperatures contribute to the overall gas turbine engine efficiency. Since the components are subject to the heat load, the internal cooling technology of turbine blades is of vital importance to ensure the safe and normal operation. This paper is focused on exploring the flow and heat transfer mechanism in matrix cooling channels. In order to analyze the internal flow field characteristics of this cooling configuration at a Reynolds number of 30000 accurately, large eddy simulation method is carried out. Methods of vortex identification and field synergy are employed to study its flow field. Cross-sectional views of velocity in three subchannels at different positions have been presented. The results show that the airflow is strongly disturbed by the bending part. It’s concluded that due to the bending structure, the airflow becomes complex and disordered. When the airflow goes from the inlet to the turning, some small-sized and discontinuous vortices are formed. Behind the bending structure, the size of the vortices becomes big and the vortices fill the subchannels. Because of the structure of latticework, the airflow is affected by each other. Airflow in one subchannel can exert a shear force on another airflow in the opposite subchannel. It’s the force whose direction is the same as the vortex that enhances the longitudinal vortices. And the longitudinal vortices contribute to the energy exchange of the internal airflow and the heat transfer between airflow and walls. Besides, a comparison of the CFD results and the experimental data is made to prove that the numerical simulation methods are reasonable and acceptable.