Numerical Investigation of the Three-Dimensional Temperature Field in the Near Hole Region of a Film Cooled Turbine Vane

Author(s):  
X. Coudray

The increased severity of the thermal environment of high pressure turbine blades and vanes requires accurate calculations for the successful design of these parts. In this paper, the prediction of the temperature field in the near-cooling-hole region on a film cooled turbine vane is presented. The surface distribution of the heat transfer coefficient and the film cooling effectiveness on the vane in presence of one or several film cooling injections is obtained from boundary layer calculations and via experimental correlations. Cooling jet coalescence is taken into account as well as the main parameters governing this physical phenomenon. The internal boundary conditions result from available correlations. The study was conducted on two different configurations : a flat plate including an injection through two rows of holes and a turbine vane including three injections through two rows of holes on the suction side. Thermal computations using a three-dimensional finite element code yield strong temperature distortions and high temperature gradients around the injection zones. The study also indicates that the three-dimensional temperature field just downstream of the injections becomes two-dimensional when jet coalescence takes place. The influence of one or several obstructed injection holes on the temperature field is studied; important effects are observed when the main flow temperature is high.

Author(s):  
G. H. Dibelius ◽  
R. Pitt ◽  
B. Wen

Film cooling of turbine blades by injecting air through holes or slots affects the main stream flow. A numerical model has been developed to predict the resulting three-dimensional flow and the temperature pattern under steady flow conditions. An elliptic procedure is used in the near injection area to include reverse flow situations, while in the upstream area as well as far downstream a partial-parabolic procedure is applied. As first step an adiabatic wall has been assumed as boundary condition, since for this case experimental data are readily available for comparison. At elevated momentum blowing rates, zones of reverse flow occur downstream of the injection holes resulting in a decrease of cooling efficiency. A variation of the relevant parameters momentum blowing rate m, injection angle α and ratio of hole spacing to diameter s/d revealed the combination of m ≈ 1, α ≈ 30° and s/d ≈ 2 to be the optimum with respect to the averaged cooling efficiency and to the aerodynamic losses. Cooling is more efficient with slots than with a row of holes not considering the related problems of manufacture and service life. The calculated temperature patterns compare well with the experimental data available.


Author(s):  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
P. E. Jenkins

The intent of this work is to show, analytically, that superheated steam can provide better film cooling than conventional air for gas turbine blades and vanes. Goldstein’s two-dimensional and Eckert’s three-dimensional models have been reexamined and modified in order to include the effects of thermal-fluid properties of foreign gas injection on the film cooling effectiveness. Based on the modified models, the computed results for steam film cooling effectiveness, showing an increase of 80 to 100 percent when compared with air cooling at the same operating conditions, are presented.


Author(s):  
Gazi I. Mahmood ◽  
Ross Gustafson ◽  
Sumanta Acharya

The measured flow field and temperature field near a three-dimensional asymmetric contour endwall employed in a linear blade cascade are presented with and without film-cooling flow on the endwall. Flow field temperature and Nusselt number distributions along the asymmetric endwall with wall heating and no film-cooling flow are also reported to show local high heat transfer region on the endwall and justify the locations of the coolant holes. Adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness along the endwall is then measured to indicate the local effects of the coolant jets. The near endwall flow field and temperature field provide the coolant flow behavior and the interaction of coolant jets with the boundary layer flow. Thus, the local film-cooling effectiveness can be explained with the coolant jet trajectories. The measurements are obtained at the Reynolds number of 2.30×105 based on blade actual chord and inlet velocity, coolant-to-free stream temperature ratio of 0.93, and coolant-to-free stream density ratio of 1.06. The cascade employs the hub side blade section and passage geometry of the first stage rotor of GE-E3 turbine engine. The contour endwall profile is employed on the bottom endwall only in the cascade. The blowing ratio of the film-cooling flow varies from 1.0 to 2.4 from 71 discrete cylindrical holes located in the contour endwall. The three-dimensional profile of the endwall varies in height in both the pitchwise and axial directions. The flow field is quantified with the streamwise vorticity and turbulent intensity, pitchwise static pressure difference, flow yaw angle, and pitchwise velocity. Both the flow field and temperature data indicate that the coolant jets cover more distance in the pitchwise and axial direction in the passage as the blowing ratio increases. Thus, the local and average film-cooling effectiveness increase with the blowing ratio.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Khalil ◽  
Hatem Kayed ◽  
Abdallah Hanafi ◽  
Medhat Nemitallah ◽  
Mohamed Habib

This work investigates the performance of film-cooling on trailing edge of gas turbine blades using unsteady three-dimensional numerical model adopting large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence scheme in a low Mach number flow regime. This study is concerned with the scaling parameters affecting effectiveness and heat transfer performance on the trailing edge, as a critical design parameter, of gas turbine blades. Simulations were performed using ANSYS-fluentworkbench 17.2. High quality mesh was adapted, whereas the size of cells adjacent to the wall was optimized carefully to sufficiently resolve the boundary layer to obtain insight predictions of the film-cooling effectiveness on a flat plate downstream the slot opening. Blowing ratio, density ratio, Reynolds number, and the turbulence intensity of the mainstream and coolant flow are optimally examined against the film-cooling effectiveness. The predicted results showed a great agreement when compared with the experiments. The results show a distinctive behavior of the cooling effectiveness with blowing ratio variation as it has a dip in vicinity of unity which is explained by the behavior of the vortex entrainment and momentum of coolant flow. The negative effect of the turbulence intensity on the cooling effectiveness is demonstrated as well.


Author(s):  
H. Reiss ◽  
A. Bölcs

Film cooling and heat transfer measurements on a cylinder model have been conducted using the transient thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Three showerhead cooling configurations adapted to leading edge film cooling of gas turbine blades were directly compared: ‘classical’ cylindrical holes versus two types of shaped hole exits. The experiments were carried out in a free jet test facility at two different flow conditions, Mach numbers M = 0.14 and M = 0.26, yielding Reynolds numbers based on the cylinder diameter of 8.6e4 and 1.55e5, respectively. All experiments were done at a main stream turbulence level of Tu = 7% with an integral lengthscale of Lx = 9.1mm (M = 0.14), or Lx = 10.5mm (M = 0.26) respectively. Foreign gas injection (CO2) was used yielding an engine-near density ratio of 1.6, with blowing ratios ranging from 0.6 to 1.5. Detailed experimental results are shown, including surface distribution of film cooling effectiveness and local heat transfer coefficients. Additionally, heat transfer and heat load augmentation due to injection with respect to the uncooled cylinder are reported. For a given cooling gas consumption the laid-back shaped hole exits lead to a clear enhancement of the cooling performance compared to cylindrical exits, whereas laterally expanded holes give only slight performance enhancement.


Author(s):  
Vijay K. Garg ◽  
Ali A. Ameri

A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code has been used to compute the heat transfer coefficient on two film-cooled turbine blades, namely the VKI rotor with six rows of cooling holes including three rows on the shower head, and the C3X vane with nine rows of holes including five rows on the shower head. Predictions of heat transfer coefficient at the blade surface using three two-equation turbulence models, specifically, Coakley’s q-ω model, Chien’s k-ε model and Wilcox’s k-ω model with Menter’s modifications, have been compared with the experimental data of Camci and Arts (1990) for the VKI rotor, and of Hylton et al. (1988) for the C3X vane along with predictions using the Baldwin-Lomax (B-L) model taken from Garg and Gaugler (1995). It is found that for the cases considered here the two-equation models predict the blade heat transfer somewhat better than the B-L model except immediately downstream of the film-cooling holes on the suction surface of the VKI rotor, and over most of the suction surface of the C3X vane. However, all two-equation models require 40% more computer core than the B-L model for solution, and while the q-ω and k-ε models need 40% more computer time than the B-L model, the k-ω model requires at least 65% more time due to slower rate of convergence. It is found that the heat transfer coefficient exhibits a strong spanwise as well as streamwise variation for both blades and all turbulence models.


Author(s):  
Lesley M. Wright ◽  
Stephen T. McClain ◽  
Charles P. Brown ◽  
Weston V. Harmon

A novel, double hole film cooling configuration is investigated as an alternative to traditional cylindrical and fanshaped, laidback holes. This experimental investigation utilizes a Stereo-Particle Image Velocimetry (S-PIV) to quantitatively assess the ability of the proposed, double hole geometry to weaken or mitigate the counter-rotating vortices formed within the jet structure. The three-dimensional flow field measurements are combined with surface film cooling effectiveness measurements obtained using Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP). The double hole geometry consists of two compound angle holes. The inclination of each hole is θ = 35°, and the compound angle of the holes is β = ± 45° (with the holes angled toward one another). The simple angle cylindrical and shaped holes both have an inclination angle of θ = 35°. The blowing ratio is varied from M = 0.5 to 1.5 for all three film cooling geometries while the density ratio is maintained at DR = 1.0. Time averaged velocity distributions are obtained for both the mainstream and coolant flows at five streamwise planes across the fluid domain (x/d = −4, 0, 1, 5, and 10). These transverse velocity distributions are combined with the detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on the surface to evaluate the proposed double hole configuration (compared to the traditional hole designs). The fanshaped, laidback geometry effectively reduces the strength of the kidney-shaped vortices within the structure of the jet (over the entire range of blowing ratios considered). The three-dimensional velocity field measurements indicate the secondary flows formed from the double hole geometry strengthen in the plane perpendicular to the mainstream flow. At the exit of the double hole geometry, the streamwise momentum of the jets is reduced (compared to the single, cylindrical hole), and the geometry offers improved film cooling coverage. However, moving downstream in the steamwise direction, the two jets form a single jet, and the counter-rotating vortices are comparable to those formed within the jet from a single, cylindrical hole. These strong secondary flows lift the coolant off the surface, and the film cooling coverage offered by the double hole geometry is reduced.


Author(s):  
Joao Vieira ◽  
John Coull ◽  
Peter Ireland ◽  
Eduardo Romero

Abstract High pressure turbine blade tips are critical for gas turbine performance and are sensitive to small geometric variations. For this reason, it is increasingly important for experiments and simulations to consider real geometry features. One commonly absent detail is the presence of welding beads on the cavity of the blade tip, which are an inherent by-product of the blade manufacturing process. This paper therefore investigates how such welds affect the Nusselt number, film cooling effectiveness and aerodynamic performance. Measurements are performed on a linear cascade of high pressure turbine blades at engine realistic Mach and Reynolds numbers. Two cooled blade tip geometries were tested: a baseline squealer geometry without welding beads, and a case with representative welding beads added to the tip cavity. Combinations of two tip gaps and several coolant mass flow rates were analysed. Pressure sensitive paint was used to measure the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness on the tip, which is supplemented by heat transfer coefficient measurements obtained via infrared thermography. Drawing from all of this data, it is shown that the weld beads have a generally detrimental impact on thermal performance, but with local variations. Aerodynamic loss measured downstream of the cascade is shown to be largely insensitive to the weld beads.


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