The drive to further increase gas turbine thermal efficiency and specific power output continue to elevate core temperatures well beyond the natural capabilities of the metals employed in their manufacture necessitating increasingly complex cooling systems. One such cooling mechanism is the double-wall, effusion-cooled system which combines in a very compact format, many cooling aspects already implemented in gas turbine cooling. To-date, thermomechanical stresses have provided one of the more significant challenges in the implementation of these systems and needs to be considered — alongside aerothermal performance — at the initial stages of design. This paper presents a novel computational method that has been developed to allow an integrated assessment of both the aerothermal and thermomechanical performance of double-wall cooling geometries. A decoupled conjugate method was developed in which internal cooling performance was ascertained via a conjugate CFD model in which the mainstream flow was not simulated. Instead, external film cooling performance was assessed via a superposition method that was developed and applied to a two-dimensionally varying correlation allowing streamwise film development to be modelled. Results of both the internal and external cooling simulations were then utilised in a conduction model to develop a complete thermal assessment of the geometry. The calculated temperature distribution was used in a thermomechanical FEA analysis permitting an insight into the stress field developed within the double-wall geometry under thermal load. The developed method was demonstrated in the assessment of seven circular pedestal, double-wall geometries in which a range of geometric parameters were investigated. The results provide an insight into the effect of varying these parameters on both the aerothermal performance of the selected geometries, along with the effect on the thermomechanical stress field developed.
This paper describes a new engine-parts facility at the University of Oxford for high technology-readiness-level research, new technology demonstration, and for engine component validation. The Engine Component AeroThermal (ECAT) facility has a modular working section which houses a full annulus of engine components. The facility is currently operated with high-pressure nozzle guide vanes from a large civil jet-engine. A high degree of engine similarity is achieved, with matched conditions of Mach number, Reynolds number, and coolant-to-mainstream pressure ratio. For combustor-turbine interaction studies, a combustor simulator module is used, which is capable of both rich-burn and lean-burn combined temperature, swirl and turbulence profiles. The facility is being used for aerothermal optimisation research (e.g., novel cooling systems, aerodynamic optimisation problems, capacity sensitivity studies), computational fluid dynamics validation (aerodynamic predictions, conjugate predictions), and for component validation to accelerate the engine design process. The three key measurement capabilities are: capacity characteristic evaluation to a precision of 0.02%; overall cooling (metal) effectiveness measurements (using a rainbow set of parts if required); and aerodynamic loss evaluation (with realistic cooling, trailing-edge flow etc.). Each of these three capabilities have been separately developed and optimised in other facilities at the University of Oxford in the last 10 years, to refine aspects of facility design, instrumentation design, experimental technique, and theoretical aspects of scaling and reduction of experimental data. The ECAT facility brings together these three research strands with a modular test vehicle for rapid high technology-readiness-level research, demonstration of new technologies, and for engine component validation. The purpose of this paper is to collect in one place — and put in context — the work that led to the development of the ECAT facility, to describe the facility, and to illustrate the accuracy and utility of the techniques by presenting typical data for each of the key measurements. The ECAT facility is a response to the changing requirements of experimental turbomachinery testing, and it is hoped this paper will be of interest to engine designers, researchers, and those involved in major facility developments in both research institutes and engine companies.
This paper presents experimental measurements of the performance of a new film cooling hole geometry - the Converging Slot-Hole or Console. This novel, patented geometry has been designed to improve the heat transfer and aerodynamic loss performance of turbine vane and rotor blade cooling systems. The physical principles embodied in the new hole design are described, and a typical example of the console geometry is presented. The cooling performance of a single row of consoles was compared experimentally with that of typical 35° cylindrical and fan-shaped holes and a slot, on a large-scale, flat-plate model at engine representative Reynolds numbers in a low speed tunnel with ambient temperature main flow. The hole throat area per unit width is matched for all four hole geometries. By independently varying the temperature of the heated coolant and the heat flux from an electrically heated, thermally insulated, constant heat flux surface, both the heat transfer coefficient and the adiabatic cooling effectiveness were deduced from digital photographs of the colour play of narrow-band thermochromic liquid crystals on the model surface. A comparative measurement of the aerodynamic losses associated with each of the four film-cooling geometries was made by traversing the boundary layer at the downstream end of the flat plate. The promising heat transfer and aerodynamic performance of the console geometry have justified further experiments on an engine representative nozzle guide vane in a transonic annular cascade presented in Part 2 of this paper [1].
This paper presents experimental measurements of the performance of a new film-cooling hole geometry—the con¯vergings¯lot-hole¯ or console. This novel, patented geometry has been designed to improve the heat transfer and aerodynamic loss performance of turbine vane and rotor blade cooling systems. The physical principles embodied in the new hole design are described, and a typical example of the console geometry is presented. The cooling performance of a single row of consoles was compared experimentally with that of typical 35-deg cylindrical and fan-shaped holes and a slot, on a large-scale, flat-plate model at engine representative Reynolds numbers in a low-speed tunnel with ambient temperature main flow. The hole throat area per unit width is matched for all four hole geometries. By independently varying the temperature of the heated coolant and the heat flux from an electrically heated, thermally insulated, constant heat flux surface, both the heat transfer coefficient and the adiabatic cooling effectiveness were deduced from digital photographs of the color play of narrow-band thermochromic liquid crystals on the model surface. A comparative measurement of the aerodynamic losses associated with each of the four film-cooling geometries was made by traversing the boundary layer at the downstream end of the flat plate. The promising heat transfer and aerodynamic performance of the console geometry have justified further experiments on an engine representative nozzle guide vane in a transonic annular cascade presented in Part 2 of this paper.
Abstract:The continuing rise in turbine entry temperatures has necessitated the development of ever-more advanced cooling techniques. Effusion cooling is an example of such a system and is characterised by a high density of film cooling holes that operate at low blowing ratios, thereby achieving high overall cooling effectiveness. This paper presents both an experimental and computational investigation into the cooling performance of effusion systems. Two flat-plate geometries (with primary hole pitches of 3.0D and 5.75D) are experimentally investigated via a pressure sensitive paint technique yielding high resolution film effectiveness distributions via heat-mass transfer analogy. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) scalar tracking method was used to model the setup computationally with the results comparing favourably to those obtained from the experiments. The CFD domain was modified to assess the cooling performance from a single film hole ejection. A superposition method was developed and applied to the resulting two-dimensional film effectiveness distribution that quickly yielded data for an array of closely-packed holes, allowing a rapid assessment of a multi-hole effusion type setup. The method produced satisfactory results at higher pitches, but at lower pitches, high levels of jet interactions reduced the performance of the superposition method.
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