Calculations were performed to simulate the tip flow and heat transfer on the GE-E3 first-stage turbine, which represents a modern gas turbine blade geometry. Cases considered were a smooth tip, 2 percent recess, and 3 percent recess. In addition, a two-dimensional cavity problem was calculated. Good agreement with experimental results was obtained for the cavity calculations, demonstrating that the k–ω turbulence model used is capable of representing flows of the present type. In the rotor calculations, two dominant flow structures were shown to exist within the recess. Also areas of large heat transfer rate were identified on the blade tip and the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement were discussed. No significant difference in adiabatic efficiency was observed for the three tip treatments investigated.

A combined experimental and computational study has been performed to investigate the detailed distribution of convective heat transfer coefficients on the first stage blade tip surface for a geometry typical of large power generation turbines (>100MW). This paper is concerned with the design and execution of the experimental portion of the study, which represents the first reported investigation to obtain nearly full surface information on heat transfer coefficients within an environment which develops an appropriate pressure distribution about an airfoil blade tip and shroud model. A stationary blade cascade experiment has been run consisting of three airfoils, the center airfoil having a variable tip gap clearance. The airfoil models the aerodynamic tip section of a high pressure turbine blade with inlet Mach number of 0.30, exit Mach number of 0.75, pressure ratio of 1.45, exit Reynolds number based on axial chord of 2.57.10 6, and total turning of about 110 degrees. A hue detection based liquid crystal method is used to obtain the detailed heat transfer coefficient distribution on the blade tip surface for flat, smooth tip surfaces with both sharp and rounded edges. The cascade inlet turbulence intensity level took on values of either 5% or 9%. The cascade also models the casing recess in the shroud surface ahead of the blade. Experimental results are shown for the pressure distribution measurements on the airfoil near the tip gap, on the blade tip surface, and on the opposite shroud surface. Tip surface heat transfer coefficient distributions are shown for sharp-edge and rounded-edge tip geometries at each of the inlet turbulence intensity levels.

Coal ash deposition was numerically modeled on a GE-E3 high pressure turbine vane passage. A model was developed, in conjunction with FLUENT™ software, to track individual particles through the turbine passage. Two sticking models were used to predict the rates of deposition which were subsequently compared to experimental trends. The strengths and limitations of the two sticking models, the critical viscosity model and the critical velocity model, are discussed. The former model ties deposition exclusively to particle temperature while the latter considers both the particle temperature and velocity. Both incorporate some level of empiricism, though the critical viscosity model has the potential to be more readily adaptable to different ash compositions. Experimental results show that both numerical models are reasonably accurate in predicting the initial stages of deposition. Beyond the initial stage of deposition, for which transient effects must be accounted.

This work presents a microfluidics-integrated label-free flow cytometry-on-a-CMOS platform for the characterization of the cytoplasm dielectric properties at microwave frequencies. Compared with MHz impedance cytometers, operating at GHz frequencies offers direct intracellular permittivity probing due to electric fields penetrating through the cellular membrane. To overcome the detection challenges at high frequencies, the spectrometer employs on-chip oscillator-based sensors, which embeds simultaneous frequency generation, electrode excitation, and signal detection capabilities. By employing an injection-locking phase-detection technique, the spectrometer offers state-of-the-art sensitivity, achieving a less than 1 aFrms capacitance detection limit (or 5 ppm in frequency-shift) at a 100 kHz noise filtering bandwidth, enabling high throughput (>1k cells per s), with a measured cellular SNR of more than 28 dB. With CMOS/microfluidics co-design, we distribute four sensing channels at 6.5, 11, 17.5, and 30 GHz in an arrayed format whereas the frequencies are selected to center around the water relaxation frequency at 18 GHz. An issue in the integration of CMOS and microfluidics due to size mismatch is also addressed through introducing a cost-efficient epoxy-molding technique. With 3-D hydrodynamic focusing microfluidics, we perform characterization on four different cell lines including two breast cell lines (MCF-10A and MDA-MB-231) and two leukocyte cell lines (K-562 and THP-1). After normalizing the higher frequency signals to the 6.5 GHz ones, the size-independent dielectric opacity shows a differentiable distribution at 17.5 GHz between normal (0.905 ± 0.160, mean ± std.) and highly metastatic (1.033 ± 0.107) breast cells with p ≪ 0.001.