The Geared Turbofan technology is one of the most promising engine configurations to significantly reduce the specific fuel consumption. In this architecture, a power epicyclical gearbox is interposed between the fan and the low pressure spool. Thanks to the gearbox, fan and low pressure spool can turn at different speed, leading to higher engine bypass ratio. Therefore the gearbox efficiency becomes a key parameter for such technology. Further improvement of efficiency can be achieved developing a physical understanding of fluid dynamic losses within the transmission system. These losses are mainly related to viscous effects and they are directly connected to the lubrication method. In this work, the oil injection losses have been studied by means of CFD simulations. A numerical study of a single oil jet impinging on a single high speed gear has been carried out using the VOF method. The aim of this analysis is to evaluate the resistant torque due to the oil jet lubrication, correlating the torque data with the oil-gear interaction phases. URANS calculations have been performed using an adaptive meshing approach, as a way of significantly reducing the simulation costs. A global sensitivity analysis of adopted models has been carried out and a numerical setup has been defined.

In high speed gearbox systems, the lubrication is generally provided using nozzles to create small oil jets that feed oil into the meshing zone. It is essential that the gear teeth are properly lubricated and that enough oil gets into the tooth spaces to permit sufficient cooling and prevent gearbox failure. A good understanding of the oil behaviour inside the gearbox is therefore desirable, to minimize lubrication losses and reduce the oil volume involved, and ensure gearbox reliability. In order to reach these objectives, a comprehensive numerical study of a single oil jet impinging radially on a single spur gear teeth has been carried out using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The aims of this study are to evaluate the resistant torque produced by the oil jet lubrication, and to develop a physical understanding of the losses deriving from the oil-gear interaction, studying the droplets and ligaments formation produced by the breaking up of the jet as well as the formation of an oil film on the surface of the teeth. URANS calculations have been performed with the commercial code ANSYS FLUENT and an adaptive mesh approach has been developed as a way of significantly reducing the simulation costs. This method allows an automatic mesh refinement and/or coarsening at the air-oil interface based on the volume of fluid gradient, increasing the accuracy of the predictions of oil break-up as well as minimizing numerical diffusion of the interface. A global sensitivity analysis of adopted models has been carried out and a numerical set-up has been defined. Finally several simulations varying the oil injection angle have been performed, in order to evaluate how this parameter affects the resistant torque and the lubrication performances.

State-of-the-art liner cooling technology for modern combustion chambers is represented by effusion cooling (or full-coverage film cooling). Effusion is a very efficient cooling strategy typically based on the use of several inclined small diameter cylindrical holes, where liner temperature is controlled by the cornbined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. A CFD-based thermal analysis of such components implies a significant computational cost if the cooling holes are included in the simulations; therefore many efforts have been made to develop lower order approaches aiming at reducing the number of mesh elements. The simplest approach models the set of holes as a uniform coolant injection, but it does not allow an accurate assessment of the interaction between hot gas and coolant. Therefore higher order models have been developed, such as those based on localized mass sources in the region of hole discharge. The model presented in this paper replaces the effusion hole with a mass sink on the cold side of the plate, a mass source on the hot side, whereas convective cooling within the perforation is accounted for with a heat sink. The innovative aspect of the work is represented by the automatic calculation of the mass flow through each hole, obtained by a run time estimation of isentropic mass flow with probe points, while the discharge coefficients are calculated at run time through an in-house developed correlation. In the same manner, the heat sink is calculated from a Nusselt number correlation available in literature for short length holes. The methodology has been applied to experimental test cases of effixsion cooling plates and compared to numerical results obtained through a CFD analysis including the cooling holes, showing a good agreement. A comparison between numerical results and experimental data was peiformed on an actual combustor as well, in order to prove the feasibility of the procedure

Jet array is an arrangement typically used to cool several gas turbine parts. Some examples of such applications can be found in the impingement cooled region of gas turbine airfoils or in the turbine blade tip clearances control of large aero-engines. In order to correctly evaluate the impinging jet mass flow rate, the characterization of holes discharge coefficient is a compulsory activity. In this work, an aerodynamic analysis of jet arrays for active clearance control was performed; the aim was the definition of a correlation for the discharge coefficient (Cd) of a generic hole of the array. The data were taken from a set of CFD RANS simulations, in which the behavior of the cooling system was investigated over a wide range of fluid-dynamics conditions. Furthermore, several different holes arrangements were investigated in significant detail, with the aim of evaluating the influence of the hole spacing on the discharge coefficient distribution. Tests were conducted by varying the jet Reynolds number in a wide range of effective engine operative conditions (Re = 2000-12,000, Pressure- Ratio = 1.01-1.6). To point out the reliability of the CFD analysis, some comparisons with experimental data, measured at the Department of Energy Engineering of the University of Florence, were drawn. An in-depth analysis of the numerical data set has underlined the opportunity of an efficient reduction through the mass velocity ratio of hole and feeding pipe: the dependence of the discharge coefficients from this parameter is roughly logarithmic.

The turbine blade tip clearances control in large aero-engines is currently performed by means of impinging fan air on the outer case flanges. The aim of the present study is to evaluate both the heat transfer coefficient and the adiabatic thermal effectiveness characteristics of an enginelike ACC system, and in particular, to comprehend the effects of the undercowl flow on the impingement jets. The considered geometry replicates the impingement tubes and the by-pass duct used in active control clearance systems. The tube's internal diameter is D = 12 mm, the cooling hole's diameter is d = 1 mm, and the span-wise pitch is Sy/d=12. In order to simulate the undercowl flow, the impingement arrays are inserted inside a tunnel that replicates the typical shape of a real engine by-pass duct. Tests were conducted varying both the mainstream Reynolds number and the jets Reynolds number in a range typical of real-engine operative conditions (Rej=2000-10000, β=1.05-1.15). Numerical calculations are finally proposed to point out if CFD is able to confidently reproduce the experimental evidences.