A conjugate numerical methodology was employed to predict the metal temperature of a three-dimensional gas turbine vane at two different engine-realistic operating conditions. The vane was cooled internally by air flowing through ten round, radially-oriented channels. The conjugate heat transfer approach allows the simultaneous solution of the external flow, internal convection, and conduction within the metal vane, eliminating the need for multiple, decoupled solutions, which are time-consuming and inherently less accurate when combined. Boundary conditions were specified only for the inlet and exit of the vane passage and the coolant channels, while the solid and fluid zones were coupled by energy conservation at the interfaces, a condition that was maintained throughout the iterative solution process. Validation of the methodology was accomplished through the comparison of the predicted aerodynamic loading curves and the midspan temperature distribution on the vane external surface with data from a linear cascade experiment in the literature. The superblock, unstructured numerical grid consisted of nearly seven million finite-volumes to allow accurate resolution of flowfield features and temperature gradients within the metal. Two models for turbulence closure were used for comparison: the standard k-ε model and a realizable version of the k-ε model. The predictions with the realizable k-ε model exhibited the best agreement with the experimental data, with maximum differences in normalized temperature of less than ten percent in each case. The present study shows that the conjugate heat transfer simulation is a viable tool in gas turbine design, and it serves as a platform on which to base future work with more complex geometries and cooling schemes.

Interest in hydrogen as a primary fuel stream in heavy-duty gas turbine engines has increased as pre-combustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has become a viable option for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants. The US Department of Energy has funded the Advanced IGCC/Hydrogen Gas Turbine Program since 2005 with an aggressive plant-level NOx target of 2 ppm @ 15% O2 for an advanced gas turbine cycle. Approaching this NOx level with highly-reactive hydrogen fuel at the conditions required is a formidable challenge that requires novel combustion technology. This study begins by measuring entitlement NOx emissions from perfectly-premixed combustion of the high-hydrogen fuels of interest. A new premixing fuel injector for high-hydrogen fuels was designed to balance reliable, flashback-free operation, reasonable pressure drop, and low emissions. The concept relies on distributed, small-scale jet-in-crossflow mixing that is a departure from traditional swirl-based premixing concepts. Single nozzle rig experiments were conducted at pressures of 10 atm and 17 atm, with air preheat temperatures of about 650K. With nitrogen-diluted hydrogen fuel, characteristic of carbon-free syngas, stable operation without flashback was conducted up to flame temperatures of approximately 1850K. In addition to the effects of operating pressure, the impact of minor constituents in the fuel — carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane — on flame holding in the premixer is presented. The new fuel injector concept has been incorporated into a full-scale, multi-nozzle combustor can with an energy conversion rate of more than 10 MW at F-class conditions. The full-can testing was conducted at full gas turbine conditions and various fuel compositions of hydrogen, natural gas, and nitrogen. This combustion system has accumulated over 100 hours of fired testing at full-load with hydrogen comprising over 90 percent of the reactants by volume. NOx emissions (ppm) have been measured in the single digits with hydrogen-nitrogen fuel at target gas turbine pressure and temperatures. Results of the testing show that small-scale fuel-air mixing can deliver a reliable, low-NOx solution to hydrogen combustion in advanced gas turbines.

Interest in hydrogen as a primary fuel stream in heavy-duty gas turbine engines has increased as precombustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has become a viable option for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants. The U.S. Department of Energy has funded the Advanced IGCC I Hydrogen Gas Turbine Program since 2005 with an aggressive plant-level NO^ target of 2 ppm at 15% O2for an advanced gas turbine cycle. Approaching this NO^ level with highly reactive hydrogen fuel at the conditions required is a formidable challenge that requires novel combustion technology. This study begins by measuring entitlement NO^ emissions from perfectly premixed combustion of the high-hydrogen fuels of interest. A new premixing fuel injector for highhydrogen fuels was designed to balance reliable flashback-free operation, reasonable pressure drop, and low emissions. The concept relies on small-scale jet-in-crossflow mixing that is a departure from traditional swirl-based premixing concepts. Single nozzle rig experiments were conducted at pressures of 10 atm and 17 atm, with air preheat temperatures of about 650 K. With nitrogen-diluted hydrogen fuel, characteristic of carbon-free syngas, stable operation without flashback was conducted up to flame temperatures of approximately 1850 K. In addition to the effects of pressure, ihe impacts of nitrogen dilution levels and amounts of minor constituents in ihe fuel-carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane-on flame holding in the premixer are presented. The new fuel injector concept has been incorporated into a full-scale, multinozzle combustor can with an energy conversion rate of more than 10 MW at F-class conditions. The full-can testing was conducted at full gas turbine conditions and various fuel compositions of hydrogen, natural gas, and nitrogen. This combustion system has accumulated over 100 h of fired testing at full load with hydrogen comprising over 90% of the reactants by volume. NOê missions (ppm) have been measured in the single digits with hydrogen-nitrogen fuel at target gas turbine pressure and temperatures. Results of the testing show that small-scale fuel-air mixing can deliver a reliable, low-NO^ solution to hydrogen combustion in advanced gas turbines.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present a new eddy-viscosity formulation designed to exhibit a correct response to streamline curvature and flow rotation. The formulation is implemented into a linear k-1 turbulence model with a two-layer near-wall treatment in a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. Design/methodology/approach -A simple, robust formula is developed for the eddy-viscosity that is curvature/rotation sensitive and also satisfies realizability and invariance principles. The new model is tested on several two-and three-dimensional problems, including rotating channel flow, U-bend flow and internally cooled turbine airfoil conjugate heat transfer. Predictions are compared to those with popular eddy-viscosity models. Findings -Converged solutions to a variety of turbulent flow problems are obtained with no additional computational expense over existing two-equation models. In all cases, results with the new model are superior to two other popular k-1 model variants, especially for regions in which rapid rotation or strong streamline curvature exists.Research limitations/implications -The approach adopted here for linear eddy-viscosity models may be extended in a straightforward manner to non-linear eddy-viscosity or explicit algebraic stress models. Practical implications -The new model is a simple ''plug-in'' formula that contains important physics not included in most linear eddy-viscosity models and is easy to implement in most flow solvers. Originality/value -The present model for curved and rotating flows is developed without the need for second derivatives of velocity in the formulation, which are known to present difficulties with unstructured meshes.

A comprehensive study of film cooling on a turbine airfoil leading edge was performed with a documented, well-tested computational methodology. In this paper, numerically predicted heat transfer coefficients on the film-cooled leading edge are compared with experimental data from the open literature. The results are presented as the ratio of heat transfer coefficient with film cooling to that without film cooling, and the physics behind the surface results are discussed. The leading edge model was a half-cylinder in shape with a bluff afterbody to match the validation experiment, and other geometric parameters matched those of Part I of this study. Coolant at a density equal to that of the mainstream flow was injected through three rows of cylindrical film-cooling holes. One row of holes was centered on the stagnation line of the cylinder, and the other two rows were located ±3.5 hole diameters off stagnation. The downstream rows were staggered such that they were centered laterally between holes in the stagnation row. The holes were inclined at 20° with the surface, and made a 90° angle with the streamwise direction (radial injection). Four average blowing ratios were simulated in the range of 0.75 to 1.9, corresponding to the same momentum flux ratios as in Part I of this work. The multi-block, unstructured numerical grid was characterized by high quality and density, especially in the near wall region, in order to minimize error in predictions of the heat transfer. A fully-implicit scheme was used to solve the steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and a realizable k-ε model provided turbulence closure. A two-layer near-wall treatment allowed the resolution of the viscous sublayer for maximum accuracy in the prediction of the wall heat transfer coefficient. The numerical predictions exhibited generally good agreement with experimental data. The heat transfer coefficient was observed to increase sharply aft of the holes in the downstream rows. When coupled with the adiabatic effectiveness results of the first paper in this series, it is evident that a systematic computational methodology may be effectively applied to investigate and understand the complicated leading edge film-cooling problem.