The Relative Performance of External Casing Impingement Cooling Arrangements for Thermal Control of Blade Tip Clearance

Abstract

As a key way of improving jet engine performance, a thermal tip clearance control system provides a robust means of manipulating the closure between the casing and the rotating blade tips, reducing undesirable tip leakage flows. This may be achieved using an impingement cooling scheme on the external casing. Such systems can be optimized to increase the contraction capability for a given casing cooling flow. Typically, this is achieved by changing the cooled area and local casing features, such as the external flanges or the external cooling geometry. This paper reports the effectiveness of a range of impingement cooling arrangements in typical engine casing closure system. The effects of jet-to-jet pitch, number of jets, and inline and staggered alignment of jets on an engine representative casing geometry are assessed through comparison of the convective heat transfer coefficient distributions as well as the thermal closure at the point of the casing liner attachment. The investigation is primarily numerical, however, a baseline case has been validated experimentally in tests using a transient liquid crystal technique. Steady numerical simulations using the realizable k–ε, k–ω SST, and EARSM turbulence models were conducted to understand the variation in the predicted local heat transfer coefficient distribution. A constant mass flow rate was used as a constraint at each engine condition, approximately corresponding to a constant feed pressure when the manifold exit area is constant. Sets of local heat transfer coefficient data generated using a consistent modeling approach were then used to create reduced order distributions of the local cooling. These were used in a thermomechanical model to predict the casing closure at engine representative operating conditions.

Effect of Jet-to-Jet Distance and Pipe Position on Flow and Heat Transfer Features of Active Clearance Control Systems

“…The outer casing surface can also house ribs, which alter the target surface shape for ACC systems. This typically occurs in the high-pressure turbine section and was studied by Choi et al [12] and Liu et al [13,14]. On the other hand, as low-pressure turbine ACC is concerned, a transverse flow in the undercowl cavity may occur, which can significantly affect the heat transfer for the upstream rails [15].…”

An analytical model for prediction of turbine tip clearance and their optimal parametric relationship to its thermal control

“…A lot of studies have validated that a thermal control system offers a reliable and practical solution by shrinking the entire outer casing to close the tip clearance [23][24][25][26]. In 2016, Choi et al [27] optimized a thermal tip clearance control system to increase the concentration capability for a given casing cooling flow. They numerically and experimentally investigated the effect of jet-tojet pitch, number of jets, and inline and staggered alignment of jets on the engine by comparison of the convective heat transfer coefficient distributions as well as the thermal closure at the point of the casing liner attachment.…”