Turbine Blade Internal Cooling Passages with Rib Turbulators

Abstract

Gas turbines are extensively used for aircraft propulsion, land-based power generation, and industrial applications. Developments in turbine cooling technology play a critical role in increasing the thermal efficiency and power output of advanced gas turbines. Gas turbine blades are cooled internally by passing the coolant through several rib-enhanced serpentine passages to remove heat conducted from the outside surface. For internal cooling, focus is placed on the effect of rotation on rotor blade coolant passage heat transfer with rib turbulators. In particular, the most recent publications are covered that deal with the rotational effects on internal cooling passage heat transfer with low and high aspect ratio channels with various high-performance rib geometries. To better understand the complex three-dimensional flow physics in the complicated blade internal coolant passage geometry, the computational flow and heat transfer results are presented and compared using the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes method with various turbulence models such as k-e, and second-moment closure models.