Blade-cooling Air Research Articles

Advanced Gas Turbine and High Performance Gas-Steam Combined Cycle Plant with Blade Cooling Air Controlling.

Air cooling blade is usually applied to gas turbines as a basic specification. This blade cooling air is almost 20% of compressor suction air flow and it means that a great deal of compression load is not converted effectively to turbine power generation. This paper proposes the cascade cooling method of turbine blade and the consequent improvement of power generation, which is achieved by the reduction of cooling air consumption with effective use of recovered heat. By this technology, current gas turbines (turbine inlet temperature: 1 350°C) can be up-rated to have a potential high efficiency, equivalent to that of conventional high temperature gas turbine (turbine inlet temperature: 1 500°C).

Performance of Pre-Swirl Rotating-Disc Systems

This paper summarizes and extends recent theoretical, computational, and experimental research into the fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer characteristics of the so-called cover-plate pre-swirl system. Experiments were carried out in a purpose-built rotating-disc rig, and the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were solved using two-dimensional (axisymmetric) and three-dimensional computational codes, both of which incorporated low-Reynolds-number k-ε turbulence models. The free-vortex flow, which occurs inside the rotating cavity between the disc and cover-plate, is controlled principally by the pre-swirl ratio, βp: this is the ratio of the tangential velocity of the air leaving the nozzles to that of the rotating disc. Computed values of the tangential velocity are in good agreement with measurements, and computed distributions of pressure are in close agreement with those predicted by a one-dimensional theoretical model. It is shown theoretically and computationally that there is a critical pre-swirl ratio, βp,crit, for which the frictional moment on the rotating discs is zero, and there is an optimal pre-swirl ratio, βp,opt, where the average Nusselt number is a minimum. Computations show that, for βp<βp,opt, the temperature of the blade-cooling air decreases as βp increases; for βp>βp,opt, whether the temperature of the cooling air increases or decreases as βp increases depends on the flow conditions and on the temperature difference between the disc and the air. Owing to the three-dimensional flow and heat transfer near the blade-cooling holes, and to unquantifiable uncertainties in the experimental measurements, there were significant differences between the computed and measured temperatures of the blade-cooling air. In the main, the three-dimensional computations produced smaller differences than the two-dimensional computations. [S0742-4795(00)01902-5]

Heat Transfer in a “Cover-Plate” Preswirl Rotating-Disk System

In most gas turbines, blade-cooling air is supplied from stationary preswirl nozzles that swirl the air in the direction of rotation of the turbine disk. In the “cover-plate” system, the preswirl nozzles are located radially inward of the blade-cooling holes in the disk, and the swirling airflows radially outward in the cavity between the disk and a cover-plate attached to it. In this combined computational and experimental paper, an axisymmetric elliptic solver, incorporating the Launder–Sharma and the Morse low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence models, is used to compute the flow and heat transfer. The computed Nusselt numbers for the heated “turbine disk” are compared with measured values obtained from a rotating-disk rig. Comparisons are presented, for a wide range of coolant flow rates, for rotational Reynolds numbers in the range 0.5 X 106 to 1.5 X 106, and for 0.9 < βp < 3.1, where βp is the preswirl ratio (or ratio of the tangential component of velocity of the cooling air at inlet to the system to that of the disk). Agreement between the computed and measured Nusselt numbers is reasonably good, particularly at the larger Reynolds numbers. A simplified numerical simulation is also conducted to show the effect of the swirl ratio and the other flow parameters on the flow and heat transfer in the cover-plate system.

Flow in a “Cover-Plate” Preswirl Rotor–Stator System

This paper describes a combined theoretical, computational, and experimental study of the flow in an adiabatic preswirl rotor–stator system. Preswirl cooling air, supplied through nozzles in the stator, flows radially outward, in the rotating cavity between the rotating disk and a cover-plate attached to it, leaving the system through blade-cooling holes in the disk. An axisymmetric elliptic solver, incorporating the Launder–Sharma low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model, is used to compute the flow. An LDA system is used to measure the tangential component of velocity, Vφ, in the rotating cavity of a purpose-built rotating-disc rig. For rotational Reynolds numbers up to 1.2 × 106 and preswirl ratios up to 2.5, agreement between the computed and measured values of Vφ is mainly very good, and the results confirm that free-vortex flow occurs in most of the rotating cavity. Computed values of the preswirl effectiveness (or the nondimensional temperature difference between the preswirl and blade-cooling air) agree closely with theoretical values obtained from a thermodynamic analysis of an adiabatic system.

Flow and Heat Transfer in a Preswirl Rotor–Stator System

Conditions in the internal-air system of a high-pressure turbine stage are modeled using a rig comprising an outer preswirl chamber separated by a seal from an inner rotor-stator system. Preswirl nozzles in the stator supply the “blade-cooling” air, which leaves the system via holes in the rotor, and disk-cooling air enters at the center of the system and leaves through clearances in the peripheral seals. The experimental rig is instrumented with thermocouples, fluxmeters, pitot tubes, and pressure taps, enabling temperatures, heat fluxes, velocities, and pressures to be measured at a number of radial locations. For rotational Reynolds numbers of Reφ ≃ 1.2 × 106, the swirl ratio and the ratios of disk-cooling and blade-cooling flow rates are chosen to be representative of those found inside gas turbines. Measured radial distributions of velocity, temperature, and Nusselt number are compared with computations obtained from an axisymmetric elliptic solver, featuring a low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model. For the inner rotor-stator system, the computed core temperatures and velocities are in good agreement with measured values, but the Nusselt numbers are underpredicted. For the outer preswirl chamber, it was possible to make comparisons between the measured and computed values for cooling-air temperatures but not for the Nusselt numbers. As expected, the temperature of the blade-cooling air decreases as the inlet swirl ratio increases, but the computed air temperatures are significantly lower than the measured ones. Overall, the results give valuable insight into some of the heat transfer characteristics of this complex system.

Preswirl Blade-Cooling Effectiveness in an Adiabatic Rotor–Stator System

Blade-cooling air for a high-pressure turbine is often supplied from preswirl nozzles attached to a stationary casing. By swirling the cooling air in the direction of rotation of the turbine disk, the temperature of the air relative to the blades can be reduced. The question addressed in this paper is: Knowing the temperatures of the preswirl and disk-cooling flows, what is the temperature of the blade-cooling air? A simple theoretical model, based on the Reynolds analogy applied to an adiabatic rotor–stator system, is used to calculate the preswirl effectiveness (that is, the reduction in the temperature of the blade-cooling air as a result of preswirling the flow). A mixing model is used to account for the “contamination” of the blade coolant with disk-cooling air, and an approximate solution is used to estimate the effect of frictional heating on the disk-cooling air. Experiments were conducted in a rotor–stator rig that had preswirl nozzles in the stator and blade-cooling passages in the rotating disk. A radial outflow or inflow of disk-cooling air was also supplied, and measurements of the temperature difference between the preswirl and blade-cooling air were made for a range of flow rates and for rotational Reynolds numbers up to Reθ = 1.8 × 106. Considering the experimental errors in measuring the small temperature differences, good agreement between theory and experiment was achieved.

Effect of Reducing the Blade Cooling Air Temperature and Mass Flow on Blade Life and Cycle Efficiency

Reduction of the temperature of the air used for blade cooling to below the compressor exit temperature would allow the required mass flow to be reduced and might be expected to result in an improvement in engine performance. This is demonstrated and quantified in this paper. Improvements in both blade life and cycle efficiency are shown to be possible. For example by cooling the coolant by 50°C a reduction in coolant flow of 40 per cent is possible as well as an improvement of 20 per cent in blade life. Additionally a marginal increase in cycle efficiency is obtained and a 1.4 per cent increase in specific work output. A concept for an integrated cooling device for producing the required reduction in temperature of the blade cooling air is described and appraised. As envisaged at present, the device would be too bulky for airborne applications. However, with further development a feasible design might be evolved.