Blade Platform Research Articles

Temperature Predictions and Comparison With Measurements for the Blade Leading Edge and Platform of a 1 1/2 Stage Transonic HP Turbine

A series of computational predictions generated using FINE/TURBO are compared with data to investigate implementation techniques available for predicting temperature migration through a turbine stage. The experimental results used for comparison are from a one-and-one-half stage turbine operating at design-corrected conditions in a short-duration facility. Measurements of the boundary conditions are used to set up the computational models, and the predicted temperatures are compared with measured fluid temperatures at the blade leading edge and just above the blade platform. Fluid temperature measurements have not previously been available for these locations in a transonic turbine operating at design-corrected conditions, so this represents a novel comparison. Accurate predictions for this short-duration turbine experiment require use of the isothermal wall boundary condition instead of an adiabatic boundary condition and accurate specification of the inlet temperature profile all the way to the wall. Predictions using the harmonic method agree with the temperatures measured for the blade leading edge from 65% to 95% span to within 1% normalized temperature data. Agreement over much of the rest of the leading edge is within 5% of the measured value. Comparisons at 5–10% span and for the blade platform show larger differences up to 10%, which indicates that the flow in this region is not fully captured by the prediction. This is not surprising since the purge cavity and platform leading-edge features present in the experiment are treated as a smooth hub wall in the current simulation. This work represents a step toward the larger goal of accurately predicting surface heat-flux for the complicated environment of an operational engine as it is reproduced in a laboratory setting. The experiment upon which these computations are based includes realistic complications such as one-dimensional and two-dimensional inlet temperature profiles, a heavily film-cooled vane, and purge cooling. While the ultimate goal is to accurately handle all of these features, the current model focuses on the treatment of a subset of experiments performed for a one-dimensional radial inlet temperature profile and no cooling.

A Test Rig for Noncontact Traveling Wave Excitation of a Bladed Disk With Underplatform Dampers

This paper presents a static test rig called “Octopus” designed for the validation of numerical models aimed at calculating the nonlinear dynamic response of a bladed disk with underplatform dampers (UPDs). The test rig supports a bladed disk on a fixture and each UPD is pressed against the blade platforms by wires pulled by dead weights. Both excitation system and response measurement system are noncontacting. This paper features the design and the setup of the noncontacting excitation generated by electromagnets placed under each blade. A traveling wave excitation is generated according to a desired engine order by shifting the phase of the harmonic force of one electromagnet with respect to the contiguous exciters. Since the friction phenomenon generated by UPDs introduces nonlinearities on the forced response, the amplitude of the exciting force must be kept constant at a known value on every blade during step-sine test to calculate frequency response functions. The issue of the force control is therefore addressed since the performance of the electromagnet changes with frequency. The system calibration procedure and the estimated errors on the generated force are also presented. Examples of experimental tests that can be performed on a dummy integral bladed disk (blisk) mounted on the rig are described in the end.

Film-Cooling Effectiveness on a Rotating Turbine Platform Using Pressure Sensitive Paint Technique

Film-cooling effectiveness is measured on a rotating turbine blade platform for coolant injection through discrete holes using pressure sensitive paint technique. Most of the existing literatures provide information only for stationary endwalls. The effects of rotation on the platform film-cooling effectiveness are not well documented. Hence, the existing three-stage turbine research facility at the Turbomachinery and Flow Performance Laboratory, Texas A&M University was redesigned and installed to enable coolant gas injection on the first stage rotor platform. Two distinct coolant supply loops were incorporated into the rotor to facilitate separate feeds for upstream cooling using stator-rotor gap purge flow and downstream discrete-hole film cooling. As a continuation of the previously published work involving stator-rotor gap purge cooling, this study investigates film-cooling effectiveness on the first stage rotor platform due to coolant gas injection through nine discrete holes located downstream within the passage region. Film-cooling effectiveness is measured for turbine rotor frequencies of 2400 rpm, 2550 rpm, and 3000 rpm corresponding to rotation numbers of Ro=0.18, 0.19, and 0.23, respectively. For each of the turbine rotational frequencies, film-cooling effectiveness is determined for average film-hole blowing ratios of Mholes=0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, and 2.0. To provide a complete picture of hub cooling under rotating conditions, simultaneous injection of coolant gas through upstream stator-rotor purge gap and downstream discrete film-hole is also studied. The combined tests are conducted for gap purge flow corresponding to coolant to mainstream mass flow ratio of MFR=1% with three downstream film-hole blowing ratios of Mholes=0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 for each of the three turbine speeds. The results for combined upstream stator-rotor gap purge flow and downstream discrete holes provide information about the optimum purge flow coolant mass, average coolant hole blowing ratios for each rotational speed, and coolant injection location along the passage to obtain efficient platform film cooling.

Turbine Blade Platform Film Cooling With Typical Stator-Rotor Purge Flow and Discrete-Hole Film Cooling

This paper is focused on the effect of film-hole configurations on platform film cooling. The platform is cooled by purge flow from a simulated stator-rotor seal combined with discrete-hole film cooling within the blade passage. The cylindrical holes and laidback fan-shaped holes are assessed in terms of film-cooling effectiveness and total pressure loss. Lined up with the freestream streamwise direction, the film holes are arranged on the platform with two different layouts. In one layout, the film-cooling holes are divided into two rows and more concentrated on the pressure side of the passage. In the other layout, the film-cooling holes are divided into four rows and loosely distributed on the platform. Four film-cooling hole configurations are investigated totally. Testing was done in a five-blade cascade with medium high Mach number condition (0.27 and 0.44 at the inlet and the exit, respectively). The detailed film-cooling effectiveness distributions on the platform were obtained using pressure sensitive paint technique. Results show that the combined cooling scheme (slot purge flow cooling combined with discrete-hole film cooling) is able to provide full film coverage on the platform. The shaped holes present higher film-cooling effectiveness and wider film coverage than the cylindrical holes, particularly at higher blowing ratios. The hole layout affects the local film-cooling effectiveness. The shaped holes also show the advantage over the cylindrical holes with lower total pressure loss.

Prediction of Film Cooling and Heat Transfer on a Rotating Blade Platform With Stator-Rotor Purge and Discrete Film-Hole Flows in a 1-12 Turbine Stage

Numerical simulations were performed to predict the film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient distributions on a rotating blade platform with stator-rotor purge flow and downstream discrete film-hole flows in a 1-12 turbine stage using a Reynolds stress turbulence model together with a nonequilibrium wall function. Simulations were carried out with sliding mesh for the rotor under three rotating speeds (2000 rpm, 2550 rpm, and 3000 rpm) to investigate the effects of rotation and stator-rotor interaction on the rotor blade-platform purge flow cooling and discrete-hole film cooling and heat transfer. The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients were calculated using the adiabatic wall temperatures with and without coolant to examine the true coolant protection excluding the effect of turbine work process. The stator-rotor interaction strongly impacts the purge slot film cooling and heat transfer at the platform leading portion while only slightly affects the downstream discrete-hole film cooling near the platform trailing portion. In addition, the effect of turbine work process on the film cooling effectiveness and the associated heat transfer coefficients have been reported.

Characterizing the basic synchronization and communication operations in Dual Cell-based Blades through CellStats

The Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) is a heterogeneous chip-multiprocessor (CMP) architecture to offer very high performance, especially on game and multimedia applications. The singularity of its architecture, nine cores of two different types, along with the variety of synchronization and communication primitives offered to programmers, make the task of developing efficient applications very challenging. This situation gets even worse when dual Cell-based blade platforms are considered, where two separate Cells can be linked together through a dedicated high-speed interface. In this work, we present a characterization of the main synchronization and communication primitives provided to programmers in the context of a dual Cell-based blade under varying workloads through our CellStats tool. In particular, we focus on the DMA transfer mechanism, the mailboxes, the signals, the read-modify-write atomic operations, and the time taken by thread creation. Our performance results expose the bottlenecks and asymmetries of these platforms, which must be taken into account by programmers for choosing the most adequate primitives to improve the efficiency of their applications.

Effect of Upstream Wake With Vortex on Turbine Blade Platform Film Cooling With Simulated Stator-Rotor Purge Flow

Detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions were experimentally obtained on a turbine blade platform within a linear cascade. The film cooling effectiveness distributions were obtained on the platform with upstream disturbances used to simulate the passing vanes. Cylindrical rods, placed upstream of the blades, simulated the wake created by the trailing edge of the stator vanes. The rods were placed at four locations to show how the film cooling effectiveness was affected relative to the vane location. In addition, delta wings were placed upstream of the blades to model the effect of the passage vortex (generated in the vane passage) on the platform film cooling effectiveness. The delta wings create a vortex similar to the passage vortex as it exits the upstream vane passage. The film cooling effectiveness was measured with the delta wings placed at four location, to investigate the effect of the passing vanes. Finally, the delta wings were coupled with the cylindrical rods to examine the combined effect of the upstream wake and passage vortex on the platform film cooling effectiveness. The detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions were obtained using pressure sensitive paint in the five blade linear cascade. An advanced labyrinth seal was placed upstream of the blades to simulate purge flow from a stator-rotor seal. The coolant flow rate varied from 0.5% to 2.0% of the mainstream flow, while the Reynolds number of the mainstream flow remained constant at 3.1×105 (based on the inlet velocity and chord length of the blade). The film cooling effectiveness was not significantly affected with the upstream rod. However, the vortex generated by the delta wings had a profound impact on the film cooling effectiveness. The vortex created more turbulent mixing within the blade passage, and the result is reduced film cooling effectiveness through the entire passage. When the vane induced secondary flow is included, the need for additional platform cooling becomes very obvious.

Film-Cooling Effectiveness on a Rotating Blade Platform

Film cooling effectiveness measurements under rotation were performed on the rotor blade platform using a pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. The present study examines, in particular, the film cooling effectiveness due to purging of coolant from the wheel-space cavity through the circumferential clearance gap provided between the stationary and rotating components of the turbine. The experimental investigation is carried out in a new three-stage turbine facility, recently designed and taken into operation at the Turbomachinery Performance and Flow Research Laboratory (TPFL) of Texas A&M University. This new turbine rotor has been used to facilitate coolant injection through this stator-rotor gap upstream of the first stage rotor blade. The gap was inclined at 25deg to mainstream flow to allow the injected coolant to form a film along the passage platform. The effects of turbine rotating conditions on the blade platform film cooling effectiveness were investigated at three speeds of 2550rpm, 2000rpm, and 1500rpm with corresponding incidence angles of 23.2deg, 43.4deg, and 54.8deg, respectively. Four different coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratios varying from 0.5% to 2.0% were tested at each rotational speed. Aerodynamic measurements were performed at the first stage stator exit using a radially traversed five-hole probe to quantify the mainstream flow at this station. Results indicate that film cooling effectiveness increases with an increase in the coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratios for all turbine speeds. Higher turbine rotation speeds show more local film cooling effectiveness spread on the platform with increasing magnitudes.

Last stage blades failure analysis of a 28 MW geothermal turbine

A last stage (L-0) turbine blades failure was experienced at a 28 MW geothermal unit after seven years of operation period. This unit has one flow intermediate/low-pressure turbine composed of nine stages with 25-in./3600 rpm last stage blades. The last stage row contains 62 free standing blades. Visual examination indicated that the 37 L-0 blades had cracks in their airfoils initiating at the trailing edge, near the blade platform. Laboratory evaluation of the cracking indicates the failure mechanism to be high cycle fatigue (HCF), and the cracks initiation was accelerated by erosion picks on the blade surface due to steam recirculation flow and corrosion. A last stage blade failure evaluation was carried out. The investigation included a metallographic analysis of the cracked blades, natural frequency analysis, blade stress analysis, unit operation parameters, history of events analysis and crack initiation and propagation analysis. This paper provides an overview of the failure investigation, which led to the identification of some operation periods with low load as the primary contribution to the observed failure.

Film Cooling Effectiveness Distribution on a Gas Turbine Blade Platform With Inclined Slot Leakage and Discrete Film Hole Flows

A five-blade, linear cascade is used to experimentally investigate turbine blade platform cooling. A 30deg inclined slot upstream of the blades is used to model the seal between the stator and rotor, and 12 discrete film holes are located on the downstream half of the platform for additional cooling. The film cooling effectiveness is measured on the platform using pressure sensitive paint (PSP). Using PSP, it is clear that the film cooling effectiveness on the blade platform is strongly influenced by the platform secondary flow through the passage. Increasing the slot injection rate weakens the secondary flow and provides more uniform film coverage. Increasing the freestream turbulence level was shown to increase film cooling effectiveness on the endwall, as the increased turbulence also weakens the passage vortex. However, downstream, near the discrete film cooling holes, the increased turbulence decreases the film cooling effectiveness. Finally, combining upstream slot flow with downstream discrete film holes should be cautiously done to ensure coolant is not wasted by overcooling regions on the platform.

Film Cooling Effectiveness Distributions on a Turbine Blade Cascade Platform With Stator-Rotor Purge and Discrete Film Hole Flows

An experimental investigation to obtain detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on a cooled turbine blade platform within a linear cascade has been completed. The Reynolds number of the freestream flow is 3.1×105, and the platform has a labyrinthlike seal upstream of the blades to model a realistic stator-rotor seal configuration. An additional coolant is supplied to the downstream half of the platform via discrete film cooling holes. The coolant flow rate through the upstream seal varies from 0.5% to 2.0% of the mainstream flow, while the blowing ratio of the coolant through the discrete holes varies from 0.5 to 2.0 (based on the mainstream velocity at the exit of the cascade). Detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions are obtained using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique under a wide range of coolant flow conditions and various freestream turbulence levels (0.75% or 13.4%). The PSP technique clearly shows how adversely the coolant is affected by the passage induced flow. With only purge flow from the upstream seal, the coolant flow rate must exceed 1.5% of the mainstream flow in order to adequately cover the entire passage. However, if discrete film holes are used on the downstream half of the passage, the platform can be protected while using less coolant (i.e., the seal flow rate can be reduced).

Building a better ice scraper—a case in product platforms for the entrepreneur

Many entrepreneurs identify previously ignored consumer needs as an exciting opportunity for new product development. However, it is likely that very few recognize an opportunity for a platform-based approach to new product development to satisfy these needs. When partners Marion and Weinberger embarked on a morning flight out of Philadelphia, they discussed their frustration with cleaning the ice from their windshields. They discussed the problems with current ice scrapers, and by the time they landed in San Francisco, they had developed design criteria and preliminary sketches for an innovative ice scraper. Thus began their quest for building a better ice scraper and using a product platform strategy to target multiple market segments. This case study describes how the team identified market segments and price points along with the development of the principle blade platform and secondary handle platforms, its testing, manufacturing, and production. It also describes how they deliberately designed “hardpoints” for future customization to include as yet unconceived features that might be ascertained from customer feedback after product launch. Included is a description of the partnerships formed to build a virtual company that maximized resources and capabilities yet led to challenges in communication and documentation throughout the platform and product development.

Chipped Stone Tool Industries of the Earlier Neolithic in Eastern Scotland

Summary This paper reviews chipped stone tool industries of the Earlier Neolithic in eastern Scotland. Assemblage size, raw materials and primary and secondary technology are discussed and some preliminary models are proposed: these suggest that assemblages are often small and dominated by flint. Very small quantities of Arran pitchstone are often present. Narrow flake and blade platform technologies are present and there is evidence for curation of cores. Bipolar working forms an important component of these assemblages. Retouched pieces are generally in keeping with earlier Neolithic forms in other regions: leaf shaped arrowheads, elongate plano-convex knives, and a range of convex scrapers. Polished axes are rare in the kinds of contexts in which flaked lithic artefacts are found. Lithic assemblages are often included in 'structured' deposits of varied kinds. The

Adiabatic Effectiveness Measurements and Predictions of Leakage Flows Along a Blade Endwall

Traditional cooling schemes have been developed to cool turbine blades using high-pressure compressor air that bypasses the combustor. This high-pressure forces cooling air into the hot main gas path through seal slots. While parasitic leakages can provide a cooling benefit, they also represent aerodynamic losses. The results from the combined experimental and computational studies reported in this paper address the cooling benefit from leakage flows that occur along the platform of a first stage turbine blade. A scaled-up, blade geometry with an upstream slot, a mid-passage slot, and a downstream slot was tested in a linear cascade placed in a low-speed wind tunnel. Results show that the leakage flow through the mid-passage gap provides only a small cooling benefit to the platform. There is little to no benefit to the blade platform that results by increasing the coolant flow through the mid-passage gap. Unlike the mid-passage gap, leakage flow from the upstream slot provides good cooling to the platform surface, particularly in certain regions of the platform. Relatively good agreement was observed between the computational and experimental results, although computations overpredicted the cooling.

Spatial Dynamics of Tuned and Mistuned Bladed Disks with Cylindrical and Wedge-Shaped Friction Dampers

One of the main tasks in the design of turbomachines like turbines, compressors, and fans is to increase the reliability and efficiency of the arrangement. Failures due to blade cracks are still a problem and have to be minimized with respect to costs and safety aspects. To reduce the maximum stresses, the blades can be coupled via friction damping devices such as underplatform dampers that are pressed onto the blade platforms by centrifugal forces. In this work, a method will be presented to optimize two different types of underplatform dampers in bladed disk applications with respect to a maximum damping effect. In practice, underplatform dampers with various geometric properties—cylindrical and wedge-shaped—are commonly used and lead to different contact conditions. A discretization of the contact areas between the blade platforms and the dampers is applied to be able to investigate nearly arbitrary contact geometries and spatial blade vibrations. The functionality of the two mentioned damper types has been studied in detail under different working conditions of the assembly. The advantages and disadvantages of both damper types are pointed out and strategies are presented to improve the damper design. In this context, the influence of mistuning effects is discussed in terms of statistical mistuning of the blades’ natural frequencies due to manufacturing tolerances as well as systematical mistuning due to a deliberate slight variation of the blade masses or geometries.

Spatial Dynamics of Tuned and Mistuned Bladed Disks with Cylindrical and Wedge‐Shaped Friction Dampers

One of the main tasks in the design of turbomachines like turbines, compressors, and fans is to increase the reliability and efficiency of the arrangement. Failures due to blade cracks are still a problem and have to be minimized with respect to costs and safety aspects. To reduce the maximum stresses, the blades can be coupled via friction damping devices such as underplatform dampers that are pressed onto the blade platforms by centrifugal forces. In this work, a method will be presented to optimize two different types of underplatform dampers in bladed disk applications with respect to a maximum damping effect.In practice, underplatform dampers with various geometric properties—cylindrical and wedge‐shaped—are commonly used and lead to different contact conditions. A discretization of the contact areas between the blade platforms and the dampers is applied to be able to investigate nearly arbitrary contact geometries and spatial blade vibrations. The functionality of the two mentioned damper types has been studied in detail under different working conditions of the assembly. The advantages and disadvantages of both damper types are pointed out and strategies are presented to improve the damper design. In this context, the influence of mistuning effects is discussed in terms of statistical mistuning of the blades′ natural frequencies due to manufacturing tolerances as well as systematical mistuning due to a deliberate slight variation of the blade masses or geometries.

Time-Averaged Heat Flux for a Recessed Tip, Lip, and Platform of a Transonic Turbine Blade

The results of an experimental research program determining the blade platform heat-flux level and the influence of blade tip recess on the tip region heat transfer for a full-scale rotating turbine stage at transonic vane exit conditions are described. The turbine used for these measurements was the Allison VBI stage operating in the closed vane position (vane exit Mach number≈1.1). The stage was operated at the design flow function, total to static pressure ratio, and corrected speed. Measurements were obtained at several locations on the platform and in the blade tip region. The tip region consists of the bottom of the recess, the lip region (on both the pressure and suction surface sides of the recess), and the 90 percent span location on the blade suction surface. Measurements were obtained for three vane/blade spacings; 20, 40, and 60 percent of vane axial chord and for a single value of the tip gap (the distance between the top of the lip and the stationary shroud) equal to 0.0012 m (0.046 in) or 2.27 percent of blade height. [S0889-504X(00)00604-8]

DYNAMIC STUDY OF A SIMPLIFIED MECHANICAL SYSTEM WITH PRESENCE OF DRY FRICTION

In aero engines, amplitudes of blade vibrations are frequently reduced by centrifugal flyweights, called friction peak limiters, which exert a dry friction force under the blade platforms. To understand the physical phenomena which cause reduction of vibration amplitudes, a system comprising two degrees of freedom, but generally representative of a real system, is studied. It is shown that system response can be found by analyzing the sliding and the stuck state. It appears therefore that the most important phenomenon controlling movement is the change of boundary conditions. In addition, the effect of other parameters is analyzed. The effect of a large difference between the fundamental frequencies is demonstrated as well as the influence of the dynamic friction coefficient for lengthening the plateau of the efficiency curve. All these results can be used to improve numerical methods of resolution.

Dynamic Study of a Structure with Flexion-Torsion Coupling in the Presence of Dry Friction

In aero engines, blade vibrations are frequently reduced by centrifugal flyweights, which exert a dry friction force per unit length under blade platforms. The response of this system to a periodic load has been analysed experimentally and theoretically. From a model having mode shapes similar to those of a blade, and a dry friction link per unit length, we show that the presence of the dry friction link is very effective in reducing vibrations for a range of excitation loads. The theoretical analysis is based on the Craig and Bampton mode synthesis, the rigid movement of the platform in its plane and the replacing of the linear dry friction link by several discrete parallel systems. Direct integration of the equations of motion is carried out by using the Newmark method. The comparison with experimental results is good. This method can easily be extended to more complex structures and shows that the dry friction link is effective when stick-slip occurs in the contact zone by limiting the energy provided to the system.

Underplatform Dampers for Turbine Blades: Theoretical Modeling, Analysis, and Comparison With Experimental Data

This paper describes a theoretical model for analyzing the dynamic characteristics of wedge-shaped underplatform dampers for turbine blades, with the objective that this model can be used to minimize the need for conducting expensive experiments for optimizing such dampers. The theoretical model presented in the paper has several distinct features to achieve this objective including: (i) it makes use of experimentally measured contact characteristics (hysteresis loops) for description of the basic contact behavior of a given material combination with representative surface finish, (ii) the damper motion between the blade platform locations is determined according to the motion of the platforms, (iii) three-dimensional damper motion is included in the model, and (iv) normal load variation across the contact surfaces during vibration is included, thereby accommodating contact opening and closing during vibration. A dedicated nonlinear vibration analysis program has been developed for this study and predictions have been verified against experimental data obtained from two test rigs. Two cantilever beams were used to simulate turbine blades with real underplatform dampers in the first experiment. The second experiment comprised real turbine blades with real underplatform damper. Correlation of the predictions and the experimental results revealed that the analysis can predict (i) the optimum damping condition, (ii) the amount of response reduction, and (iii) the natural frequency shift caused by friction dampers, all with acceptable accuracy. It has also been shown that the most commonly used underplatform dampers in practice are prone to rolling motion, an effect which reduces the damping in certain modes of vibration usually described as the lower nodal diameter bladed-disk modes.