Film-cooled Turbine Blade Research Articles

Analysis of the aerothermal performance of modern commercial high-pressure turbine rotors using different levels of fidelity

In the field of design and optimization of sophisticated geometries such as film-cooled turbine blades of modern jet engines, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is commonly employed. As the pursuit for higher turbine entry temperatures intensifies, it becomes crucial for computational analyses to offer accurate predictions of metal temperatures and heat transfer coefficients on these critical components. This study investigates the impact of key physical factors that characterize the operation of these components on the accuracy of the computational model. In particular, the effects of including the exchange of thermal energy between the fluid and solid domains, as well as modelling the unsteady interaction between the rotor and stator are studied. The research focuses on a fully featured one-and-a-half stage high-pressure turbine of a commercial jet engine, utilizing proprietary software for conducting 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes flow simulations. To model the fluid-solid thermal interaction, steady-state Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations are performed. The CHT results are then compared with experimental data obtained from a thermal paint test, achieving good levels of agreement. Additionally, phase-lag simulations are executed under adiabatic-wall conditions to evaluate the influence of stator-rotor interaction on near-wall gas temperatures. This work shows that, by modelling the periodic unsteadiness at the stator-rotor interface with a phase-lag technique, the maximum near-wall gas temperature prediction is significantly increased, sometimes more than 100K, with respect to the steady-state model one. Findings from this work also suggest that simplified “strip” source terms used to model the presence of film cooling hole rows on the surface of a blade can be used with satisfactory accuracy only for nominal conditions. The mass flows delivered by each source strip should not be linearly scaled based on mainstream quantities for use in different conditions, but they should be recalculated from scratch for the new conditions.

Conjugate Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Film-Cooled Turbine Blade Leading Edge With Staggered-Oblique Impinging Jets

Abstract The turbine blade leading edge is subjected to harsh conditions due to high heat loads and unfavorable compact structures. To improve the cooling performance, a novel impingement scheme is proposed to be used in a film-cooled turbine blade leading edge. Different from a normal impingement scheme, the novel scheme consists of two rows of staggered impinging jets at oblique angles of ±35 deg, and is thus named as the staggered-oblique impingement scheme. A conjugated numerical investigation is carried out to illustrate the underlying mechanisms of the cooling performance. Three typical jet Reynolds numbers, 6000, 12,000, and 18,000, are studied using the validated SST k–ω turbulence model. Numerical results show a flow separation within the staggered-oblique impinging jets, which causes the discharge coefficient for the novel impingement scheme lower than that for the normal impingement scheme. Results also reveal a phenomenon difference that two symmetric vortices are induced by each normal impinging jet, while only one vortex appears on the acute angle side along with each staggered-oblique impinging jet. The flow fields of the staggered-oblique impingement scheme create a more uniform heat transfer distribution and a maximum of 23.7% higher area-averaged Nusselt number than the normal impingement scheme. The area-averaged overall cooling effectiveness for the staggered-oblique impingement scheme is higher than the normal impingement scheme by a maximum of 4.8%. The uniformity and the enhancement of the overall cooling effectiveness arise from the wall jet being fully developed and affecting a larger area of the target wall. The adiabatic cooling effectiveness is similar for both impingement schemes. This indicates that the improvement in overall cooling effectiveness for the staggered-oblique impingement scheme mainly arises from internal heat transfer.

A Novel Model for CFD-Based Throughflow Analysis of Film-Cooled Turbine Blade

A Novel Model for CFD-Based Throughflow Analysis of Film-Cooled Turbine Blade

Experimental Study of Sand Particle Deposition on a Film-Cooled Turbine Blade at Different Gas Temperatures and Angles of Attack

Particle deposition tests were conducted in a turbine deposition facility with an internally staged single-tube combustor to investigate the individual effect of the gas temperature and angle of attack. Sand particles were seeded to the combustor and deposited on a turbine blade with film-cooling holes at temperatures representative of modern engines. Fuel-air ratios were varied from 0.022 to 0.037 to achieve a gas temperature between 1272 and 1668 K. Results show that capture efficiency increased with increasing gas temperature. A dramatic increase in capture efficiency was noted when gas temperature exceeded the threshold. The deposition formed mostly downstream of the film-cooling holes on the pressure surface, while it concentrated on the suction surface at the trailing edge. Deposition tests at angles of attack between 10° and 40° presented changes in both deposition mass and distribution. The capture efficiency increased with the increase in the angle of attack, and simultaneously the growth rate slowed down. On the blade pressure surface, sand deposition was distributed mainly downstream of the film-cooling holes near the trailing edge in the case of the small angle of attack, while it concentrated on the region around the film-cooling holes near the leading edge, resulting in the partial blockage of holes, in the case of the large angle of attack.

Numerical and Experimental Examination of Turbulent Mixing of Heated Jet in Crossflow

The injection of fully developed turbulent heated air from a tube into a cooler turbulent duct flow is examined as a analogy to film-cooled turbine blades. An implicit large-eddy simulation numerical model is applied such that tube and duct turbulence inflow effects are emulated using a divergence-free synthetic eddy method. For direct comparison, a hot-wire experiment is conducted within the Engine Research Building (ERB) test cell SW-6 at the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center. Excellent agreement is obtained for these numerical and experimental results as related to the velocity, temperature, and heat flux for a blowing ratio of 1.2 and by involving a 36 K temperature difference. The relative effect on the solutions of the tube and duct inflow turbulence is systematically evaluated. The impact of inherent low-pass filtering of temperature measurements and probe wire offset on the experimental results are addressed. The validity of the gradient diffusion hypothesis, which is fundamental to Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models, is evaluated.

Conjugate Heat Transfer Characteristics in a Highly Thermally Loaded Film Cooling Configuration with TBC in Syngas

Future power equipment tends to take hydrogen or middle/low heat-value syngas as fuel for low emission. The heat transfer of a film-cooled turbine blade shall be influenced more by radiation. Its characteristic of conjugate heat transfer is studied experimentally and numerically in the paper by considering radiation heat transfer, multicomposition gas, and thermal barrier coating (TBC). The Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Spectral Model and the Discrete Transfer Model are utilized to solve the radiative heat transfer in the multicomposition field, while validated against the experimental data for the studied cases. It is shown that the plate temperature increases significantly when considering the radiation and the temperature gradient of the film-cooled plate becomes less significant. It is also shown that increasing percentage of steam in gas composition results in increased temperature on the film-cooled plate. The normalized temperature of the film-cooled plate decreases about 0.02, as the total percentage of steam in hot gas increases 7%. As for the TBC effect, it can smooth out the temperature distribution and insulate the heat to a greater extent when the radiative heat transfer becomes significant.

Numerical assessment of round-to-slot film cooling performances on a turbine blade under engine representative conditions

Numerical simulations are carried out to address further insights into the effects of round-to-slot film cooling holes on a multi-row film-cooled turbine blade under representative engine-simulated conditions by adopting both adiabatic and conjugate heat transfer CFD models. In the current study, only the alteration of film-hole shape at suction and pressure sides is concerned while the showerhead film cooling holes at the leading edge remain cylindrical or baseline shape. Four film-hole shapes are taken into consideration, including converging round-to-slot hole (RTSH-1), equivalent-area round-to-slot hole (RTSH-2), diffusing round-to-slot hole (RTSH-3) and fan-shaped hole (FSH). Beside, a series of computations are also performed to the individual single-row film cooling by setting the coolant-feeding condition as its corresponding one in the multi-row film cooling situation. Viewed from the comprehensive influence of film-hole shape on film cooling performance, such as coolant feeding usage amount, enthalpy loss coefficient and cooling effectiveness, it is suggested that RTSH-2 should be the most favourable shape. RTSH-1 leads to the smallest coolant usage and enthalpy loss coefficient but its cooling effectiveness is low. Although RTSH-3 could present the highest cooling effectiveness, it produces the largest coolant usage and cascade enthalpy loss coefficient.

Effect of cooling passage imperfection on the flow characteristics of film-cooled gas turbine blade

The maximum operating temperature of a steam turbine is restricted to 600°C due to its corrosive nature, whereas the gas turbine inlet temperature can be increased up to 1500°C. The film cooling is one of the widely employed methods to cool the aircraft turbine blades. The cooling passages are generally formed using the laser drilling process and the re-solidification of the molten metal takes place at local cold spots. Thus, the imperfection is formed in the coolant passage, which affects the flow characteristics and hence the effectiveness of the film cooling reduces. In the present work, the effect of the imperfection on the various flow parameters is investigated. A flat plate with the film cooling hole attached beneath at a distance of 0.1 m from the leading edge of the plate is investigated and it was found that the imperfection reduces the effectiveness by 32%.

Film Cooling Modeling for Gas Turbine Nozzles and Blades: Validation and Application

The design of modern gas turbines cooling systems cannot be separated from the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the accurate estimation of the effect of film cooling. Nevertheless, a complete modeling of film cooling holes within the computational domain requires an effort both from the point of view of the mesh creation and from computational time. It is here proposed a new way to model the film cooling (FCM), capable of representing the effect of the coolant at hole exit. This is possible due to the introduction of local source terms near the hole exit in a delimited portion of the domain, avoiding the meshing process of perforations. The goal is to provide a reliable and accurate tool to simulate film-cooled turbine blades and nozzles without having to explicitly mesh the holes. The model was subjected to an intensive validation campaign, composed of two phases. During the first one, FCM results are compared to experimental data and numerical results (obtained with complete cooling holes meshing) on a series of test cases reproducing flat plate cooling configurations for different coolant conditions (in terms of blowing and density ratio). In the second phase, a film-cooled vane test case has been studied, in order to consider a real injection system and flow conditions: FCM predictions are compared to an in-house developed correlative approach and full conjugate heat transfer (CHT) results. Finally, a comparison between FCM predictions and experimental data was performed on an actual nozzle of a GE Oil & Gas heavy-duty gas turbine, in order to prove the feasibility of the procedure. The presented film cooling model (FCM) proved to be a feasible and reliable tool, able to evaluate adiabatic effectiveness, simplifying the design phase avoiding the meshing process of perforations.

Overall Effectiveness for a Film Cooled Turbine Blade Leading Edge With Varying Hole Pitch

Overall effectiveness, φ, for a simulated turbine blade leading edge was experimentally measured using a model constructed with a relatively high conductivity material selected so that the Biot number of the model matched engine conditions. The model incorporated three rows of cylindrical holes with the center row positioned on the stagnation line. Internally the model used an impingement cooling configuration. Overall effectiveness was measured for pitch variation from 7.6d to 11.6d for blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 3.0, and angle of attack from −7.7 deg to + 7.7 deg. Performance was evaluated for operation with a constant overall mass flow rate of coolant. Consequently when increasing the pitch, the blowing ratio was increased proportionally. The increased blowing ratio resulted in increased impingement cooling internally and increased convective cooling through the holes. The increased internal and convective cooling compensated, to a degree, for the decreased coolant coverage with increased pitch. Performance was evaluated in terms of laterally averaged φ, but also in terms of the minimum φ. The minimum φ evaluation revealed localized hot spots which are arguably more critical to turbine blade durability than the laterally averaged results. For small increases in pitch (from p/d = 7.6 to 9.6) there was only a small decrease in performance, but at p/d = 11.6 a significant reduction was observed.

Evaluation of CFD Predictions Using Thermal Field Measurements on a Simulated Film Cooled Turbine Blade Leading Edge

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions of film cooling performance for gas turbine airfoils are an important part of the design process for turbine cooling. Typically, industry relies on the approach based on Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations, together with a two-equation turbulence model. The realizable k-ɛ (RKE) model and the shear stress transport k-ω (SST) model are recognized as the most reliable. Their accuracy is generally assessed by comparing to experimentally measured adiabatic effectiveness. In this study, the performances of the RKE and SST models were evaluated by comparing predicted and measured thermal fields in a turbine blade leading edge with three rows of cooling holes, positioned along the stagnation line and at ±25 deg. Predictions and measurements were done with high thermal conductivity models which simulated the conjugate heat transfer effects between the coolant flow and the solid. Particular attention was placed on the thermal fields along the stagnation line, and immediately downstream of the off-stagnation line row of holes. Conventional evaluations in terms of adiabatic effectiveness were also carried out. Predictions of coolant flows at the stagnation line were significantly different when using the two different turbulence models. For a blowing ratio of M = 2.0, the predictions with the SST model showed coolant jet separation at the stagnation line, while the RKE predictions showed no separation. Experimental measurements showed that there was coolant jet separation at the stagnation line, but the actual thermal fields obtained from experimental measurements were significantly different from that predicted by either turbulence model. Similar results were seen for predicted and measured thermal fields downstream of the off-stagnation row of holes.

Film Cooling Effectiveness and Heat Transfer Near Deposit-Laden Film Holes

Abstract Experiments were conducted to determine the impact of synfuel deposits on film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer. Scaled up models were made of synfuel deposits formed on film-cooled turbine blade coupons exposed to accelerated deposition. Three distinct deposition patterns were modeled: a large deposition pattern (maximum deposit peak≅2 hole diameters) located exclusively upstream of the holes, a large deposition pattern (maximum deposit peak≅1.25 hole diameters) extending downstream between the cooling holes, and a small deposition pattern (maximum deposit peak≅0.75 hole diameter) also extending downstream between the cooling holes. The models featured cylindrical holes inclined at 30 deg to the surface and aligned with the primary flow direction. The spacing of the holes were 3, 3.35, and 4.5 hole diameters, respectively. Flat models with the same film cooling hole geometry and spacing were used for comparison. The models were tested using blowing ratios of 0.5–2 with a turbulent approach boundary layer and 0.5% freestream turbulence. The density ratio was approximately 1.1 and the primary flow Reynolds number at the film cooling row location was 300,000. An infrared camera was used to obtain the film cooling effectiveness from steady state tests and surface convective heat transfer coefficients using transient tests. The model with upstream deposition caused the primary flow to lift off the surface over the roughness peaks and allowed the coolant to stay attached to the model. Increasing the blowing ratio from 0.5 to 2 only expanded the region that the coolant could reach and improved the cooling effectiveness. Though the heat transfer coefficient also increased at high blowing ratios, the net heat flux ratio was still less than unity, indicating film cooling benefit. For the two models with deposition between the cooling holes, the freestream air was forced into the valleys in line with the coolant holes and degraded area-averaged coolant performance at lower blowing ratios. It is concluded that the film cooling effectiveness is highest when deposition is limited to upstream of the cooling holes. When accounting for the insulating effect of the deposits between the film holes, even the panels with deposits downstream of the film holes can yield a net decrease in heat flux for some cases.

Experimental Simulation of a Film Cooled Turbine Blade Leading Edge Including Thermal Barrier Coating Effects

For this study, a simulated film cooled turbine blade leading edge, constructed of a special high conductivity material, was used to determine the normalized “metal temperature” representative of actual engine conditions. The Biot number for the model was matched to that for operational engine conditions, ensuring that the normalized wall temperature, i.e., the overall effectiveness, was matched to that for the engine. Measurements of overall effectiveness were made for models with and without thermal barrier coating (TBC) at various operating conditions. This was the first study to experimentally simulate TBC and the effects on overall effectiveness. Two models were used: one with a single row of holes along the stagnation line, and the second with three rows of holes straddling the stagnation line. Film cooling was operated using a density ratio of 1.5 and for range of blowing ratios from M=0.5 to M=3.0. Both models were tested using a range of angles of attack from 0.0 deg to ±5.0 deg. As expected, the TBC coated models had significantly higher external surface temperatures, but lower metal temperatures. These experimental results provide a unique database for evaluating numerical simulations of the effects of TBC on leading edge film cooling performance.

Experimental Study on the Film Cooling Performance at the Leading Edge of Turbine Blade Using Infrared Thermography

In order to protect turbine blades from high temperature, film cooling can be applied to gas turbine engine system since it can prevent corrosion and facture of material. To enhance the film cooling performance in the vicinity of the turbine blade leading edge, flow characteristics of the film-cooled turbine blade have been investigated using a cylindrical body model. Mainstream Reynolds number based on the cylinder diameter was 1.01×105 and the mainstream turbulence intensities were about 0.2%. CO2 was used as coolant to simulate the effect of coolant-tomainstream density ratio. The effect of coolant flow rates was studied for various blowing ratios of 0.5, 0.8, 1.1 and 1.4, respectively. Results show that the blowing ratio has a strong effect on film cooling effectiveness and the coolant trajectory is sensitive to the blowing ratio.

Three-Dimensional Flow Prediction and Improvement of Holes Arrangement of a Film-Cooled Turbine Blade Using a Feature-Based Jet Model

A feature-based jet model has been proposed for use in three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of turbine blade film cooling. The goal of the model is to be able to perform computationally efficient flow prediction and optimization of film-cooled turbine blades. The model reproduces in the near-hole region the macroflow features of a coolant jet within a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes framework. Numerical predictions of the 3D flow through a linear transonic film-cooled turbine cascade are carried out with the model, with a low computational overhead. Different cooling holes arrangements are computed, and the prediction accuracy is evaluated versus experimental data. It is shown that the present model provides a reasonably good prediction of the adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness and Nusselt number around the blade. A numerical analysis of the interaction of coolant jets issuing from different rows of holes on the blade pressure side is carried out. It is shown that the upward radial migration of the flow due to the passage secondary flow structure has an impact on the spreading of the coolant and the film-cooling effectiveness on the blade surface. Based on this result, a new arrangement of the cooling holes for the present case is proposed that leads to a better spanwise covering of the coolant on the blade pressure side surface.

Modeling of Film Cooling—Part II: Model for Use in Three-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has recently been used for the simulation of the aerothermodynamics of film cooling. The direct calculation of a single cooling hole requires substantial computational resources. A parametric study, for the optimization of the cooling system in real engines, is much too time consuming due to the large number of grid nodes required to cover all injection holes and plenum chambers. For these reasons, a hybrid approach is proposed, based on the modeling of the near film-cooling hole flow, tuned using experimental data, while computing directly the flow field in the blade-to-blade passage. A new injection film-cooling model is established, which can be embedded in a CFD code, to lower the central processing unit (CPU) cost and to reduce the simulation turnover time. The goal is to be able to simulate film-cooled turbine blades without having to explicitly mesh inside the holes and the plenum chamber. The stability, low CPU overhead level (1%) and accuracy of the proposed CFD-embedded film-cooling model are demonstrated in the ETHZ steady film-cooled flat-plate experiment presented in Part I (Bernsdorf, Rose, and Abhari, 2006, ASME J. Turbomach., 128, pp. 141–149) of this two-part paper. The prediction of film-cooling effectiveness using the CFD-embedded model is evaluated.

BEM/FVM conjugate heat transfer analysis of a three‐dimensional film cooled turbine blade

We report on the progress in the development and application of a coupled boundary element/finite volume method temperature‐forward/flux‐back algorithm developed to solve conjugate heat transfer arising in 3D film‐cooled turbine blades. We adopt a loosely coupled strategy where each set of field equations is solved to provide boundary conditions for the other. Iteration is carried out until interfacial continuity of temperature and heat flux is enforced. The NASA‐Glenn explicit finite volume Navier‐Stokes code Glenn‐HT is coupled to a 3D BEM steady‐state heat conduction solver. Results from a CHT simulation of a 3D film‐cooled blade section are compared with those obtained from the standard two temperature model, revealing that a significant difference in the level and distribution of metal temperatures is found between the two. Finally, current developments of an iterative strategy accommodating large numbers of unknowns by a domain decomposition approach is presented. An iterative scheme is developed along with a physically‐based initial guess and a coarse grid solution to provide a good starting point for the iteration. Results from a 3D simulation show the process that converges efficiently and offers substantial computational and storage savings.

Modeling film-coolant flow characteristics at the exit of shower-head holes

Abstract The coolant flow characteristics at the hole exits of a film-cooled blade are derived from an earlier study where the hole pipes and coolant plenum were also discretized. The blade chosen is the VKI rotor with three staggered rows of shower-head holes. The present analysis applies these flow characteristics at the shower-head hole exits. A multi-block three-dimensional Navier–Stokes code with Wilcox's k – ω model is used to compute the heat transfer coefficient on the film-cooled turbine blade. A reasonably good comparison with the experimental data as well as with the more complete earlier analysis where the hole pipes and coolant plenum were also gridded is obtained. If the 1/7th power law is assumed for the coolant flow velocity and temperature distributions at the hole exits, considerable differences in the heat transfer coefficient on the blade surface, especially in the leading-edge region, are observed even though the span-averaged values of h match well with the experimental data. This calls for spatially-resolved experimental data near film-cooling holes on a blade for better validation of the code.

Effect of Unsteady Wake With Trailing Edge Coolant Ejection on Film Cooling Performance for a Gas Turbine Blade

The effect of unsteady wakes with trailing edge coolant ejection on surface heat transfer coefficients and film cooling effectiveness is presented for a downstream film-cooled turbine blade. The detailed heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness distributions on the blade surface are obtained using a transient liquid crystal technique. Unsteady wakes are produced by a spoked wheel-type wake generator upstream of the five-blade linear cascade. The coolant jet ejection is simulated by ejecting coolant through holes on the hollow spokes of the wake generator. For a blade without film holes, unsteady wake increases both pressure side and suction side heat transfer levels due to early boundary layer transition. Adding trailing edge ejection to the unsteady wake further enhances the blade surface heat transfer coefficients particularly near the leading edge region. For a film-cooled blade, unsteady wake effects slightly enhance surface heat transfer coefficients but significantly reduces film effectiveness. Addition of trailing edge ejection to the unsteady wake has a small effect on surface heat transfer coefficients compared to other significant parameters such as film injection, unsteady wakes, and grid generated turbulence, in that order. Trailing edge ejection effect on film effectiveness distribution is stronger than on the heat transfer coefficients.

ADIABATIC EFFECTIVENESS AND HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT ON A FILM-COOLED ROTATING BLADE

A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code has been used to compute the adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient on a rotating film-cooled turbine blade. The blade chosen is the United Technologies Research Center ( UTRC) rotor with five film-cooling rows containing 83 holes, including three rows on the shower head with 49 holes, covering about 86% of the blade span. The mainstream is akin to that under real engine conditions with stagnation temperature 1900 K and stagnation pressure 3 MPa. The blade speed is taken to be 5200 rpm. The adiabatic effectiveness is higher for a rotating blade as compared to that for a stationary blade. Also, the direction of coolant injection from the shower-head holes considerably affects the effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient values on both the pressure and suction surfaces. In all cases the heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic effectiveness are highly three-dimensional in the vicinity of holes but tend to become two-dimensional far downstream.