High-pressure Vane Research Articles

Time-Averaged and Time-Accurate Aerodynamic Effects of Forward Rotor Cavity Purge Flow for a High-Pressure Turbine—Part I: Analytical and Experimental Comparisons

The effect of rotor purge flow on the unsteady aerodynamics of a high-pressure turbine stage operating at design corrected conditions has been investigated, both experimentally and computationally. The experimental configuration consisted of a single-stage high-pressure turbine with a modern film-cooling configuration on the vane airfoil and the inner and outer end wall surfaces. Purge flow was introduced into the cavity located between the high-pressure vane and the high-pressure disk. The high-pressure blades and the downstream low-pressure turbine nozzle row were not cooled. All of the hardware featured an aerodynamic design typical of a commercial high-pressure ratio turbine and the flow path geometry was representative of the actual engine hardware. In addition to instrumentation in the main flow path, the stationary and rotating seals of the purge flow cavity were instrumented with high frequency response flush-mounted pressure transducers and miniature thermocouples in order to measure the flow field parameters above and below the angel wing. Predictions of the time-dependent flow field in the turbine flow path were obtained using FINE/Turbo, a three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics CFD code that had the capability to perform both a steady and unsteady analysis. The steady and unsteady flow fields throughout the turbine were predicted using a three blade-row computational model that incorporated the purge flow cavity between the high-pressure vane and disk. The predictions were performed in an effort to mimic the design process with no adjustment of boundary conditions to better match the experimental data. The time-accurate predictions were generated using the harmonic method. Part I of this paper concentrates on the comparison of the time-averaged and time-accurate predictions with measurements in and around the purge flow cavity. The degree of agreement between the measured and predicted parameters is described in detail, providing confidence in the predictions for the flow field analysis that will be provided in Part II.

Time-Averaged and Time-Accurate Aerodynamic Effects of Rotor Purge Flow for a Modern, One and One-Half Stage High-Pressure Turbine—Part II: Analytical Flow Field Analysis

The detailed mechanisms of purge flow interaction with the hot-gas flow path were investigated using both unsteady computationally fluid dynamics (CFD) and measurements for a turbine operating at design corrected conditions. This turbine consisted of a single-stage high-pressure turbine and the downstream, low-pressure turbine nozzle row with an aerodynamic design equivalent to actual engine hardware and typical of a commercial, high-pressure ratio, transonic turbine. The high-pressure vane airfoils and inner and outer end walls incorporated state-of-the-art film cooling, and purge flow was introduced into the cavity located between the high-pressure vane and disk. The flow field above and below the blade angel wing was characterized by both temperature and pressure measurements. Predictions of the time-dependent flow field were obtained using a three-dimensional, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes CFD code and a computational model incorporating the three blade rows and the purge flow cavity. The predictions were performed to evaluate the accuracy obtained by a design style application of the code, and no adjustment of boundary conditions was made to better match the experimental data. Part I of this paper compared the predictions to the measurements in and around the purge flow cavity and demonstrated good correlation. Part II of this paper concentrates on the analytical results, looking at the primary gas path ingestion mechanism into the cavity as well as the effects of the rotor purge on the upstream vane and downstream rotor aerodynamics and thermodynamics. Ingestion into the cavity is driven by high static pressure regions downstream of the vane, high-velocity flow coming off the pressure side of the vane, and the blade bow waves. The introduction of the purge flow is seen to have an effect on the static pressure of the vane trailing edge in the lower 5% of span. In addition, the purge flow is weak enough that upon exiting the cavity, it is swept into the mainstream flow and provides no additional cooling benefits on the platform of the rotating blade.

Comparison of Harmonic and Time Marching Unsteady Computational Fluid Dynamics Solutions With Measurements for a Single-Stage High-Pressure Turbine

The unsteady aerodynamics of a single-stage high-pressure turbine has been the subject of a study involving detailed measurements and computations. Data and predictions for this experiment have been presented previously, but the current study compares predictions obtained using the nonlinear harmonic simulation method to results obtained using a time-marching simulation with phase-lag boundary conditions. The experimental configuration consisted of a single-stage high-pressure turbine (HPT) and the adjacent, downstream, low-pressure turbine nozzle row (LPV) with an aerodynamic design that is typical to that of a commercial high-pressure ratio HPT and LPV. The flow path geometry was equivalent to engine hardware and operated at the proper design-corrected conditions to match cruise conditions. The high-pressure vane and blade were uncooled for these comparisons. All three blade rows are instrumented with flush-mounted, high-frequency response pressure transducers on the airfoil surfaces and the inner and outer flow path surfaces, which include the rotating blade platform and the stationary shroud above the rotating blade. Predictions of the time-dependent flow field for the turbine flow path were obtained using a three-dimensional, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Using a two blade row computational model of the turbine flow path, the unsteady surface pressure for the high-pressure vane and rotor was calculated using both unsteady methods. The two sets of predictions are then compared to the measurements looking at both time-averaged and time-accurate results, which show good correlation between the two methods and the measurements. This paper concentrates on the similarities and differences between the two unsteady methods, and how the predictions compare with the measurements since the faster harmonic solution could allow turbomachinery designers to incorporate unsteady calculations in the design process without sacrificing accuracy when compared to the phase-lag method.

On the wear and lubrication regime in variable displacement vane pumps

This paper proposes an experimental methodology for the analysis of the lubrication regime and wear that occur between vanes and pressure ring in variable displacement vane pumps. The knowledge of the lubrication regime is essential for the improvement of the performance of high pressure vane pumps by reducing wear, increasing the volumetric efficiency and decreasing maintenance costs. Tests using pressure rings of different materials were carried out in order to identify the best material in terms of wear and friction. The proposed methodology is based on Archard's law and takes advantage of wear experimental measurements, an empirical model for the estimation of contact pressure forces and hardness standard tests. The results of the analysis state that low wear and reduced friction can be obtained if elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication between vanes and pressure ring is established. Results have been also verified by an analytical elasto-hydrodynamic model.

Heat Transfer for the Film-Cooled Vane of a 1-1/2 Stage High-Pressure Transonic Turbine—Part II: Effect of Cooling Variation on the Vane Airfoil and Inner End Wall

The impact of film cooling on heat transfer is investigated for the high-pressure vane of a 1-1/2 stage high-pressure turbine operating at design corrected conditions. Cooling is supplied through three independently controllable circuits to holes in the inner and outer end wall, vane leading edge showerhead, and the pressure and suction surfaces of the airfoil, in addition to vane trailing edge slots. Four different overall cooling flow rates are investigated and one cooling circuit is varied independently. All results reported in this part of the paper are for a radial inlet temperature profile, one of the four profiles reported in part I of this paper. Part I describes the experimental setup, data quality, influence of inlet temperature profile, and influence of cooling when compared to a solid vane. This part of the paper shows that the addition of coolant reduces airfoil Stanton number by up to 60%. The largest reductions due to cooling are observed close to the inner end wall because the coolant to the majority of the vane is supplied by a plenum at the inside diameter. While the introduction of cooling has a significant impact on Stanton number, the impact of changing coolant flow rates is only observed for gauges near 5% span and on the inner end wall. This indicates that very little of the increased coolant mass flow reaches all the way to 90% span and the majority of the additional mass flow is injected into the core flow near the plenum. Turning off the vane outer cooling circuit that supplies coolant to the outer end wall holes, vane trailing edge slots, and three rows of holes on the pressure surface of the airfoil, has a local impact on Stanton number. Changes downstream of the holes on the airfoil pressure surface indicate that internal heat transfer from the coolant flowing inside the vane is important to the external heat transfer, suggesting that a conjugate heat-transfer solution may be required to achieve good external heat-transfer predictions in this area. Measurements on the inner end wall show that temperature reduction in the vane wake due to the trailing edge cooling is important to many points downstream of the vane.

Heat Transfer for the Film-Cooled Vane of a 1-1/2 Stage High-Pressure Transonic Turbine—Part I: Experimental Configuration and Data Review With Inlet Temperature Profile Effects

This paper investigates the vane airfoil and inner endwall heat transfer for a full-scale turbine stage operating at design corrected conditions under the influence of different vane inlet temperature profiles and vane cooling flow rates. The turbine stage is a modern 3D design consisting of a cooled high-pressure vane, an un-cooled high-pressure rotor, and a low-pressure vane. Inlet temperature profiles (uniform, radial, and hot streaks) are created by a passive heat exchanger and can be made circumferentially uniform to within ±5% of the bulk average inlet temperature when desired. The high-pressure vane has full cooling coverage on both the airfoil surface and the inner and outer endwalls. Two circuits supply coolant to the vane, and a third circuit supplies coolant to the rotor purge cavity. All of the cooling circuits are independently controlled. Measurements are performed using double-sided heat-flux gauges located at four spans of the vane airfoil surface and throughout the inner endwall region. Analysis of the heat transfer measured for the uncooled downstream blade row has been reported previously. Part I of this paper describes the operating conditions and data reduction techniques utilized in this analysis, including a novel application of a traditional statistical method to assign confidence limits to measurements in the absence of repeat runs. The impact of Stanton number definition is discussed while analyzing inlet temperature profile shape effects. Comparison of the present data (Build 2) to the data obtained for an uncooled vane (Build 1) clearly illustrates the impact of the cooling flow and its relative effects on both the endwall and airfoils. Measurements obtained for the cooled hardware without cooling applied agree well with the solid airfoil for the airfoil pressure surface but not for the suction surface. Differences on the suction surface are due to flow being ingested on the pressure surface and reinjected on the suction surface when coolant is not supplied for Build 2. Part II of the paper continues this discussion by describing the influence of overall cooling level variation and the influence of the vane trailing edge cooling on the vane heat transfer measurements.

Investigation of High-Pressure Turbine Endwall Film-Cooling Performance Under Realistic Inlet Conditions

Progress in materials and manufacturing techniques allows an increase of the mean turbine inlet temperature, resulting in improved efficiency and specific power of the turbine. Because of the combustor characteristics, thermal and aerodynamic nonuniformities can be present at the turbine inlet section. Then, a further increase in the inlet temperature might also generate harmful conditions for vane endwalls. In other words, it is necessary to apply realistic turbine inlet temperature and velocity profiles to evaluate these real effects. The objective of the present work is to predict and analyze a cooled high-pressure vane in terms of adiabatic effectiveness and aerodynamic behavior. An endwall cooling geometry with both fan-shaped and cylindrical holes has been investigated. Inlet nonuniformities in total temperature and velocity profile have been considered in order to simulate realistic conditions. Once the inlet total temperature profile is imposed, a considerable increase in the laterally averaged adiabatic cooling effectiveness, generated by the radial total temperature distribution, can he achieved. The inlet swirl limits this gain of cooling efficiency since it modifies the horseshoe vortex development and generates a stronger passage vortex with a detrimental effect for the platform cooling.

Effect of the Content of Air Bubble in Oil on Forces of Vane in High Pressure Vane Pump

The content of air bubble in oil will effect on the value of volume elasticity modulus and the pressure of oil in working cavity of vane pump, and effect on the force of vane. The model between the air bubble content and the oil pressure in sealed working cavity is built when vane moving from big arc area to outlet area. And the equations of vane force in outlet area of vane pump are listed, and the variation curves are obtained by computer simulation when the content of air is given different value. The curve indicated the content of air bubble only effect on the value of vane force in pressure rising area of vane pump. The value of force reduced and the gradient of variation curve increased with the value of the air bubble content increasing.

Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer for a Cooled One and One-Half Stage High-Pressure Turbine—Part I: Vane Inlet Temperature Profile Generation and Migration

As controlled laboratory experiments using full-stage turbines are expanded to replicate more of the complicated flow features associated with real engines, it is important to understand the influence of the vane inlet temperature profile on the high-pressure vane and blade heat transfer as well as its interaction with film cooling. The temperature distribution of the incoming fluid governs not only the input conditions to the boundary layer but also the overall fluid migration. Both of these mechanisms have a strong influence on surface heat flux and therefore component life predictions. To better understand the role of the inlet temperature profile, an electrically heated combustor emulator capable of generating uniform, radial, or hot streak temperature profiles at the high-pressure turbine vane inlet has been designed, constructed, and operated over a wide range of conditions. The device is shown to introduce a negligible pressure distortion while generating the inlet temperature conditions for a stage-and-a-half turbine operating at design-corrected conditions. For the measurements described here, the vane is fully cooled and the rotor purge flow is active, but the blades are uncooled. Detailed temperature measurements are obtained at rake locations upstream and downstream of the turbine stage as well as at the leading edge and platform of the blade in order to characterize the inlet temperature profile and its migration. The use of miniature butt-welded thermocouples at the leading edge and on the platform (protruding into the flow) on a rotating blade is a novel method of mapping a temperature profile. These measurements show that the reduction in fluid temperature due to cooling is similar in magnitude for both uniform and radial vane inlet temperature profiles.

Effect of the Content of Air Bubble in Oil on Pressure of Oil in Working Cavity of High Pressure Vane Pump

The content of air bubble in oil will effect on the value of volume elasticity modulus, and effect on the pressure of oil in working cavity. The article use the formula between the content of air bubble and the value of volume elasticity modulus in heat insulation process, and model is built which shows the relation between the content of air bubble and pressure of oil in sealed working cavity when vane moving from big arc area to outlet area. At last the curve of oil’s pressure in sealed working cavity was obtained by computer simulation when the content of air bubble in oil is given different values.

Effect of Simulated Combustor Temperature Nonuniformity on HP Vane and End Wall Heat Transfer: An Experimental and Computational Investigation

This paper presents experimental measurements and computational predictions of surface and end wall heat transfer for a high-pressure (HP) nozzle guide vane operating as part of a full HP turbine stage in an annular rotating turbine facility, with and without inlet temperature distortion (hot streaks). A detailed aerodynamic survey of the vane surface is also presented. The test turbine was the unshrouded MT1 turbine, installed in the Turbine Test Facility (previously called Isentropic Light Piston Facility) at QinetiQ, Farnborough, UK. This is a short-duration facility, which simulates engine-representative M, Re, nondimensional speed, and gas-to-wall temperature ratio at the turbine inlet. The facility has recently been upgraded to incorporate an advanced second-generation combustor simulator, capable of simulating well-defined, aggressive temperature profiles in both the radial and circumferential directions. This work forms part of the pan-European research program, TATEF II. Measurements of HP vane and end wall heat transfer obtained with inlet temperature distortion are compared with results for uniform inlet conditions. Steady and unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions have also been conducted on vane and end wall surfaces using the Rolls-Royce CFD code HYDRA to complement the analysis of experimental results. The heat transfer measurements presented in this paper are the first of their kind in that the temperature distortion is representative of an extreme cycle point, and was simulated with good periodicity and with well-defined boundary conditions in the test turbine.

Fluctuation of flow in high pressure vane within vane type pump

Aiming at the compressibility of fluid,the flow ripple and method to improve it are studied.The conventional discharge flow formula of a high-pressure vane within vane type pump in fluid drive field power transmission is corrected, which is calculated when the fluid is considered to be incom- pressible.In order to simulate the actual discharge flow and calculate the uneven coefficient of flow ripple,a mathematic model of theoretical flow is built when the fluid compressibility is considered.Through the study of relationship between work- ing condition parameter and flow ripple of pump,it reveals that the fluid bulk modulus,discharge pressure,rotate speed and the structure of relief grooves are the main influential factors of flow-ripple.The results show that choosing appropriate struc- ture and parameters of relief grooves to make the overall losing flow almost constant can reduce the flow ripple of pump effec- tively.The overall losing flow is generated by compressed flow, backfilling flow and negative flow due to the thickness of vane.

Thermal-Mechanical Life Prediction System for Anisotropic Turbine Components

Abstract Modern gas turbine engines provide large amounts of thrust and withstand severe thermal-mechanical conditions during the load and mission operations characterized by cyclic transients and long dwell times. All these operational factors can be detrimental to the service life of turbine components and need careful consideration. Engine components subject to the harshest environments are turbine high-pressure vanes and rotating blades. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a turbine component three-dimensional life prediction system, which accounts for mission transients, anisotropic material properties, and multi-axial, thermal-mechanical, strain, and stress fields. This paper presents a complete life prediction approach for either commercial missions or more complex military missions, which includes evaluation of component transient metal temperatures, resolved maximum shear stresses and strains, and subsequent component life capability for fatigue and creep damage. The procedure is based on considering all of the time steps in the mission profile by developing a series of extreme points that envelop every point in the mission. Creep damage is factored into the component capability by debiting thermal-mechanical accumulated cycles using the traditional Miner’s rule for accumulated fatigue and creep damage. Application of this methodology is illustrated to the design of the NASA Energy Efficient Engine (E3) high pressure turbine blade with operational load shakedown leading to stress relaxation on the external hot surfaces and potential state of overstress in the inner cold rib regions of the airfoil.

Behavior of a Coolant Film With Two Rows of Holes Along the Pressure Side of a High-Pressure Nozzle Guide Vane

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the influence on external convective heat transfer of a coolant film whose position varies along the pressure side of a high-pressure turbine nozzle guide vane. The measurements were performed in the short-duration Isentropic Light Piston Compression Tube facility of the von Karman Institute. The effects of external and internal flow are considered in terms of Mach number, Reynolds number, free-stream turbulence intensity, blowing rate, and coolant to free-stream temperature ratio. The way to evaluate these results in terms of film cooling efficiency and heat transfer coefficient is finally discussed.