Tip Heat Transfer Coefficient Research Articles

Development of a Large-Scale High-Speed Linear Cascade Rig for Turbine Blade Tip Heat Transfer Study

The high-speed Over-Tip-Leakage (OTL) flow has a significant impact on the aerodynamic performance of the High-Pressure Turbine (HPT) passage and generates high thermal load for the blade tip. Different tip sealing and cooling design strategies are applied to reduce the OTL loss and help turbine survive in a high temperature environment. High-speed linear cascade experimental rigs play an important role in understanding the flow physics and evaluating their performance. Multiple blades and passages are often required to maintain a reasonable flow periodicity. To match the engine representative Reynolds number and Mach number, a high-speed multi-passage cascade design inevitably demands more compressed air supply. A very large amount of heating power is also required if the engine condition wall-to-gas temperature ratio needs to be matched. In this study, a simplified 2-Passage linear cascade rig for high-speed tip heat transfer research was developed. Both the design method and the rig performance are presented. Different from existing design method to match two-dimensional blade loading, this study shows there are other design flexibilities, such as assist blade tip gap, tailboard adjustment, and profiling adjustment, to match the periodic three-dimensional OTL flow structures. The design method was validated by experimental effort. High resolution tip heat transfer coefficient distribution at stationary and rotating conditions (Rotating Mach number = 0.35) are reported. The enlarged test model can offer much more improved resolution of optical measurement near the tip region.

Effects of Rib Design on the Unsteady Tip Heat Transfer Amplitude for a Turbine Rotor Blade

Abstract By solving the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and SST k–ω turbulence model, effects of rib design on the unsteady tip heat transfer amplitude for a turbine rotor blade with different rotating speeds are numerically investigated. The results of turbulence model validation are in good agreement with the experimental data. The grid independence verification is also satisfied. The results indicate that the averaged heat transfer coefficient of ribbed tip is 3.1% lower than that of traditional squealer tip and the amplitude of the heat transfer coefficient at the ribbed blade tip is 31.7% lower than that at the traditional squealer tip at standard speed condition. Low-energy passing wake causes the variation of flow field pressure near the tip clearance, which changes the strength of vortex such as pressure corner vortex, scratching vortex, leading edge vortex, and rib vortex inside the cavity, and thus causes the tip heat transfer coefficient fluctuation. At 85% standard speed, the average heat transfer coefficient amplitude of the ribbed tip is reduced by 35.4%. At 115% standard speed, the average heat transfer coefficient amplitude of the ribbed tip is reduced by 44.5%. Ribbed blade tip is suitable to reduce the heat transfer coefficient in turbine design

Effects of the casing step size on the tip leakage flow pattern and heat transfer characteristic of turbine blade squealer tip

In this paper, under the GE-E3 turbine stage condition, the effect of the casing step on the heat transfer performance is obtained by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The heat transfer characteristics predicted by standard k-ω model are consistent with the experimental data. The simulation results reveal that, the tip heat transfer coefficient decreases and the area of the high heat transfer region is reduced by introducing the casing step structure. Compare to the baseline case, when the casing step height is 1%, 2% and 3% of the blade height, the area-average heat transfer coefficient at the blade tip decreases by 6.1%, 6.7% and 7.0%, respectively. The introduction of casing step structure can eliminate the swirling strength of Scraping Vortex (SV), thus weaken the reattachment of tip leakage flow on the cavity bottom. Under the step vortex effect, the mainstream from the tip pressure side entering the tip cavity is reduced and replaced by entering from the tip suction side. Because of the lower pressure difference between the tip suction side and the tip clearance, the swirling strength of SV is decreased. Arranging a casing step with the same size as the tip clearance upstream the blade can reduce the tip heat transfer performance to the greatest level. The introduction of casing step structure also has a negative effect on the output power and efficiency of the turbine, it is necessary to balance the aerodynamic and heat transfer of the turbine in order to achieve the optimal results.

A High-Speed Disk Rotor Rig Design for Tip Aerothermal Research

Abstract The relative casing motion can greatly vary the over-tip-leakage (OTL) flow structure and aerothermal performance. The existing tip experimental research facilities including stationary linear cascade, cascade rigs with low-speed moving belt, or high-speed rotor rigs are either not capable of reproducing the high relative casing Mach number or extremely expensive and still difficult for optical measurement. This paper presents a high-speed disk rotor design that can simulate the high casing relative speed. The unique feature of this rig design concept is that it enables full optical access of the tip surface under the engine-representative OTL flow condition. In this paper, the feasibility of the design concept is demonstrated and assessed by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics (RANS CFD) simulation, both in component level and in whole rig system level. First-of-its-kind experimental results of spatially resolved tip heat transfer coefficient distribution at high relative casing Mach number are reported. The disk rotor rig design demonstrated in this paper can also be useful for other tip leakage flow studies.

Effect of casing purge flow on heat transfer and cooling performance of blade squealer tip for a gas turbine stage

The first stage of GE-E3 turbine is employed to investigate effect of casing purge flow upstream rotor blade tip. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and standard k-ω model are solved to obtain tip heat transfer simulations. The results reveal that: heat transfer coefficient of blade tip surface can be significantly reduced when casing purge flow is set. Tip averaged heat transfer coefficient of cases with and without swirly velocity casing purge flow decrease 3.5% and 3.4% compared with the case without casing purge flow. Compared with case which blowing ratio equals to 0.5, it can be found that averaged tip heat transfer coefficient of cases which blowing ratio equals to 1.0 and 1.5 decrease 2.3% and 1.8%, respectively. Setting blowing ratio as 1.0 can best cool tip surface without wasting cold air resources. Increasing rotating speed can induce cold air entering tip trailing region and improve local cooling effect. Flow structure inside the tip clearance are also revealed and discussed.

Investigations Into Heat Transfer and Aerodynamic Performance of a Worn Squealer Tipped Turbine Stage

Abstract Heat transfer and aerodynamic performance in worn squealer tip gap of a high-pressure gas turbine stage were numerically investigated. Effects of the starting location of wear and wear depth on tip heat transfer coefficient distributions and stage efficiency were analyzed to evaluate the aero-thermal performance degradations in the gas turbine stage after wear. At three starting locations of wear and five wear depths, flow patterns in worn squealer tip gap of the turbine stage were visualized and compared with the original design case. The results show that the counter-rotating vortex systems in tip cavity, as well as the interactions between leakage vortex and passage vortex, are significantly affected by the degree of wear damage. The starting location of wear and wear depth have pronounced influences on heat transfer and aerodynamic performance in squealer tip gap. After wear, the stage efficiency is decreased by about 0.3–1%, as the wear depth is equal to clearance gap size. In the serious worn case, thermal load on tip cavity floor is increased by about 60%, while the heat transfer on rims is reduced by about 20%. However, compared with the original design case, the area-averaged heat transfer coefficient on shroud is reduced by 5% at most.

Numerical investigation of high pressure turbine blade tip-shaping effects on the aerothermal and dynamic performance

Purpose In order to improve the engine reliability and efficiency, an effective way is to reform the turbine blade tip conformation. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The present research provides several novel tip-shaping structures, which are considered to control the blade tip loss. Four different tip geometries have been studied: flat tip, squealer tip, flat tip with streamwise ribs and squealer tip with streamwise ribs. The tip heat transfer and leakage flow are both analyzed in detail, for example the tip heat transfer coefficient, tip flow and local pressure distributions. Findings The results show that the squealer seal and streamwise rib can reduce the tip heat transfer and leakage loss, especially for the squealer tip with streamwise ribs. The tip and near-tip flow patterns at the different locations of axial chord reflect that both the squealer seal and streamwise rib structure can control the tip leakage flow loss. In addition, the analysis of the aerodynamic parameters (the static pressure and turbine efficiency) also indicates that the squealer tip with streamwise ribs obtains the highest adiabatic efficiency with an increase of 2.34 percent, compared with that of the flat tip case. Originality/value The analysis of aerothermal and dynamic performance can provide a reference for the blade tip design and treatment.

An Experimental Investigation of Adiabatic Film Cooling Effectiveness and Heat Transfer Coefficient on a Transonic Squealer Tip

The effect of film cooling on a transonic squealer tip has been examined in a high speed linear cascade, which operates at engine-realistic Mach and Reynolds numbers. Tests have been performed on two uncooled tip geometries with differing pressure side rim edge radii, and a cooled tip matching one of the uncooled cases. The pressure sensitive paint technique has been used to measure adiabatic film cooling effectiveness on the blade tip at a range of tip gaps and coolant mass flow rates. Complementary tip heat transfer coefficients have been measured using transient infrared thermography, and the effects of the coolant film on the tip heat transfer and engine heat flux were examined. The uncooled data show that the tip heat transfer coefficient distribution is governed by the nature of flow reattachments and impingements. The squealer tip can be broken down into three regions, each exhibiting a distinct response to a change in the tip gap, depending on the local behavior of the overtip leakage flow. Complementary computational fluid dynamics (CFD) shows that the addition of casing motion causes no change in the flow over the pressure side rim. Injected coolant interacts with the overtip leakage flow, which can locally enhance the tip heat transfer coefficient. The film effectiveness is dependent on both the coolant mass flow rate and tip clearance. At increased coolant mass flow, areas of high film effectiveness on the pressure side rim coincide strongly with a net heat flux reduction and in the subsonic tip region with low heat transfer coefficient.

Heat Transfer Coefficient and Film Cooling Effectiveness on the Partial Cavity Tip of a Gas Turbine Blade

Leakage flow between the rotating turbine blade tip and the fixed casing causes high heat loads and thermal stress on the tip and near the tip region. For this study, new squealer tips called partial cavity tips, which combine the advantages of plane and squealer tips, were suggested, and the effects of the cavity shape on the tip heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness were investigated experimentally in a low-speed linear cascade. The suggested blade tips had a flat surface near the leading edge and a squealer cavity from the mid-chord to trailing edge region to achieve the advantages of both blade tip types. The heat transfer coefficient was measured via the 1-D transient heat transfer technique using an IR camera, and the film cooling effectiveness was obtained via the pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Results showed that the heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness on the partial cavity tips strongly depended on the cavity shape. Near the leading edge, the heat transfer coefficients for the partial cavity tip cases were lower than that for the squealer tip case. However, the heat transfer coefficient on the cavity surface was higher for the partial cavity tip cases. The D10 tip showed a similar distribution of film cooling effectiveness to that of the plane (PLN) tip near the leading edge and the double side squealer (DSS) tip near the mid-chord region. However, the overall average film cooling effectiveness of the DSS tip was higher than that of the D10 tip.

Heat Transfer of Winglet Tips in a Transonic Turbine Cascade

Understanding the heat transfer of winglet tips is crucial for their applications in high-pressure turbines. The current paper investigates the heat transfer performance of three different winglet-cavity tips in a transonic turbine cascade at a tip gap of 2.1% chord. A cavity tip is studied as the baseline case. The cascade operates at engine representative conditions of an exit Mach number of 1.2 and an exit Reynolds number of 1.7 × 106. Transient infrared thermography technique was used to obtain the tip distributions of heat transfer coefficient for different tips in the experiment. The CFD results were validated with the measured tip heat transfer coefficients, and then used to explain the flow physics related to heat transfer. It is found that on the pressure side winglet, the flow reattaches on the top winglet surface and results in high heat transfer coefficient. On the suction side winglet, the heat transfer coefficient is low near the blade leading edge but is higher from the midchord to the trailing edge. The suction side winglet pushes the tip leakage vortex further away from the blade suction surface and reduces the heat transfer coefficient from 85% to 96% span on the blade suction surface. However, the heat transfer coefficient is higher for the winglet tips from 96% span to the tip. This is because the tip leakage vortex attaches on the side surface of the suction side winglet and results in quite high heat transfer coefficient on the front protrusive part of the winglet. The effects of relative endwall motion between the blade tip and the casing were investigated by CFD method. The endwall motion has a significant effect on the flow physics within the tip gap and near-tip region in the blade passage, thus affects the heat transfer coefficient distributions. With relative endwall motion, a scraping vortex forms inside the tip gap and near the casing, and the cavity vortex gets closer to the pressure side squealer/winglet. The tip leakage vortex in the blade passage becomes closer to the blade suction surface, resulting in an increase of the heat transfer coefficient.

Ramp Heating in High-Speed Transient Thermal Measurement with Reduced Uncertainty

The uncertainty associated with the convective heat transfer coefficient obtained in transient thermal measurement is often high, especially in high-speed flow. The present study demonstrates that the experimental accuracy could be much improved by an actively controlled ramp heating instead of the conventional step-heating approach. A general design guideline for the proposed ramp-heating method is derived theoretically and further demonstrated by simulation cases. This paper also presents a detailed experimental study for transonic turbine blade-tip heat transfer. A repeatable, high-resolution tip heat transfer coefficient contour is obtained through transient infrared measurement with the proposed ramp-heating method. Detailed uncertainty analysis shows that the resulting heat transfer coefficient uncertainty level is much lower than the experimental data currently available in the open literature. The ramp-heating approach is especially recommended to the high-speed heat transfer experimental research community to improve the accuracy of the transient thermal measurement technique.

Evaluation of the Performance of Annular Composite Fin using ANSYS

Often fins are required to operate under the hostile environments i.e., high temperatures and corrosion environment. Due to this the life of the fin is questionable. To protect it, an anti-hostile coating material is used like Zinc, Zink alloys, Silver, Cu, Mg etc, there by the life of the fin can be increased and efficiency also. In this paper the Gardener‟s expression for one material fin is deduced for a bi-material fin, by changing only the value of one parameter (temperature distribution). The efficiency of the fin is calculated for various thickness of coating material Zinc and Zinc Alloy. The efficiencies are compared with the normal fin. The study also includes the effect of the temperature variation, which exists along the fin, from base to tip and convective heat transfer coefficient variation on efficiency of the fin. Numerical simulations have been done using ANSYS software by varying thickness of Zinc and its alloy for a normal fin. The simulation results have been compared with the analytical solutions. General Terms C = Fin thickness (m) h = Convection coefficient (w/mk) I0 = Modified Bessel function of the first kind and of order zero I1 = Modified Bessel function of the first kind and of order one. K0 = Modified Bessel function of the second kind and of order zero. K1 = Modified Bessel function of the second kind and of order one. Rb = Fin base radius (m) Rc = extremity radius (m) z = Abscissa  = Temperature distribution parameter for a one material fin [m] 2 = Temperature distribution parameter for a bi-material fin [m] b = Basic fin efficiency (%) c = Coated fin efficiency (%)

Computational analysis of the influences of guide ribs/vanes on enhanced heat transfer of a turbine blade tip-wall

Gas turbine blade tips encounter large heat load as they are exposed to the high temperature gas. A common way to cool the blade and its tip is to design a serpentine passage with 180-deg turns under the blade tip-cap inside the turbine blade. Improved internal convective cooling is therefore required to increase the blade tip lifetime. In this paper, turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer through seven two-pass channels with and without guide ribs or vanes have been investigated numerically using Computational Fluid Dynamics technique. The influences of placing six kinds of guide ribs/vanes in the turn regions on the tip-wall heat transfer enhancement and the overall pressure loss of the channels are analyzed. The guide ribs have a height of 9% height of the channel while the guide vanes have a height identical to that of the channel. The inlet Reynolds numbers are ranging from 100,000 to 600,000. The detailed three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer over the tip-walls are presented. The overall performances of several two-pass channels are also evaluated and compared. It is found that the tip heat transfer coefficients of the channels with guide ribs/vanes are up to 65% higher than those of a channel without guide ribs/vanes, while the pressure loss might be reduced if the guide ribs/vanes are properly designed and located, otherwise the pressure loss is expected to be increased severely. It is suggested that the usage of proper guide ribs/vanes is a suitable way to augment the blade tip heat transfer and improve the flow structure, but is not the most effective way compared to the augmentation by surface modifications imposed on the tip-wall directly.

Cooling the Tip of a Turbine Blade Using Pressure Side Holes—Part II: Heat Transfer Measurements

Abstract The clearance gap between a turbine blade tip and its associated shroud allows leakage flow across the tip from the pressure side to the suction side of the blade. Understanding how this leakage flow affects heat transfer is critical in extending the durability of a blade tip, which is subjected to effects of oxidation and erosion. This paper is the second of a two-part series that discusses the augmentation of tip heat transfer coefficients as a result of blowing from film-cooling holes placed along the pressure side of a blade and from dirt purge holes placed on the tip. For the experimental investigation, three scaled-up blades were used to form a two-passage, linear cascade in a low-speed wind tunnel. The rig was designed to simulate different tip gap sizes and film-coolant flow rates. Heat transfer coefficients were quantified by using a constant heat flux surface placed along the blade tip. Results indicate that increased film-coolant injection leads to increased augmentation levels of tip heat transfer coefficients, particularly at the entrance region to the gap. Despite increased heat transfer coefficients, an overall net heat flux reduction to the blade tip results from pressure-side cooling because of the increased adiabatic effectiveness levels. The area-averaged results of the net heat flux reduction for the tip indicate that there is (i) little dependence on coolant flows and (ii) more cooling benefit for a small tip gap relative to that of a large tip gap.

Heat Transfer Coefficients and Film-Cooling Effectiveness on a Gas Turbine Blade Tip

The detailed distributions of heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness on a gas turbine blade tip were measured using a hue detection based transient liquid crystals technique. Tests were performed on a five-bladed linear cascade with blow-down facility. The Reynolds number based on cascade exit velocity and axial chord length was 1.1×106 and the total turning angle of the blade was 97.7°. The overall pressure ratio was 1.2 and the inlet and exit Mach numbers were 0.25 and 0.59, respectively. The turbulence intensity level at the cascade inlet was 9.7%. The blade model was equipped with a single row of film cooling holes at both the tip portion along the camber line and near the tip region of the pressure side. All measurements were made at the three different tip gap clearances of 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.5% of blade span and the three blowing ratios of 0.5, 1, and 2. Results showed that, in general, heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness increased with increasing tip gap clearance. As blowing ratio increased, heat transfer coefficient decreased, while film effectiveness increased. Results also showed that adding pressure side coolant injection would further decrease the blade tip heat transfer coefficient but increase film-cooling effectiveness.

Heat Transfer and Pressure Distributions on a Gas Turbine Blade Tip

Heat transfer coefficient and static pressure distributions are experimentally investigated on a gas turbine blade tip in a five-bladed stationary linear cascade. The blade is a two-dimensional model of a first-stage gas turbine rotor blade with a blade tip profile of a GE-E3 aircraft gas turbine engine rotor blade. The flow condition in the test cascade corresponds to an overall pressure ratio of 1.32 and exit Reynolds number based on axial chord of 1.1×106. The middle 3-blade has a variable tip gap clearance. All measurements are made at three different tip gap clearances of about 1, 1.5, and 2.5 percent of the blade span. Heat transfer measurements are also made at two different turbulence intensity levels of 6.1 and 9.7 percent at the cascade inlet. Static pressure measurements are made in the midspan and the near-tip regions as well as on the shroud surface, opposite the blade tip surface. Detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions on the plane tip surface are measured using a transient liquid crystal technique. Results show various regions of high and low heat transfer coefficient on the tip surface. Tip clearance has a significant influence on local tip heat transfer coefficient distribution. Heat transfer coefficient also increases about 15–20 percent along the leakage flow path at higher turbulence intensity level of 9.7 over 6.1 percent. [S0889-504X(00)00404-9]

Performance Analysis and Optimization of Eccentric Annular Disk Fins

In the first part of the paper, a semi-analytical method has been described for solving the two-dimensional heat conduction equation in an eccentric annular disk fin circumscribing a circular tube, subjected to convective cooling. Analysis has been done considering both convective and insulated conditions at the fin tip. The effects of surface and tip heat transfer coefficients and eccentricity on the performance of the fin have been studied. Comparative studies have also been made between the performance of concentric and eccentric fins with same radius ratio. Next, the optimum dimensions for eccentric annular fins have been determined using Lagrange multiplier technique. In the scheme, either the fin volume or the heat transfer duty can be taken as the constraint. Finally, it has been shown that when space restriction is imposed on one side of the tube, eccentric annular fins can be designed to have lesser volumes compared to concentric annular fins above a certain heat transfer duty.

Measured Heat Transfer Coefficients at and Adjacent to the Tip of a Wall-Attached Cylinder in Crossflow—Application to Fins

Wind tunnel studies encompassing both heat transfer measurements and flow visualization were performed for a cylinder in crossflow, with one end of the cylinder attached perpendicular to a wall and with the other end free. The focus of the work was to obtain heat transfer coefficients for the tip of the cylinder, for the tip-adjacent portion of the cylindrical surface, and for a portion of the cylindrical surface where there are no end effects. The flow visualization studies were performed to assist in the explanation and rationalization of the heat transfer results. They revealed the presence of spanwise flows adjacent to both ends of the cylinder, with accompanying modifications of the size of the separated region that washes the rear of the cylinder. The flow passing over the tip separates on the fore portion of the tip, but reattaches on the aft portion. The tip heat transfer coefficients are higher than those for the end-effect-free portion of the cylindrical surface, with deviations which grow with increasing Reynolds number (about a factor of two at Re = 25,000). For the tip-adjacent portion of the cylindrical surface, the coefficients are about fifty percent higher than those uninfluenced by end effects. The ramifications of these findings on the heat transfer analysis of fins are discussed.