Gianluca Caciolli

Density Ratio Effects on the Cooling Performances of a Combustor Liner Cooled by a Combined Slot/Effusion System

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of density ratio between coolant and mainflow on a real engine cooling scheme of a combustor liner. Measurements of heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic effectiveness were performed by means of a steady-state Thermochromic Liquid Crystals (TLC) technique; experimental results were used to estimate, through a 1D thermal procedure (Therm1d), the Net Heat Flux Reduction and the overall effectiveness in realistic engine working conditions.In order to reproduce a representative value of combustor coolant to mainstream density ratio, tests were carried out feeding the cooling system with carbon dioxide (CO2), while air was used in the main channel; to highlight the effects of density ratio and, as a consequence, to distinguish between the influence of blowing ratio and velocity ratio, tests were replicated using air both as coolant and mainstream and results were compared.The experimental analysis was performed on a test article replicating a slot injection and an effusion array with a central large dilution hole. Test section consists of a rectangular cross-section duct and a flat perforated plate provided with 272 holes arranged in 29 staggered rows (d = 1.65 mm, α = 30°, L/d = 5.5). Furthermore a dilution hole (D = 18.75 mm) is located at the 14th row; both effusion and dilution holes are fed by a channel replicating a combustor annulus. The rig allows to control mainstream and coolant flow parameters, especially in terms of Reynolds number of mainstream and effusion holes. Located upstream the first effusion row, a 6.0 mm high slot ensures the protection of the very first region of the liner.Experiments were carried out imposing several values of effusion blowing and velocity ratios within a range of typical modern engine working conditions (BReff/VReff = 1.5; 3.0; 5.0; 7.0) and keeping constant slot flow parameters (BRsl ≈ 1.5).Results point out the influence of density ratio on film cooling performance, suggesting that velocity ratio is the driving parameter for the heat transfer phenomena; concerning the effectiveness, results show that the adiabatic effectiveness is less sensitive to the cooling flow parameters, especially at the higher blowing/velocity ratios.Copyright

Flowfield and Temperature Profiles Measurements on a Combustor Simulator Dedicated to Hot Streaks Generation

In order to deepen the knowledge of the interaction between modern lean burn combustors and high pressure turbines, a real scale annular three sector combustor simulator has been assembled at University of Florence, with the goal of investigating and characterizing the generated aerothermal field and the hot streaks transport between combustor exit and the high pressure vanes location. To generate hot streaks and simulate lean burn combustors behavior, the rig is equipped with axial swirlers, fed by main air flow that is heated up to 531 K, and liners with effusion cooling holes that are fed by air at ambient temperature. The three sector configuration is used to reproduce the periodicity on the central sector and to allow to perform measurements inside the chamber, through the lateral walls.Ducts of different length have been mounted on the swirlers, preserving the hot mainflow from the interaction with coolant. Such configurations, together with the one without ducts, have been tested, using different measurement techniques, in order to highlight the differences in the resulting flow fields.First of all, isothermal PIV measurements have been performed on the combustion chamber symmetry plane, to highlight the mixing phenomena between the mainflow and cooling flows. Then a detailed investigation of the mean aerothermal field at combustor exit has been carried out, for nominal operating conditions, by means of a five hole pressure probe provided with a thermocouple, installed on an automatic traverse system. With the aim of analyzing the hot streaks transport and the flow field modification towards the vanes location, such measurements have been performed on two different planes: one located in correspondence of the combustor exit and the further one placed downstream, in the virtual location of the vanes leading edges.Therefore, an experimental database, describing the evolution of the flow field in a combustor simulator with typical traits of modern lean burn chambers, for different injector geometries, has been set up.Copyright

Experimental Evaluation of the Density Ratio Effects on the Cooling Performance of a Combined Slot/Effusion Combustor Cooling System

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of coolant-to-mainstream density ratio on a real engine cooling scheme of a combustor liner composed of a slot injection and an effusion array with a central dilution hole. Measurements of heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic effectiveness were performed by means of steady-state thermochromic liquid crystals technique; experimental results were used to estimate, through a 1D thermal procedure, the Net Heat Flux Reduction and the overall effectiveness in realistic engine working conditions. To reproduce a representative value of combustor coolant-to-mainstream density ratio, tests were carried out feeding the cooling system with carbon dioxide, while air was used in the main channel; to highlight the effects of density ratio, tests were replicated using air both as coolant and as mainstream and results were compared. Experiments were carried out imposing values of effusion blowing and velocity ratios within a range of typical modern engine working conditions. Results point out the influence of density ratio on film cooling performance, suggesting that velocity ratio is the driving parameter for the heat transfer phenomena; on the other hand, the adiabatic effectiveness is less sensitive to the cooling flow parameters, especially at the higher blowing/velocity ratios.

Performance Improvement of a Heavy Duty GT: Adiabatic Effectiveness Measurements on First Stage Vanes in Representative Engine Conditions

Nowadays total inlet temperature of gas turbine is far above the permissible metal temperature; as a consequence, advanced cooling techniques must be applied to protect from thermal stress and to reduce the risk of creep failure, oxidation and corrosion of components located in the high pressure stages, such as first vane. Film cooling has been widely used to control temperature of high temperature and high pressure vanes. In a film cooled vane the air taken from last compressor stages is ejected through discrete holes to provide a cold layer between hot mainstream and turbine components. A comprehensive understanding of phenomena concerning the complex interaction of hot gases with coolant flows in a vane passage plays a major role in the definition of a well performing film cooling scheme.The aim of this study is the measurement of adiabatic effectiveness on the first stage vane of a heavy duty GT by means of coolant concentration technique based on Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP). The investigation of coolant distribution on airfoils and platforms was done in order to make feasible possible optimizations and to validate numerical design tools. The experimental analysis was performed on a static test article replicating an annular sector made up of two cooled airfoils and three passages. An actual first stage vane (scale 1:1) with complete internal cooling scheme has been tested at different coolant conditions and imposing two values of density ratio (DR = 1.0;1.5). Film protection was generated by a showerhead on the leading edge and by cylindrical holes on pressure and suction side and on the platforms; finally a cutback with elongated pedestals was employed for the protection of the pressure side trailing edge. Results, reported in terms of detailed 2D maps of film cooling effectiveness and averaged trends, point out the effect of coolant-to-mainstream mass ratio and density ratio. Beyond the results obtained in this specific vane geometry, the use of PSP was proven to be a promising technique for direct measurements on real geometries: as a matter of fact, the opportunity to get detailed results of pressure and adiabatic effectiveness distributions is of outstanding importance for the design and optimization of vanes and blades cooling systems.Copyright

Multi-Coupled Numerical Analysis of Advanced Lean Burn Injection Systems

Lean burn aero-engine combustors usually exploit advanced prefilming airblast injection systems in order to promote the formation of highly homogeneous air-fuel mixtures with the main aim of reducing NOx emissions. The combustion process is strongly influenced by the liquid fuel preparation and a reliable prediction of pollutant emissions requires proper tools able to consider the most important aspects characterizing liquid film evolution and primary breakup. This paper presents the numerical analysis of an advanced lean burn injection system using a multi-coupled two-phase flow three-dimensional solver developed on the basis of OpenFOAM modelling and numerics. The solver allows the coupled solution of gas-phase, droplets and liquid film exploiting correlation-based and theoretical models for liquid film primary atomization. A detailed analysis of the liquid film evolution is presented together with an investigation of the influence of film modelling and primary breakup on the combustion process at different operating conditions. The combustion field is strongly influenced by the characteristics of droplet population generated by the liquid film and this study proposes a computational setup, suitable for industrial calculations, able to account for all the main physical processes that characterize advanced prefilming airblast injection systems.Copyright

Numerical Investigation on the Heat Transfer Enhancement due to Coolant Extraction on the Cold Side of Film Cooling Holes

Film cooling represents one the most widely-used cooling techniques for hot gas path components. In particular, effusion cooling has recently become an important focus of attention in the context of aero-engine design due to its high cooling performance. Notwithstanding the huge amount of work dedicated to the heat transfer on the hot side of effusion cooling plates, it has been demonstrated that up to 30 % of the total cooling effectiveness of a typical effusion cooling configuration can be ascribed to cold side convective cooling. Nevertheless, in open literature it is possible to notice a lack of knowledge as far as this topic is concerned.This paper describes a numerical activity aimed at investigating the phenomenology of the heat transfer at the entrance of film cooling holes. First of all the accuracy of the numerical approach has been validated through a comparison of enhancement factor measurements on a test case available in literature. Steady state RANS simulations have been performed, modeling turbulence by means of the k–ω SST model. The use of a transition model has been taken into account, since in these configurations the transitional behavior of the boundary layer has been highlighted in literature. Subsequently, the attention has been turned to the comprehension of the phenomena involved in the heat transfer augmentation, focusing the attention to the influence of fluid dynamic parameters such as suction ratio and Reynolds number. A good agreement has been highlighted with experimental data, therefore this work provides a starting point for future investigations on more representative configurations.Copyright

Development of an Engine Representative Combustor Simulator Dedicated to Hot Streak Generation

Nowadays, the lack of confidence in the prediction of combustor-turbine interactions and more specifically our ability to predict the migration of hot spots through this interface leads to the application of extra safety margins, which are detrimental to an optimized turbine design and efficiency. To understand the physics and flow at this interface, a full 360° non-reactive combustor simulator representative of a recent lean burn chamber together with a 1.5 turbine stage is instrumented at DLR in Gottingen (Germany) within the European project FACTOR. The chamber operates with axial swirlers especially designed to reproduce engine-realistic velocity and temperature distortion profiles allowing the investigation of the hot streaks transport through the high pressure stage. First, a true scale three injector annular sector of the combustor simulator without turbine is assembled and tested at the University of Florence. To generate the hot steaks the swirlers are fed by an air flow at 531 K, while the liners are cooled by an effusion system fed with air at ambient temperature. In addition to static pressure taps and thermocouples, the test rig will be equipped with an automatic traverse system which allows detailed measurements at the combustor exit by means of a 5-hole probe, a thermocouple and hot wire anemometers. This paper presents the design process and instrumentation of the trisector combustor simulator, with a special focus on Large Eddy Simulations (LES) which were widely used to validate the design choices. It was indeed decided to take advantage of the ability and maturity of LES to properly capture turbulence and mixing within combustion chambers, despite an increased computational cost as compared to usual RANS approaches. For preliminary design, simulations of a single periodic sector (representative of the DLR full annular rig) are compared to simulations of the trisector test rig, showing no difference on the central swirler predictions, comforting the choice for the trisector. In parallel, to allow hot wire anemometry measurements, the selection of an isothermal operating point, representative of the nominal point, is assessed and validated by use of LES.Copyright

Experimental Investigation of the Flow Field and the Heat Transfer on a Scaled Cooled Combustor Liner With Realistic Swirling Flow Generated by a Lean-Burn Injection System

Lean burn swirl stabilized combustors represent the key technology to reduce NOx emissions in modern aircraft engines. The high amount of air admitted through a lean-burn injection system is characterized by very complex flow structures such as recirculations, vortex breakdown and processing vortex core, that may deeply interact in the near wall region of the combustor liner. This interaction and its effects on the local cooling performance make the design of the cooling systems very challenging, accounting for the design and commission of new test rigs for detailed analysis. The main purpose of the present work is the characterization of the flow field and the wall heat transfer due to the interaction of a swirling flow coming out from real geometry injectors and a slot cooling system which generates film cooling in the first part of the combustor liner. The experimental setup consists of a non-reactive three sector planar rig in an open loop wind tunnel; the rig, developed within the EU project LEMCOTEC, includes three swirlers, whose scaled geometry reproduces the real geometry of an Avio Aero PERM (Partially Evaporated and Rapid Mixing) injector technology, and a simple cooling scheme made up of a slot injection, reproducing the exhaust dome cooling mass flow. Test were carried out imposing realistic combustor operating conditions, especially in terms of reduced mass flow rate and pressure drop across the swirlers. The flow field is investigated by means of PIV, while the measurement of the heat transfer coefficient is performed through Thermochromic Liquid Crystals steady state technique. PIV results show the behavior of flow field generated by the injectors, their mutual interaction and the impact of the swirled main flow on the stability of the slot film cooling. TLC measurements, reported in terms of detailed 2D heat transfer coefficient maps, highlight the impact of the swirled flow and slot film cooling on wall heat transfer.Copyright