James L. Rutledge

Degradation of Film Cooling Performance on a Turbine Vane Suction Side Due to Surface Roughness

After an extended period of operation, the surfaces of turbine airfoils become extremely rough due to deposition, spoliation, and erosion. The rough airfoil surfaces will cause film cooling performance degradation due to effects on adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients. In this study, the individual and combined effects of roughness upstream and downstream of a row of film cooling holes on the suction side of a turbine vane have been determined. Adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients were measured for a range of mainstream turbulence levels and with and without showerhead blowing. Using these parameters, the ultimate film cooling performance was quantified in terms of net heat flux reduction. The dominant effect of roughness was a doubling of the heat transfer coefficients. Maximum adiabatic effectiveness levels were also decreased significantly. Relative to a film cooled smooth surface, a film cooled rough surface was found to increase the heat flux to the surface by 30%-70%.

CFD Predictions of Pulsed Film Cooling Heat Flux on a Turbine Blade Leading Edge

Unsteadiness in film cooling jets may arise due to inherent unsteadiness of the blade-vane interaction or may be induced as a means of flow control. A computational study was conducted to determine how leading edge film cooling performance is affected by pulsing the coolant flow. A cylindrical leading edge with a flat afterbody is used to simulate the turbine blade leading edge region. A single coolant hole was located 21.5° from the leading edge, angled 20° to the surface and 90° from the streamwise direction. The leading edge diameter to hole diameter ratio is D/d = 18.7. Time resolved adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient are used to calculate the temporally averaged, spatially resolved net heat flux reduction for several pulsing scenarios. The net heat flux reduction with pulsed film cooling is compared to the steady jet with matched average mass flow rate. Steady blowing ratios of M = 0.25 and 0.50 are each compared with two pulsed jet cases with matching averaging blowing ratio, M , at a nondimensional frequency, F = 0.151 and duty cycle, DC = 50%. Simulations were performed at ReD = 60000. Net heat flux is generally increased by pulsing the film coolant, with greater degradation for higher pulsation amplitudes relative to the average blowing ratio.© 2008 ASME

Influence of Film Cooling Unsteadiness on Turbine Blade Leading Edge Heat Flux

Film cooling in the hot gas path of a gas turbine engine can protect components from the high temperature main flow, but it generally increases the heat transfer coefficient h partially offsetting the benefits in reduced adiabatic wall temperature. We are thus interested in adiabatic effectiveness η and h which are combined in a formulation called net heat flux reduction (NHFR). Unsteadiness in coolant flow may arise due to inherent unsteadiness in the external flow or be intentionally introduced for flow control. In previous work it has been suggested that pulsed cooling flow may, in fact, offer benefits over steady blowing in either improving NHFR or reducing the mass flow requirements for matched NHFR. In this paper we examine this hypothesis for a range of steady and pulsed blowing conditions. We use a new experimental technique to analyze unsteady film cooling on a semicircular cylinder simulating the leading edge of a turbine blade. The average NHFR with pulsed and steady film cooling is measured and compared for a single coolant hole located 21.5° downstream from the leading edge stagnation line, angled 20° to the surface and 90° to the streamwise direction. We show that for moderate blowing ratios at blade passing frequencies, steady film flow yields better NHFR. At higher coolant flow rates beyond the optimum steady blowing ratio, however, pulsed film cooling can be advantageous. We present and demonstrate a prediction technique for unsteady blowing at frequencies similar to the blade passing frequency that only requires the knowledge of steady flow behavior. With this important result, it is possible to predict when pulsing would be beneficial or detrimental.

CFD Predictions of the Frequency Dependence of Pulsed Film Cooling Heat Flux on a Turbine Blade Leading Edge

Unsteadiness in film cooling jets may arise due to inherent unsteadiness of the blade-vane interaction or may be induced as a means of flow control. A computational study was conducted to determine how leading edge film cooling performance is affected by pulsing the coolant flow at high frequency such that F ≈ 1 and F > 1. Time resolved adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient are used to calculate the temporally averaged, spatially resolved net heat flux reduction for several pulsing scenarios. The net heat flux reduction with pulsed film cooling is compared to the steady jet with matched average mass flow rate. A cylindrical leading edge with a flat afterbody is used to simulate the turbine blade leading edge region. A single coolant hole was located 21.5° from the leading edge, angled 20° to the surface and 90° from the streamwise direction. The leading edge diameter to hole diameter ratio is D/d = 18.7. High frequency pulsed jet cases are compared to low frequency pulsed jets as well as steady jets at matched averaged blowing ratios, M = 0.25 and 0.50. Simulations were performed at ReD = 60000. A simple technique is shown that can effectively predict pulsed film cooling performance at low frequency, but the fluid dynamics becomes more complex at higher frequencies yielding frequency dependent results at F > 3.

Characterizing Thermal Exit Conditions for an Ultra Compact Combustor

In continuing the effort to push the limitations of modern gas turbine engines, Ultra Compact Combustors offer unique solutions to minimize engine size and weight. They accomplish this by reducing the number of components in the engine core and perform the combustion in a circumferential cavity that encircles the core flow. Within this cavity, the fuel is injected rich. Burning continues to occur in the vane passage beneath the circumferential cavity which must be completed in a controlled manner prior to the inlet plane of the rotor. Furthermore, the temperature distribution at the exit of the vane passage must be controlled to generate high work extraction from the turbine. This research shall vary the cavity equivalence ratio, g-loading, swirl direction, and mass flow ratio with the core flow to characterize the impact of each of these parameters on the exit conditions. The primary metrics for comparison are the exit temperature and pressure profiles, the emissions characteristics, and the overall Rayleigh losses. The goal of this particular investigation was to establish a set of criterion that produced an exit flow condition similar to that created by a traditional axial combustion system, thus realizing the weight savings offered by the ultra compact design. Results will show that the shape of the exit temperature profiles are independent of cavity equivalence ratio and more sensitive to the distribution of mass flow.

Experimental Flow Visualization of Pulsed Film Cooling on a Turbine Blade Leading Edge

Abstract : Unsteadiness in gas turbine film cooling jets may arise due to inherent unsteadiness of the flow through an engine or may be induced as a means of flow control. The traditional technique used to evaluate the performance of a steady film cooling scheme is demonstrated to be insufficient for use with unsteady film cooling and is modified to account for the cross coupling of the time dependent adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient. The addition of a single term to the traditional steady form of the net heat flux reduction equation with time averaged quantities accounts for the unsteady effects. An experimental technique to account for the influence of the new term was devised and used to measure the influence of a pulsating jet on the net heat flux in the leading edge region of a turbine blade. High spatial resolution data was acquired in the near-hole region using infrared thermography coupled with experimental techniques that allowed application of the appropriate thermal boundary conditions immediately adjacent to the film cooling hole. The turbine blade leading edge was simulated by a half cylinder in cross flow with a blunt afterbody. The film cooling geometry consisted of a coolant hole located 21.5? from the leading edge, angled 20? to the surface and 90? from the streamwise direction. Investigated parameters include pulsation frequency, duty cycle, and waveform shape. Separate experiments were conducted in a water channel to provide visualization of the unsteady coolant propagation behavior. Further insight into the flow physics was obtained through computational simulations of the experimental apparatus. The computational results afforded time resolved flow field and net heat flux reduction data unobtainable with the experimental techniques. A technique to predict the performance of an unsteady film cooling scheme through knowledge of only the steady film cooling behavior was developed and demonstrated to be effective.

Minimization of Heat Load due to Secondary Reactions in Fuel Rich Environments

The demand for increased thrust, higher engine efficiency, and reduced fuel consumption has increased the turbine inlet temperature and pressure in modern gas turbine engines. The outcome of these higher temperatures and pressures is the potential for unconsumed radical species to enter the turbine. Because modern cooling schemes for turbine blades involve injecting cool, oxygen rich air adjacent to the surface, the potential for reaction with radicals in the mainstream flow and augmented heat transfer to the blade arises. This result is contrary to the purpose of film cooling. In this environment there is a competing desire to consume any free radicals prior to the flow entering the rotor stage while still maintaining surface temperatures below the metal melting temperature.This study evaluated various configurations of multiple cylindrical rows of cooling holes in terms of both heat release and effective downstream cooling. Results were evaluated based on a new Wall Absorption parameter which combined the additional heat available from these secondary reactions with the length of the resulting flame to determine which schemes protected the wall more efficiently. Two particular schemes showed promise. The two row upstream configuration reduced the overall augmentation of heat by creating a short, concentrated reaction area. Conversely, the roll forward configuration minimized the local heat flux enhancement by spreading the reaction area over the surface being cooled.© 2014 ASME

Determination of Time Resolved Heat Transfer Coefficient and Adiabatic Effectiveness Waveforms With Unsteady Film

Traditional hot gas path film cooling characterization involves the use of wind tunnel models to measure the spatial adiabatic effectiveness (η) and heat transfer coefficient (h) distributions. Periodic unsteadiness in the flow, however, causes fluctuations in both η and h. In this paper we present a novel inverse heat transfer methodology that may be used to approximate the η(t) and h(t) waveforms. The technique is a modification of the traditional transient heat transfer technique that, with steady flow conditions only, allows the determination of η and h from a single experiment by measuring the surface temperature history as the material changes temperature after sudden immersion in the flow. However, unlike the traditional transient technique, this new algorithm contains no assumption of steadiness in the formulation of the governing differential equations for heat transfer into a semi-infinite slab. The technique was tested by devising arbitrary waveforms for η and h at a point on a film cooled surface and running a computational simulation of an actual experimental model experiencing those flow conditions. The surface temperature history was corrupted with random noise to simulate actual surface temperature measurements and then fed into an algorithm developed here that successfully and consistently approximated the η(t) and h(t) waveforms.

Thermal Transport Properties of Dry Spun Carbon Nanotube Sheets

The thermal properties of carbon nanotube- CNT- sheet were explored and compared to copper in this study. The CNT-sheet was made from dry spinning CNTs into a nonwoven sheet. This nonwoven CNT-sheet has anisotropic properties in in-plane and out-of-plane directions. The in-plane direction has much higher thermal conductivity than the out-of-plane direction. The in-plane thermal conductivity was found by thermal flash analysis, and the out-of-plane thermal conductivity was found by a hot disk method. The thermal irradiative properties were examined and compared to thermal transport theory. The CNT-sheet was heated in the vacuum and the temperature was measured with an IR Camera. The heat flux of CNT-sheet was compared to that of copper, and it was found that the CNT-sheet has significantly higher specific heat transfer properties compared to those of copper. CNT-sheet is a potential candidate to replace copper in thermal transport applications where weight is a primary concern such as in the automobile, aircraft, and space industries.

Waveforms of Time-Resolved Film-Cooling Parameters on a Leading-Edge Model

It is necessary to understand how film cooling both reduces the adiabatic wall temperature and influences the heat transfer coefficient in order to predict its benefit to a gas turbine hot gas path component. Although a great number of studies have considered steady film-cooling flows, unsteadiness has only recently been considered. Unsteadiness in the freestream flow or the coolant flow can cause fluctuations in both the adiabatic effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient, the dynamics of which have been difficult to measure. In previous studies, only time-averaged effects have been measured. The present study has determined time-resolved η and h waveforms using a novel inverse heat transfer methodology. Unsteady interactions between η and h were examined near a coolant hole on the leading-edge region of a circular cylinder simulating the leading edge of a turbine blade. The coolant plume is shown to shift back and forth as the jet’s momentum fluctuates, resulting in an increased spread of coolant cove...