Kam S. Chana

The Design, Development and Testing of a Non-Uniform Inlet Temperature Generator for the QinetiQ Transient Turbine Research Facility

This paper presents the design, development and testing of a non-uniform inlet temperature generator for the QinetiQ Isentropic Light Piston Facility, a short duration turbine research facility. Major modifications were made to the facility to incorporate a non-uniform inlet temperature generator following a pilot study where a two-dimensional inlet section of the facility was replicated. The inlet region was modified to allow injection of cold gas at the hub and casing to generate the radial profile, whereas cold gas was injected from upstream turbulence rods to generate the circumferential variation (hot spots). Two configurations of hot spots were generated and characterised for both temperature and pressure. Heat transfer results at 50% span for the nozzle guide vane aerofoil are presented with and without inlet temperature non-uniformity.Copyright

Heat Transfer and Aerodynamics of an Intermediate Pressure Nozzle Guide Vane With and Without Inlet Temperature Non-Uniformity

In modern gas turbine engines the combustor exit flow has a non-uniform temperature profile because of the discrete nature of the injection of fuel and dilution air, and the wall cooling flows. The affect of this non-uniform temperature profile on the aerodynamics and heat transfer rate of nozzle guide vanes and turbine blades is difficult to predict, and knowledge of this is important for estimating turbine component life and efficiency. Measurements of heat transfer have been conducted on an annular transonic intermediate pressure nozzle guide vane operating downstream of a high pressure rotating turbine stage. Measurements were made with and without a radial and circumferential inlet temperature profile. The experiments were conducted in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility (ILPF) at QinetiQ, a short duration engine size turbine facility with 1.5 turbine stages, in which Mach number, Reynolds number and gas-to-wall temperature ratios are correctly modelled. Experimental results are compared to predictions performed using boundary layer methods.Copyright

Numerical Predictions of Film Cooled NGV Blades

Film-cooling is commonly used in modern gas turbines to increase inlet temperatures without compromising the mechanical strength of the hot components. The main objective of the study reported here is the critical evaluation of the capability of CFD, to predict film-cooling on three-dimensional engine realistic turbine aerofoil geometries. To achieve this aim two different film-cooling systems for NGV aerofoils are predicted and compared against experiments. The application concerns the following turbine vanes: • the AGTB-B1 blade investigated by the “Institut fur Strahlantriebe of the Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen (Germany)”; • the MT1 HP NGV investigated by QinetiQ (ex DERA, UK). In the first test case the application mainly focuses on the interaction between the main flow and the coolant jets on the leading edge of the cooled aerofoil. In the second case, vane heat transfer rate is predicted with the film-cooling system made of six rows of cylindrical holes in single and staggered configuration.Copyright

Unsteady Heat Transfer Topics in Gas Turbine Stages Simulations

High pressure gas turbine stages are nowadays working under very challenging conditions. An usual HP stage design is based on transonic highly loaded blades cooled through impingement and film cooling techniques. An important research field for such type of turbine stages is presently represented by the investigation of unsteady performances for loss reduction and heat transfer optimization. Two special issues related to the unsteady stage interaction are addressed in the present work: the first concerns the casing/tip leakage flow, the second the effect and redistribution of inlet temperature hot-spots. The investigation of both requires unsteady modeling since these phenomena are mostly driven by the rotor-stator interaction. High temperature spots, for example, travel through the stator vane as a “hot streaks” of fluid that is mainly redistributed and steered: a simple model of this process is known as Kerrebrock and Mikolajczak’s “segregation effect”. A series of steady and unsteady simulations have been made on the HP MT1 turbine stage test rig of QinetiQ. Given an inlet uniform total pressure field, three different total temperature distributions have been simulated. The first is a uniform reference distribution of total temperature, while the other two non-uniform distributions have been obtained from experimental data with a different alignment with respect to the NGV leading edge. The numerical results have been compared with the experimental values provided by QinetiQ. The comparisons have been discussed focusing on the rotor blade and casing unsteady pressure and heat transfer rate.Copyright

An Investigation of the Effects of Film Cooling in a High-Pressure Aeroengine Turbine Stage

Cooling is required to enable the turbine components to survive and have acceptable life in the very high gas temperatures occurring in modern engines. The cooling air is bled from the compression system, with typically about 15% of the core flow being diverted in military engines and about 20% in civil turbofans. Cooling benefits engine specific thrust and efficiency by allowing higher cycle temperatures to be employed, but the bleed air imposes cycle penalties and also reduces the aerodynamic efficiency of the turbine blading, typically by 2–4%. Cooling research aims to develop and validate improved design methodologies that give maximum cooling effectiveness for minimum cooling flow. This paper documents external cooling research undertaken in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility at QinetiQ as part of a European collaborative programme on turbine aerodynamics and heat transfer. In Phase I, neither the ngv nor the rotor was cooled; cooling was added to the ngv only for Phase II, and to the rotor and ngv in Phase III. Coolant blowing rates and density ratios were also varied in the experiments. This paper describes the ILPF and summarises the results of this systematic programme, paying particular attention to the variation in aerofoil heat transfer with changing coolant conditions, and the effects coolant ejection has on the aerofoil’s aerodynamic performance.Copyright

Analysis on the Effect of a Non-Uniform Inlet Profile on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Turbine Stages

This paper presents an investigation of the aerothermal performance of a modern unshrouded high pressure (HP) aeroengine turbine subject to non-uniform inlet temperature profile. The turbine used for the study was the MT1 turbine installed in the QinetiQ Turbine Test Facility (TTF) based in Farnborough (UK). The MT1 turbine is a full scale transonic HP turbine, and is operated in the test facility at the correct non-dimensional conditions for aerodynamics and heat transfer. Datum experiments of aero-thermal performance were conducted with uniform inlet conditions. Experiments with nonuniform inlet temperature were conducted with a temperature profile that had a non-uniformity in the radial direction defined by (Tmax −Tmin )/T = 0.355, and a non-uniformity in the circumferential direction defined by (Tmax −Tmin )/T = 0.14. This corresponds to an extreme point in the engine cycle, in an engine where the non-uniformity is dominated by the radial distribution. Accurate experimental area surveys of the turbine inlet and exit flows were conducted, and detailed heat transfer measurements were obtained on the blade surfaces and end-walls. These results are analysed with the unsteady numerical data obtained using the in-house HybFlow code developed at the University of Firenze. Two particular aspects are highlighted in the discussion: prediction confidence for state of the art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and impact of real conditions on stator-rotor thermal loading. The efficiency value obtained with the numerical analysis is compared with the experimental data and a 0.8% difference is found and discussed. A study of the flow field influence on the blade thermal load has also been detailed. It is shown that the hot streak migration mainly affects the rotor pressure side from 20% to 70% of the span, where the Nusselt number increases by a factor of 60% with respect to the uniform case. Furthermore, in this work it has been found that a nonuniform temperature distribution is beneficial for the rotor tip, contrary to the results found in the open literature. Although the hot streak is affected by the pressure gradient across the tip gap, the radial profile (which dominates the temperature profile being considered) is not fully mixed out in passing through the HP stage, and contributes significantly to cooling the turbine casing. A design approach not taking into account these effects will underestimate to rotor life near the tip and the thermal load at mid-span. The temperature profile that has been used in both the experiments and CFD is the first simulation of an extreme cycle point (more than twice the magnitude of distortion all previous experimental studies): it represents an engine-take-off condition combined with the full combustor cooling. The research was part of the EU funded TATEF2 (Turbine Aero-Thermal External Flows 2) programme.Copyright

The Effect of Hot-Streaks on HP Vane Surface and Endwall Heat Transfer: An Experimental and Numerical Study

Pronounced non-uniformities in combustor exit flow temperature (hot-streaks), which arise because of discrete injection of fuel and dilution air jets within the combustor and because of end-wall cooling flows, affect both component life and aerodynamics. Because it is very difficult to quantitatively predict the affects of these temperature non-uniformities on the heat transfer rates, designers are forced to budget for hot-streaks in the cooling system design process. Consequently, components are designed for higher working temperatures than the mass-mean gas temperature, and this imposes a significant overall performance penalty. An inadequate cooling budget can lead to reduced component life. An improved understanding of hot-streak migration physics, or robust correlations based on reliable experimental data, would help designers minimise the overhead on cooling flow that is currently a necessity. A number of recent research projects sponsored by a range of industrial gas turbine and aero-engine manufacturers attest to the growing interest in hot-streak physics. This paper presents measurements of surface and end-wall heat transfer rate for an HP nozzle guide vane (NGV) operating as part of a full HP turbine stage in an annular transonic rotating turbine facility. Measurements were conducted with both uniform stage inlet temperature and with two non-uniform temperature profiles. The temperature profiles were non-dimensionally similar to profiles measured in an engine. A difference of one half of an NGV pitch in the circumferential (clocking) position of the hot-streak with respect to the NGV was used to investigate the affect of clocking on the vane surface and end-wall heat transfer rate. The vane surface pressure distributions, and the results of a flow-visualisation study, which are also given, are used to aid interpretation of the results. The results are compared to two-dimensional predictions conducted using two different boundary layer methods. Experiments were conducted in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility (ILPF) at QinetiQ Farnborough, a short duration engine-size turbine facility. Mach number, Reynolds number and gas-to-wall temperature ratios were correctly modelled. It is believed that the heat transfer measurements presented in this paper are the first of their kind.© 2005 ASME

Effect of Temperature Nonuniformity on Heat Transfer in an Unshrouded Transonic HP Turbine: An Experimental and Computational Investigation

Detailed experimental measurements have been performed to understand the effects of turbine inlet temperature distortion (hot-streaks) on the heat transfer and aerodynamic characteristics of a full-scale unshrouded high pressure turbine stage at flow conditions that are representative of those found in a modern gas turbine engine. To investigate hot-streak migration, the experimental measurements are complemented by three-dimensional steady and unsteady CFD simulations of the turbine stage. This paper presents the time-averaged measurements and computational predictions of rotor blade surface and rotor casing heat transfer. Experimental measurements obtained with and without inlet temperature distortion are compared. Time-mean experimental measurements of rotor casing static pressure are also presented. CFD simulations have been conducted using the Rolls-Royce code Hydra, and are compared to the experimental results. 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 transonic facility, which simulates engine representative M, Re, Tu, N/T and Tg /Tw at the turbine inlet. The facility has recently been upgraded to incorporate an advanced second-generation temperature distortion generator, capable of simulating well-defined, aggressive temperature distortion both in the radial and circumferential directions, at the turbine inlet.Copyright

Aero-Thermal Study of the Unsteady Flow Field in a Transonic Gas Turbine With Inlet Temperature Distortions

CFD prediction of the unsteady aero-thermal interaction in the HP turbine stage, with inlet temperature non-uniformity, requires appropriate unsteady modelling and a low diffusive numerical scheme coupled with suitable turbulence models. This maybe referred to as high fidelity CFD. A numerical study has been conducted by the University of Florence in collaboration with ONERA to compare capabilities and limitations of their CFD codes for such flows. The test vehicle used for the investigation is a turbine stage of three-dimensional design from the QinetiQ turbine facility known as MT1. This stage is a high pressure (HP) transonic stage that has an un-shrouded rotor, configured un-cooled with 32 stators and 60 rotor blades. Two different CFD solvers are compared that use different unsteady treatment of the interaction. A reduced count ratio technique has been used by the University of Florence with its code HybFlow, while a phase lag model has been used by ONERA in their code, elsA. Four different inlet conditions have been simulated and compared with a focus on the experimental values provided by QinetiQ in the frame of TATEF and TATEF2 EU 6th Framework projects. The differences in terms of performance parameters and hot fluid redistribution, as well as the time- and pitch-averaged radial distributions on a plane downstream of the rotor blade, have been underlined. Special attention was given to the predictions of rotor blade unsteady pressure and heat transfer rates.Copyright

Turbine Heat Transfer and Aerodynamic Measurements and Predictions for a 1.5 Stage Configuration

This paper considers the surface heat transfer rate to, and aerodynamics of, a 1.5 stage turbine — a high pressure (HP) turbine stage followed by an intermediate pressure (IP) vane. Unsteady interactions arising from the relative motions of vane/blade rows are examined. The IP vane was of structural type, and was designed with a vane count of 26. Measurements of time-mean heat transfer and aerodynamics are seldom performed in 1.5 stage turbines, because of the necessary complexity of the experimental setup required for such investigations. This paper presents both steady and unsteady measurements conducted in an engine-size research turbine, operated at engine-representative non-dimensional conditions. Measurements are compared to the predictions from a three-dimensional, viscous, non-linear, time accurate flow solver. An unstructured grid was used, and, by using the Erdos direct storage technique, the code was extended to allow for non-integer vane/blade pitch ratios. A prediction was performed in which all three vane/blade rows were simultaneously modelled. The measured and predicted unsteady surface heat transfer rates for the IP vane and HP rotor blade were in good agreement, and demonstrated that the interactive effects arising from the relative motion of these components were significant.Copyright