Lorenzo Tarchi

Experimental Investigation on the Effects of a Large Recirculating Area on the Performance of an Effusion Cooled Combustor Liner

An experimental analysis of a realistic engine cooling scheme was performed on a test article replicating a slot injection and an effusion array with a central large dilution hole. A test section consists of a rectangular cross-section duct with a flat plate comprised of 270 effusion holes arranged in 29 staggered rows (D = 1.65 mm, Sx/D = 7.6, Sy/D = 6, LID = 5.5, α = 30 deg) and a dilution hole (D = 18.75 mm) located at the 14th row. Both effusion and dilution holes are fed by a channel replicating a combustor annulus, which allows to control of cold gas side cross-flow parameters, especially in terms of Reynolds number of both annulus and effusion holes. Upstream the first row, a 6 mm high slot ensures the protection of the very first region of the liner. In order to simulate the combustor flowpath, a backward facing step was installed upstream the slot to generate a large recirculating area. Adiabatic effectiveness, heat transfer coefficient and net heat flux reduction were evaluated and compared with non- recirculating experiments. Measurements were performed by means of a steady-state Thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) technique with a thin Inconel heating foil for the heat transfer measurements. A data reduction procedure based on a finite element approach has been developed to take into account the non uniform heat generation and conduction due to the large amount of holes. Experiments were carried out considering the combined effects of slot, effusion and dilution holes. Three different effusion blowing ratios (BR = 3-5-7) are investigated, keeping constant the slot flow parameters (BR = 1.3). Results highlight that the presence of the step leads to a general reduction of effectiveness while does not have effects on the heat transfer coefficient.

Application of the inverse analysis for boundary condition retrieval

The technique of solving linear steady-state and transient inverse problems aimed at retrieving an unknown heat transfer coefficient (HTC) is proposed. The idea is to approximate the temperature field by a linear combination of known auxiliary temperature fields. Each of these fields is evaluated by assuming that the unknown boundary temperature (heat flux) is described by a compact support, low-order trial function. The unknown coefficients of this linear combination are determined from the least square fit to the measured temperatures employing the modified Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) method. Once the boundary temperature and heat flux are retrieved, the HTC is determined from its definition. The auxiliary fields are evaluated using an arbitrary numerical or analytical technique. The sensitivity coefficients of the problem can readily be obtained by sampling the auxiliary fields at sensor locations. The values of the sensitivity coefficients used in the LM procedure need to be determined only once, before entering the iterative least squares procedure. Piecewise linear or stepwise functions were used to approximate the spatial and temporal variation of the retrieved heat flux and temperatures. The technique has been applied to reconstruct HTC for so-called time-to-arrival measurements technique with narrow band thermochromic liquid crystal used as temperature sensors. The idea behind this approach is to monitor the time at which a measuring point reaches a characteristic temperature. The developed technique has been used to retrieve the HTC for impingement cooling of the simplified piston of a car engine.

Experimental Survey on Heat Transfer in a Trailing Edge Cooling System: Effects of Rotation in Internal Cooling Ducts

The high thermal loads, the heavy structural stresses and the small thickness required for aerodynamic performances make the trailing edge cooling (TE) cooling of high pressure gas turbine blades a critical challenge. The presented paper point out an experimental study focusing the aerothermal performance of a TE internal cooling system of a high pressure gas turbine blade, evaluated under stationary and rotating conditions. The investigated geometry consists of a 30:1 scaled model reproducing the typical wedge shaped discharge duct with one row of enlarged pedestals. The airflow pattern inside the device simulates a highly loaded rotor blade cooling scheme with a 90° turning flow from the radial hub inlet to the tangential TE outlet. Two different tip configurations were tested, the first one with a completely closed section, the second one with 5 holes on the tip outlet surfaces discharging at ambient pressure. To investigate the rotation effects on the trailing edge cooling system performance, a rotating test rig was purposely developed and manufactured. The test rig is composed by a rotating arm that holds the PMMA TE model and the instrumentation. A thin Inconel heating foil and wide band Thermo-chromic Liquid Crystals are used to perform steady state heat transfer measurements. A rotary joint ensures the pneumatic connection between the blower and the rotating apparatus, moreover several slip rings are used for both instrumentation power supply and thermocouple connection. Heat transfer coefficient measurements were made with fixed Reynolds number close to 20k in the hub inlet section and with variable rotating speed in order to set the Rotation number from 0 (non rotational test) up to 0.3. Six different configurations were tested: two different tip mass flow rates (the first one with a completely closed tip, the second one with the 12.5% of the inlet flow discharged from the tip) and three different surface conditions: the first one consists in the flat plate case and the others in two ribbed cases, with different angular orientation (60° and −60° respect to the radial direction). Results are reported in terms of detailed heat transfer coefficient 2D maps on the suction side surface as well as span-wise profiles inside the pedestal ducts. The reported work has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).Copyright

Adiabatic and Overall Effectiveness Measurements of an Effusion Cooling Array for Turbine Endwall Application

An experimental analysis for the evaluation of adiabatic and overall effectiveness of an effusion cooling geometry is presented in this paper. Chosen configuration is a flat plate with 98 holes, with a feasible arrangement for a turbine endwall. Fifteen staggered rows with equal spanwise and streamwise pitches (S x / D=S y / D=8.0), a length to diameter ratio of 42.9 and an injection angle of 30 deg are investigated. Measurements have been done on two different test samples made both of plastic material and stainless steel. Adiabatic tests were carried out in order to obtain adiabatic effectiveness bidimensional maps. Even if a very low conductivity material polyvinyl chloride was used, adiabatic tests on a typical effusion geometry suffer, undoubtedly, from conductive phenomena: a full three-dimensional finite element method postprocessing procedure for gathered experimental data was therefore developed for reckoning thermal fluxes across the surface and then correctly obtaining adiabatic effectiveness distributions. The objective of the tests performed on the conductive plate, having the same flow parameters as the adiabatic ones, was the estimation of overall efficiency of the cooled region. Experimental measurements were carried out imposing two different crossflow Mach numbers, 0.15 and 0.40, and varying blowing ratio from 0.5 to 1.7; effectiveness of the cooled surface was evaluated with a steady-state technique, using thermochromic liquid crystal wide band formulation. Results show that the postprocessing procedure correctly succeeded in deducting undesired thermal fluxes across the plate in adiabatic effectiveness evaluation. The increasing blowing ratio effect leads to lower adiabatic effectiveness mean values, while it makes overall effectiveness to grow. Finally, Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes steady-state calculations were performed employing an open source computational fluid dynamics code: an adiabatic case has been simulated using both a standard and an anisotropic turbulence model. Numerical achievements have then been compared with experimental measurement.

Correlative Analysis of Effusion Cooling Systems

Gas turbine cooling has steadily acquired major importance whenever engine performances have to be improved. Among various cooling techniques, film cooling is probably one of the most diffused systems for protecting metal surfaces against hot gases in turbine stages and combustor liners. Most recent developments in hole manufacturing allow us to perform a wide array of microholes, currently referred to as effusion cooling. Though some drawbacks of such a concept still need to be solved (manufacturing costs, holes blockage, and then system reliability), its potential is now worth investigating. This paper presents the validation of a simplified numerical two-dimensional conjugate approach through a comparison with the experimental results of effectiveness for an effusion plate. A preliminary test is performed with the steady-state technique, using thermochromic liquid crystal wide-band formulations. Results are obtained in terms of local distributions of adiabatic effectiveness. Average values are compared with calculations to validate the numerical code. Then, the design of experiment approach is used to perform several conjugate numerical tests (about 180), so as to derive the behavior of different effusion plates in terms of overall effectiveness and mass flow rate. Data are analyzed in detail, and a correlative approach for the overall effectiveness is proposed.

Experimental Investigation of Innovative Internal Trailing Edge Cooling Configurations with Pentagonal Arrangement and Elliptic Pin Fin

This paper describes a heat transfer experimental study of four different internal trailing edge cooling configurations based on pin fin schemes. The aim of the study is the comparison between innovative configurations and standard ones. So, a circular pin fin configuration with an innovative pentagonal scheme is compared to a standard staggered scheme, while two elliptic pin fin configurations are compared to each other turning the ellipse from the streamwise to the spanwise direction. For each configuration, heat transfer and pressure loss measurements were made keeping the Mach number fixed at 0.3 and varying the Reynolds number from 9000 to 27000. In order to investigate the overall behavior of both endwall and pedestals, heat transfer measurements are performed using a combined transient technique. Over the endwall surface, the classic transient technique with thermochromic liquid crystals allows the measurement of a detailed heat transfer coefficient (HTC) map. Pin fins are made of high thermal conductivity material, and an inverse data reduction method based on a finite element code allows to evaluate the mean HTC of each pin fin. Results show that the pentagonal arrangement generates a nonuniform HTC distribution over the endwall surface, while, in terms of average values, it is equivalent to the staggered configuration. On the contrary, the HTC map of the two elliptic configurations is similar, but the spanwise arrangement generates higher heat transfer coefficients and pressure losses.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Turning Flow Effects on Innovative Pin Fin Arrangements for Trailing Edge Cooling Configurations

The effect of the array configuration of circular pin fins is investigated from a numerical and experimental point of view reproducing a typical cooling scheme of a real high pressure aero-engine blade. The airstream enters the domain of interest radially from the hub inlet and exits axially from the trailing edge (TE) outlet section. More than 100 turbulators are inserted in the wedge-shaped TE duct to enhance the heat transfer: A reference array implementing seven rows of staggered pins is compared with an innovative pentagonal arrangement. Investigations were made considering real engine flow conditions: Both numerical calculations and experimental measurements were performed fixing Re=18,000 and Ma=0.3 in the TE throat section. The effect of the tip mass flow rate was also taken into account, investigating 0% and 25% of the TE mass flow rate. The experimental activity was aimed at obtaining detailed heat transfer coefficient maps over the internal pressure side (PS) surface by means of the transient technique with thermochromic liquid crystals. Particle image velocimetry measurements were performed and surface flow visualizations were made by means of the oil and dye technique on the PS surface. Steady-state Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes simulations were performed with two different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes: the commercial software Ansys CFX® 11.0 and an in-house solver based on the opensource toolbox OpenFOAM® , to compare the performance and predictive capabilities. Turbulence was modeled by means of the k−ω shear stress transport (SST) model with a hybrid near-wall treatment allowing strong clustering of the wall of interest as well as quite coarse refinement on the other viscous surfaces.

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

Combined Effect of Slot Injection, Effusion Array and Dilution Hole on the Cooling Performance of a Real Combustor Liner

Due to the higher cooling requirements of novel combustor liners a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena concerning the interaction of hot gases with different coolant flows plays a major role in the definition of a well performing liner. An experimental analysis of a real engine cooling scheme 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 with 272 holes arranged in 29 staggered rows (d = 1.65 mm, Sx /d = 7.6, Sy /d = 6, L/d = 5.5, α = 30 deg); a dilution hole (D = 18.75 mm) is located at the 14th row. Both effusion and dilution holes are fed by a channel replicating combustor annulus, that allows to control cold gas side cross-flow parameters. Upstream the first effusion row, a 6.0 mm high slot ensure the protection of the very first region of the liner. Final aim was the measurement of adiabatic effectiveness of the cooling scheme by means of a steady-state Thermochromic Liquid Crystals (TLC) technique, considering the combined effects of slot, effusion and dilution holes. Experiments were carried out imposing three different effusion velocity ratios typical of modern engine working conditions (VReff = 3, 5, 7) and keeping constant slot flow parameters (VRsl = 1.1). CFD RANS calculations were also performed with the aim of better understanding interactions between coolant exiting from the slot and injected by effusion cooling rows. Numerical analysis revealed a large dependency on effusion velocity ratio. An in-house one-dimensional fluid network solver was finally used to compare experimental and numerical results with the ones predicted by correlations and then quantify the possibility of giving predictions. Both CFD and experimental results reveal that slot protection is reduced in the first rows by coolant injected with such high velocity ratios; nevertheless effusion, though in penetration regime, guarantees a significant effectiveness level in the more downstream region. Dilution hole alters the effectiveness growth rate, moreover leading to local protection lowering just after its injection.Copyright

Pedestal and Endwall Contribution in Heat Transfer in Thin Wedge Shaped Trailing Edge

Short pin fins (pedestals) and long ribs (enlarged pedestals) are usually used in trailing edge cooling of turbine airfoils. To better reproduce the geometry of such cooling systems, test section of this experimental study is a wedge duct with inserts, to take into account effects of accelerating flow. A complete investigation of the system needs a separate evaluation of the heat transfer coefficients (HTC) for the pedestal surface and for the free endwall surface. In the present work an innovative technique made of different methods for these two different regions is presented, so cooling performances of each are evaluated. Thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) transient technique is used to measure detailed heat transfer coefficients only on the endwall surface: a typical transparent (Plexiglas® ) test article is used. Aluminum pedestals, employing a procedure based on a finite elements code, allow to measure the average heat transfer coefficient on the insert surface. To investigate the effects on transient technique of high conductive components, a comparison with Plexiglas inserts has been performed. Results show an underestimation of HTC with TLC transient technique only for aluminum long ribs at low Reynolds number values. Nevertheless the results seem to agree with other authors both for the endwall surface and for the entire cooling system.Copyright