Marc D. Polanka

Turbine Tip and Shroud Heat Transfer and Loading—Part A: Parameter Effects Including Reynolds Number, Pressure Ratio, and Gas-to-Metal Temperature Ratio

Turbine tip and shroud flow and heat transfer are some of the most complex, yet important, issues in turbine design. Most of the work performed to date has been performed in linear cascades and has investigated such items as the effect of tip geometries and turbulence on tip and shroud pressure and heat transfer. There have been very few full annulus or rotating measurements in the literature. Experimental measurements have been made on a single stage high pressure turbine at the US Air Force Turbine Research Facility (TRF) to aid in the understanding of this phenomena. The TRF is a full scale, rotating rig that operates at matched flow conditions to the true turbine environment. Heat flux measurements were required with both Pyrex insert strip and button gages, while the pressure measurements were taken with surface-mounted Kulite® pressure transducers. This paper presents one of the first full rotating, simultaneous pressure and heat transfer measurements to be taken in the turbine tip shroud region. These measurements provide some of the details needed for accurately quantifying the true flow condition in this complex flow regime. Comparisons between the present data and the existing 2-D cascade data were made. This investigation quantified the effects of Reynolds number, inlet temperature, turbine pressure ratio and inlet flow temperature profiles. This provides a benchmark data set for validation of numerical codes.

Developing a Combustor Simulator for Investigating High Pressure Turbine Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer

Within a gas turbine engine, the high pressure turbine vanes are subjected to very harsh conditions from the highly turbulent and hot gases exiting the combustor. The temperature and pressure fields exiting the combustor dictate the heat transfer and aero losses that occur in the turbine passages. To better understand these effects, the goal of this work is to develop an adjustable combustor exit profile simulator for the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The TRF is a high temperature, high pressure, short duration blow-down test facility that is capable of matching several aerodynamic and thermal non-dimensional engine parameters including Reynolds number, Mach number, pressure ratio, corrected mass flow, gas-to-metal temperature ratio, and corrected speed. The research objective was to design, install, and verify a non-reacting simulator device that provides representative combustor exit total pressure and temperature profiles to the inlet of the TRF turbine test section. This required the upstream section of the facility to be redesigned into multiple concentric annuli that serve the purpose of injecting high momentum dilution jets and low momentum film cooling jets into a central annular chamber, similar to a turbine engine combustor. The design of the simulator allows for variations in injection levels to generate turbulence and pressure profiles. It also can vary the dilution and film cooling temperatures to create a variety of temperature profiles consistent with real combustors. To date, the design and construction of the simulator device has been completed. All of the hardware has been trial fitted and the flow control shutter systems have been successfully installed and tested. Currently, verification testing is being performed to investigate the impact of the generated temperature, pressure, and turbulence profiles on turbine heat transfer and secondary flow development. NOMENCLATURE A flow area or surface area cp specific heat D hole diameter G mass flow velocity, ff A m G &

Analysis of Flow Migration in an Ultra-Compact Combustor

One of the major efforts for turbine engine research is to improve the thrust to weight of the system. One novel concept for accomplishing this is the use of an Ultra Compact Combustor (UCC). The UCC attempts to shorten the overall combustion length (thereby reducing weight) by performing the combustion in the circumferential direction along the outside diameter of the core flowpath. One of the major benefits of this design is enhanced combustion due to the establishment of a high-g field in the circumferential cavity. AFIT and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) have been teamed for several years in understanding the fundamental aspects of this design. Prior to the research presented in this report, work has focused around small-scale missile-sized combustors. There is a current push within AFRL to investigate this system for a larger, fighter-sized engine. AFIT has led this push by performing Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations to scale the UCC. This thesis outlines this overall effort. Increasing the diameter of the UCC presents several challenges including how to control the fluid velocity in the circumferential cavity and how to turn the centrifugal combustion flow back to the axial direction into the high-pressure turbine rotor while presenting a uniform temperature across the turbine blades. Several numerical parameter studies have been conducted to establish relationships to predict tangential velocity based on cavity inlet conditions and determine a configuration that minimizes pressure losses through the combustor section. As a result of these investigations a 0.75m diameter UCC combustor design has been developed along with a hybrid turning vane which replaces the last compressor vane and high-pressure turbine vane. Furthermore, the issue of cooling the hybrid vane in the exhaust of the UCC, where not all the fuel is combusted within the circumferential cavity causing additional reactions within the vane section, was investigated. A film cooling experimental study was conducted in an effort to reduce or remove the negative effects that result from secondary combustion of unburned fuel with oxygen in the film coolant.

Migration of Combustor Exit Profiles Through High Pressure Turbine Vanes

The high pressure turbine stage within gas turbine engines is exposed to combustor exit flows that are nonuniform in both stagnation pressure and temperature. These highly turbulent flows typically enter the first stage vanes with significant spatial gradients near the inner and outer diameter endwalls. These gradients can result in secondary flow development within the vane passage that is different than what classical secondary flow models predict. The heat transfer between the working fluid and the turbine vane surface and endwalls is directly related to the secondary flows. The goal of the current study was to examine the migration of different inlet radial temperature and pressure profiles through the high turbine vane of a modern turbine engine. The tests were performed using an inlet profile generator located in the Turbine Research Facility at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Comparisons of area-averaged radial exit profiles are reported as well as profiles at three vane pitch locations to document the circumferential variation in the profiles. The results show that the shape of the total pressure profile near the endwalls at the inlet of the vane can alter the redistribution of stagnation enthalpy through the airfoil passage significantly. Total pressure loss and exit flow angle variations are also examined for the different inlet profiles.

An Experimental Study of Combustor Exit Profile Shapes on Endwall Heat Transfer in High Pressure Turbine Vanes

The design and development of current and future gas turbine engines for aircraft propulsion have focused on operating the high pressure turbine at increasingly elevated temperatures and pressures. The drive toward thermal operating conditions near theoretical stoichiometric limits as well as increasingly stringent requirements on reducing harmful emissions both equate to the temperature profiles exiting combustors and entering turbines becoming less peaked than in the past. This drive has placed emphasis on determining how different types of inlet temperature and pressure profiles affect the first stage airfoil endwalls. The goal of the current study was to investigate how different radial profiles of temperature and pressure affect the heat transfer along the vane endwall in a high pressure turbine. Testing was performed in the Turbine Research Facility located at the Air Force Research Laboratory using an inlet profile generator. Results indicate that the convection heat transfer coefficients are influenced by both the inlet pressure profile shape and the location along the endwall. The heat transfer driving temperature for inlet profiles that are nonuniform in temperature is also discussed.

Effects of Combustor Exit Profiles on Vane Aerodynamic Loading and Heat Transfer in a High Pressure Turbine

The flow and thermal fields exiting gas turbine combustors dictate the overall performance of the downstream turbine. The goal of this work was to investigate the effects of engine representative combustor exit profiles on high pressure turbine vane aerodynamics and heat transfer. The various profiles were produced using a nonreacting turbine inlet profile generator in the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) located at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This paper reports how the pressure loading and heat transfer along the vane surface was affected by different turbine inlet pressure and temperature profiles at different span locations. The results indicate that the inlet total pressure profiles affected the aerodynamic loading by as much as 10%. The results also reveal that the combination of different total pressure and total temperature profiles significantly affected the vane heat transfer relative to a baseline test with uniform inlet total pressure and total temperature. Near the inner diameter endwall, the baseline heat transfer was reduced 30‐40% over the majority of the vane surface. Near the outer dimeter endwall, it was found that certain inlet profiles could increase the baseline heat transfer by 10‐ 20%, while other profiles resulted in a decrease in the baseline heat transfer by 25‐35%. This study also shows the importance of knowing an accurate prediction of the local flow driving temperature when determining vane surface heat transfer. DOI: 10.1115/1.2950051

Experimental Evaluation of an Inlet Profile Generator for High-Pressure Turbine Tests

Improving the performance and durability of gas turbine aircraft engines depends highly on achieving a better understanding of the flow interactions between the combustor and turbine sections. The flow exiting the combustor is very complex and it is characterized primarily by elevated turbulence and large variations in temperature and pressure. The heat transfer and aerodynamic losses that occur in the turbine passages are driven primarily by these spatial variations. To better understand these effects, the goal of this work is to benchmark an adjustable turbine inlet profile generator for the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) at the Air Force Research Laboratory. The research objective was to experimentally evaluate the performance of the nonreacting simulator that was designed to provide representative combustor exit profiles to the inlet of the TRF turbine test section. This paper discusses the verification testing that was completed to benchmark the performance of the generator. Results are presented in the form of temperature and pressure profiles as well as turbulence intensity and length scale. This study shows how a single combustor geometry can produce significantly different flow and thermal field conditions entering the turbine. Engine designers should place emphasis on obtaining accurate knowledge of the flow distribution within the combustion chamber. Turbine inlet conditions with significantly different profile shapes can result in altered flow physics that can change local aerodynamics and heat transfer.

Effects of Showerhead Injection on Film Cooling Effectiveness for a Downstream Row of Holes

There have been numerous studies of film cooling performance for the downstream coolant holes on a turbine airfoil using test geometries ranging from flat plates to airfoils. Most of these studies simulate a relatively unperturbed boundary layer flow approaching the coolant holes. This stimulated the current inquiry into the effects of realistic upstream conditions for downstream coolant holes. To investigate this, a series of experiments were performed focussing on the first downstream row of holes on the pressure side of a typical turbine vane. The film cooling effectiveness for this pressure side row of holes was determined subject to no showerhead blowing, and to showerhead blowing with varying blowing rates. Furthermore, tests were conducted with low and high freestream turbulence levels. For this investigation, a leading edge showerhead array of six film cooling rows was utilized, with coolant from three of these rows being directed towards the pressure side of the vane. For all experiments a coolant to freestream density ratio of nominally DR = 1.8 was used. Adiabatic effectiveness was determined from surface temperature measurements for a nominally adiabatic surface using an infrared camera for spatially resolved mapping of the surface temperature. This study showed that showerhead injection had a dominant influence on the adiabatic effectiveness performance of downstream cooling. Showerhead injection appeared to cause a significant increase in coolant jet dispersion, presumably by increased levels of turbulence. Even when the freestream turbulence level at the pressure side coolant holes was increased to 17%, showerhead injection caused a significant degradation in the film cooling performance of the pressure side row of holes. Because of the increased dispersion caused by the showerhead injection for the pressure side coolant jets, the superposition model failed to correctly predict adiabatic effectiveness levels for combined showerhead and pressure side coolant injection.Copyright

The Impact of Heat Release in Turbine Film Cooling

The Ultra Compact Combustor is a design that integrates a turbine vane into the combustor flow path. Because of the high fuel-to-air ratio and short combustor flow path, a significant potential exists for unburned fuel to enter the turbine. Using contemporary turbine cooling vane designs, the injection of oxygen-rich turbine cooling air into a combustor flow containing unburned fuel could result in heat release in the turbine and a large decrease in cooling effectiveness. The current study explores the interaction of cooling flow from typical cooling holes with the exhaust of a fuel-rich well-stirred-reactor operating at high temperatures over a flat plate. Surface temperatures, heat flux, and heat transfer coefficients are calculated for a variety of reactor fuel-to-air ratios, cooling hole geometries, and blowing ratios. Results demonstrate that reactions in the turbine cooling film can result in increased heat transfer to the surface. The amount of this increase depends on hole geometry and blowing ratio and fuel content of the combustor flow. Failure to design for this effect could result in augmented heat transfer caused by the cooling scheme, and turbine life could be degraded substantially.

Experimental Evaluation of an Inlet Profile Generator for High Pressure Turbine Tests

Improving the performance and durability of gas turbine aircraft engines depends highly on achieving a better understanding of the flow interactions between the combustor and turbine sections. The flow exiting the combustor is very complex and it is characterized primarily by elevated turbulence and large variations in temperature and pressure. The heat transfer and aerodynamic losses that occur in the turbine passages are driven primarily by these spatial variations. To better understand these effects, the goal of this work is to benchmark an adjustable turbine inlet profile generator for the Turbine Research Facility (TRF) at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The research objective was to experimentally evaluate the performance of the non-reacting simulator that was designed to provide representative combustor exit profiles to the inlet of the TRF turbine test section. This paper discusses the verification testing that was completed to benchmark the performance of the generator. Results are presented in the form of temperature and pressure profiles as well as turbulence intensity and length scale. This study shows how one combustor geometry can produce significantly different flow and thermal field conditions entering the turbine. Engine designers should place emphasis on obtaining accurate knowledge of the flow distribution within the combustion chamber as this can result in significantly different inlet profiles to the turbine that can change local aerodynamics and heat transfer within the turbine.Copyright