Stefano Zecchi

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 to perform a wide array of micro-holes, currently referred to as effusion cooling. This paper presents the validation of a simplified 2D conjugate approach through comparison with the experimental results of effectiveness for an effusion plate, performed during the first year of the European Specific Targeted REsearch Project AITEB-2 (Aerothermal Investigation of Turbine Endwalls and Blades). A preliminary test is performed with the steady-state technique, using TLC (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, Design Of Experiment (DOE) approach is used to perform several conjugate 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.Copyright

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.

Features of a Cooling System Simulation Tool Used in Industrial Preliminary Design Stage

Due to expected increases in gas turbine performance, strictly related to firing temperature, heat transfer is a major issue in design processes. To keep components temperature levels below design requirements, cooling systems are commonly used. Nowadays, nozzle and blade cooling systems have reached a high degree of complexity. In a preliminary design stage, both experimental and 3D numerical analyses are usually not very suitable to define geometry, coolant mass flow rate or cooling system typology. This is mainly due to the uncertainty on several parameters, i.e. pressure distributions and materials properties, and their undefined interaction. This work presents a simulation tool useful to provide system cooling development with qualitative and quantitative information about metal temperature, coolant mass flow rate, heat transfer and much more. This tool couples energy, momentum and mass flow conservation equations together with experimental correlations for heat transfer and pressure losses. Metal conduction is solved by two dimensional calculations for several blade to blade sections. This methodology allows to investigate several cooling system configurations and compare them in a relatively short time. Main features of this simulation tool are shown comparing obtained results with experimental data.© 2004 ASME

Turbine Stator Well CFD Studies: Effects of Cavity Cooling Air Flow

The improvement of the aerodynamic efficiency of gas turbine components is becoming more and more difficult to achieve. Nevertheless there are still some devices that could be improved to enhance engine performance. Further investigations on the internal air cooling systems, for instance, may lead to a reduction of cavities cooling air with a direct beneficial effect on engine performance. At the same time, further investigations on heat transfer mechanisms within turbine cavities may help to optimize cooling air flows saving engine life duration. This paper presents some CFD preliminary studies conducted on an two-stage axial turbine rig developed in a research programme on internal air systems funded by EU, named the Main Annulus Gas Path Interactions (MAGPI). Each turbine stage consists of 39 vanes and 78 rotating blades and the modelled domain includes both the main gas path of the two turbine stages and the second stator well. Pre experimental tests CFD computations were planned in order to point out the reliability of numerical models in the description of the flow patterns in the main annulus and in the cavities. Several computational meshes were considered with steady and unsteady approaches in order to assess the sensitivity to computational approach regarding the evaluation of the interactions between main annulus and disk cavities flows. Results were obtained for several cavities cooling air mass-flow rates and data were further analyzed to investigate the influence of the sealing flow inside the main annulus. MAGPI project is a 4 years Specific-Targeted-Research-Project (2007–2011) and its consortium includes six universities and nine gas turbines manufacturing companies. The project is focused on the analysis of interactions between primary and secondary air systems achieving a novel approach as these systems have, up to now, only been considered separately. In particular one of the tasks of the project will focus on heat transfer phenomena and delivering experimental data which will be used to validate the advanced design tools used by industries (CFD codes and correlative formulations).Copyright

Comparison of Blade Cooling Performance Using Alternative Fluids

CO2 emissions reduction has become an important topic, especially after Kyoto protocol. There are several ways to reduce the overall amount of CO2 discharged into the atmosphere, for example using alternative fluids such as steam or CO2 . It is therefore interesting to analyze the consequences of their usage on overall performances of gas turbine and blade cooling systems. The presence of steam can be associated with combined or STIG cycle, whereas pure carbon dioxide or air-carbon dioxide mixtures are present in innovative cycles, where the exhaust gas is recirculated partially or even totally. In this paper we will analyze a commercial gas turbine, comparing different fluids used as working and cooling fluids. The different nature of the fluids involved determines different external heat transfer coefficients (external blade surface), different internal heat transfer coefficients (cooling cavities) and affects film cooling effectiveness, resulting in a change of the blade temperature distribution. Results show that the presence of steam and CO2 could determine a non negligible effect on blade temperature. This means that cooling systems need a deep investigation. A redesign of the cooling system could be required. In particular, results show that steam is well suited for internal cooling, whereas CO2 is better used in film cooling systems.Copyright

Optimisation Techniques Applied to the Design of Gas Turbine Blades Cooling Systems

This paper addresses the methodology used to design the layout of the tip cooling nozzles of a high pressure rotor blade turbine. The methodology used is through a complete CAE approach, by means of a parametric CFD model which is run several times for the exploration of several designs by an optimizer. Hence the design is carried out automatically by parallel computations, with the optimization algorithms taking the decisions rather than the design engineer. The engineer instead takes decision regarding the physical settings of the CFD model to employ, the number and the extension of the geometrical parameters of the blade tip holes and the optimization algorithms to be employed. From CFD validation the final design of the tip cooling geometry found by the optimizer has proved to be better than the base design, which used mean values of all input parameters, and than the design proposed by an experienced heat transfer AVIO engineer, who used standard best practice methods. Furthermore the large number of experiences gained by the simulations run by the optimizer allowed the designer to find laws, functions and correlation between input parameters and performance output, with a further and deeper insight on this specific design problem.Copyright

Numerical Analysis of Crossflow and Single Jet Impinging on a Heated Surface With Shaped Groove

Gas turbine performance is strongly affected by firing temperature; raising this parameter has always been one of the major development strategies in gas turbine technology. This trend requires enhancements in materials and cooling techniques in order to keep components temperatures within structural limits and to satisfy expected life requirements. Cooling techniques are proven to be very effective, and it justifies tremendous research efforts. Among these techniques, impingement cooling is widely used, especially in vane cooling. Impingement fluid dynamics is quite complex, and its understanding is still incomplete; moreover further improvements in impingement cooling performance are expected. A great amount of experimental investigations are available on the subject and recently more and more numerical analysis has been performed. Due to advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and availability of commercial codes, numerical investigations are often used in industrial design methodologies. Therefore the present study has been carried out using a commercial code with a two equation turbulence model, as common in industry standard analyses. The aim of this work is to investigate a single jet with cross-flow, at several blowing rates, analysing both flow field and heat transfer. The cross-flow passes through a rectangular duct. The jet is injected on the upper surface from a circular pipe perpendicularly to the duct axis and impacts on the lower surface. Firstly, a comparison of results with experimental data available in literature is provided. This permits to characterize the numerical model, particularly with respect to mesh, boundary conditions, and turbulence model. Then the rectangular duct lower flat surface is replaced by a grooved one. A single groove, horse-shoe shaped and located slightly upstream the impinging region, is used to control the flow field near the impact surface. Effects of the groove on impingement cooling are investigated. Both fluid dynamic and heat transfer analyses are performed. Results show the groove to be effective in driving the flow field interaction between cross-flow and impinging jet; heat transfer is also affected by the groove.Copyright

Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer in a Leading Edge Geometry With Racetrack Holes and Film Cooling Extraction

A numerical study of a state of the art leading edge cooling scheme was performed to analyze the heat transfer process within the leading edge cavity of a high pressure turbine airfoil. The investigated geometries account a trapezoidal supply channel with a large racetrack impingement holes. The coolant jets, confined among two consequent large fins, impact the leading edge internal surface and it is extracted from the leading edge cavity through both showerhead holes and film cooling holes. The CFD setup has been validated by means of the experimental measurements performed on a dedicated test rig developed and operated at University of Florence. The aim of this study is to investigate the combined effects of jet impingement, mass flow extraction and fins presence on the internal heat transfer of the leading edge cavity. More in details, the paper analyses the impact, in terms of blade metal temperature, of large fins presence and positioning. Jet’s Reynolds number is varied in order to cover the typical engine conditions of these cooling systems (Rej = 20000 – 40000).Copyright

Heat Transfer Measurements in a leading Edge Geometry with racetrack Holes and Film Cooling Extraction

An experimental survey on a state of the art leading edge cooling scheme was performed to evaluate heat transfer coefficients (HTC) on a large scale test facility simulating an high pressure turbine airfoil leading edge cavity. Test section includes a trapezoidal supply channel with three large racetrack impingement holes. On the internal surface of the leading edge, four big fins are placed in order to confine impingement jets. The coolant flow impacts the leading edge internal surface and it is extracted from the leading edge cavity through 24 showerhead holes and 24 film cooling holes. The aim of the present study is to investigate the combined effects of jet impingement and mass flow extraction on the internal heat transfer of the leading edge. A non uniform mass flow extraction was also imposed to reproduce the effects of pressure side and suction side external pressure. Measurements were performed by means of a transient technique using narrow band Thermo-chromic Liquid Crystals (TLC). Jet Reynolds number and crossflow conditions into the supply channel were varied in order to cover the typical engine conditions of these cooling systems (Rej = 10000–40000). Experiments were compared with a numerical analysis on the same test case in order to better understand flow interaction inside the cavity. Results are reported in terms of detailed 2D maps, radial-wise and span-wise averaged values of Nusselt number.Copyright