Thomas E. Dyson

Adiabatic and Overall Effectiveness for the Showerhead Film Cooling of a Turbine Vane

There have been a number of previous studies of the adiabatic film effectiveness for the showerhead region of a turbine vane, but no previous studies of the overall cooling effectiveness. The overall cooling effectiveness is a measure of the external surface temperature relative to the mainstream temperature and the inlet coolant temperature, and consequently is a direct measure of how effectively the surface is cooled. This can be determined experimentally when the model is constructed so that the Biot number is similar to that of engine components, and the internal cooling is designed so that the ratio of the external to internal heat transfer coefficient is matched to that of the engine. In this study, the overall effectiveness was experimentally measured on a model turbine vane constructed of a material to match Bi for engine conditions. The model incorporated an internal impingement cooling configuration. The cooling design consisted of a showerhead composed of five rows of holes with one additional row on both pressure and suction sides of the vane. An identical model was also constructed out of low conductivity foam to measure adiabatic film effectiveness. Of particular interest in this study was to use the overall cooling effectiveness measurements to identify local hot spots which might lead to failure of the vane. Furthermore, the experimental measurements provided an important database for evaluation of computational fluid dynamics simulations of the conjugate heat transfer effects that occur in the showerhead region. Continuous improvement in both measures of performance was demonstrated with increasing momentum flux ratio.

Evaluation of CFD Simulations of Film Cooling Performance on a Turbine Vane Including Conjugate Heat Transfer Effects

Computational simulations using a steady RANS approach with the k-ω SST turbulence model were performed to complement experimental measurements of overall cooling effectiveness and adiabatic film effectiveness for a film cooled turbine vane airfoil. The vane included a single row of holes located on the suction side of the airfoil. The simulated geometry also included the internal impingement cooling configuration. Internal and external boundary conditions were matched to experiments using the same vane model. To correctly simulate conjugate heat transfer effects, the experimental vane model was constructed to match the Biot number for engine conditions. Computational predictions of the overall cooling effectiveness and adiabatic film effectiveness were compared to experimental measurements. The CFD predictions showed that the k-ω SST RANS model over-predicted local adiabatic film effectiveness for an attached jet, while performance was under-predicted for a detached jet. The corresponding predictions of overall cooling effectiveness were also over and under-predicted. Further, it was shown that the adiabatic wall temperature was not the correct driving temperature for heat transfer, especially in the case of a detached jet.Copyright

A CFD Evaluation of Multiple RANS Turbulence Models for Prediction of Boundary Layer Flows on a Turbine Vane

There is a growing trend toward the use of conjugate CFD for use in prediction of turbine cooling performance. While many studies have evaluated the performance of RANS simulations relative to experimental measurements of the momentum boundary layer, no studies have evaluated their performance in prediction of the accompanying thermal boundary layer. This is largely due to the fact that, until recently, no appropriate experimental data existed to validate these models. This study compares several popular RANS models — including the realizable k-e and k-ω SST models — with a four equation k-ω model (“Transition SST”) and experimental measurements at selected positions on the pressure and suction sides of a model C3X vane. Comparisons were made using mean velocity and temperature in the boundary layer without film cooling under conditions of high and low mainstream turbulence. The best performing model was evaluated using modification of the turbulent Prandtl number to attempt to better match the data for the high turbulence case. Overall, the models did not perform well for the low turbulence case; they greatly over-predicted the thermal boundary layer thickness. For the high turbulence case, their performance was better. The Transition SST model performed the best with an average thermal boundary layer thickness within 15% of the experimentally measured values. Prandtl number variation proved to be an inadequate means of improving the thermal boundary layer predictions.Copyright

Adiabatic and Overall Effectiveness for a Fully Cooled Turbine Vane

Adiabatic and overall effectiveness data were measured for a fully cooled, scaled up turbine vane model in a low speed linear cascade with a chord-exit Reynolds number of 700,000. The overall effectiveness is a measure of the external surface temperature relative to the mainstream temperature and the inlet coolant temperature, and consequently is a direct measure of how effectively the surface is cooled. This can be determined experimentally when the experimental model is constructed so that the Biot number of the model and the ratio of the external to internal heat transfer coefficient are chosen so that the model has a similar thermal behavior to that of an actual engine component. The model used in this study had a cooling design that consisted of 149 total coolant holes in 13 rows, including a showerhead containing five rows of holes. The model also incorporated an internal impingement cooling configuration. An identical model was also constructed out of low conductivity foam to measure adiabatic effectiveness. This is the first study to use a large scale, matched Biot number model to measure engine representative overall effectiveness for a vane employing full coverage film cooling. The focus of this research was to determine the relative contributions of the external and internal cooling, and to serve as a baseline for validation of computational simulations. Additionally, a simplified model using measurements of overall effectiveness with internal cooling alone was used to predict overall effectiveness downstream of the showerhead.Copyright

Mean and Turbulent Velocity Profile Measurements on the Suction Side of a Film Cooled Turbine Vane

Boundary layer velocity and turbulence profiles were measured on the suction side of a scaled up, film-cooled turbine vane airfoil. There have been a number of previous studies of the velocity profile on a turbine vane, but few have taken velocity profile data with film cooling, and none have taken such data on the suction side of the vane. Velocity and turbulence profile data were taken at two locations on the suction side of the vane — one at a high curvature region and one further downstream in a low curvature region. Data were collected for high (20%) and low (0.5%) mainstream turbulence conditions. For the upstream, high curvature location, velocity and turbulence profiles were found with and without the showerhead blowing and within and outside of the merged showerhead coolant jet. The data for the low curvature, downstream location was taken with injection from the showerhead alone, a second upstream row of holes alone, and the combination of the two cases. It was found that the presence of an active upstream row of holes thickens the boundary layer and increases urms both within and beyond the extent of the boundary layer. Span-wise variations showed that these effects are strongest within the core of the coolant jets. At the downstream location, the boundary layer velocity profile was most strongly influenced by the row of holes immediately upstream of that location. Finally, turbulence integral length scale data showed the effect of large scale mainstream turbulence penetrating the boundary layer. The increase in turbulence, thickening of the boundary layer, and large scale turbulence all play important roles in row to row coolant interactions and affect the film cooling effectiveness.Copyright

Evaluation of CFD Simulations of Film Cooling Performance in the Showerhead Region of a Turbine Vane Including Conjugate Effects

Computational simulations using RANS and the k-ω SST turbulence model were performed to complement experimental measurements of overall cooling effectiveness and adiabatic film effectiveness for a film cooled turbine vane airfoil. Particular attention was placed on the showerhead. The design made use of five rows of showerhead holes and a single gill row on both pressure and suction sides. The simulated geometry also included the internal impingement cooling configuration. Internal and external boundary conditions were matched to experiments using the same vane model. To correctly simulate conjugate heat transfer effects, the experimental vane model was constructed to match the Biot number for engine conditions. Computational predictions of the overall and adiabatic effectiveness were compared to experimental measurements from both the conducting vane and a model constructed from low conductivity foam. The results show that the k-ω SST RANS model over-predicts both adiabatic and overall effectiveness due in part to limited jet diffusion. The simulations were also used to investigate heat transfer augmentation, which is difficult to measure experimentally in the showerhead region. The results showed substantial augmentation of 1.5 or more over large portions of the leading edge, with many areas exceeding 2.0. However, the simulations also showed a reduction in heat transfer (i.e., hf/h0 < 1) for locations beneath the coolant jets. This result was likely due to Taw being an inappropriate driving temperature for separated jets.Copyright