Heat-Flux and Pressure Measurements and Comparison With Prediction for a Low-Aspect-Ratio Turbine Stage

1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Dunn ◽  
H. L. Martin ◽  
M. J. Stanek

This paper describes the detailed measurement of heat-flux distributions for the nozzle guide vane (NGV) airfoil, the NGV hub and tip end walls, and the blade for the Garrett low-aspect-ratio turbine (LART) stage. A shock tube was used to generate a short-duration source of heated air and thin-film gages were used to obtain detailed heat-flux measurements. In addition to the heat-flux measurements, surface-pressure measurements were obtained on the vane pressure and suction surfaces and on the hub and tip endwalls. These pressure measurements are shown to compare favorably with those taken at the same locations but in a long-run time facility. The time-averaged heat-flux data were obtained by sampling the gage signals at a frequency of 20 kHz/channel and then averaging the output over the test time of the experiment. The results are presented as a function of location within the stage and are compared with the results of a local flat-plate prediction technique.

1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 983-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Boletis

Tip endwall contouring is one of the most effective methods to improve the performance of low aspect ratio turbine vanes [1]. In view of the wide variety of geometric parameters, it appears that only the physical understanding of the three-dimensional flow field will allow us to evaluate the probable benefits of a particular endwall contouring. The paper describes the experimental investigation of the three-dimensional flow through a low-speed, low aspect ratio, high-turning annular turbine nozzle guide vane with meridional tip endwall contouring. The full impact of the effects of tip contouring is evaluated by comparison with the results of a previous study in an annular turbine nozzle guide vane of the same blade and cascade geometry with cylindrical endwalls [12]. In parallel, the present experimental study provides a fully three-dimensional test case for comparison with advanced theoretical calculation methods [15]. The flow is explored by means of double-head, four-hole pressure probes in five axial planes from far upstream to downstream of the blade row. The results are presented in the form of contour plots and spanwise pitch-averaged distributions.


Author(s):  
G. Siden ◽  
S. Schlechtriem ◽  
E. Johann ◽  
H. Klinger

This paper presents the results of a combined experimental and CFD investigation of a first stage low pressure (LP) turbine nozzle guide vane (NGV). The configuration is characterized by a small number of low aspect ratio vanes in a strongly diverging annulus. The experimental part of the study has been conducted in a two-stage rotating rig environment with detailed area traverse measurements upstream and downstream of the NGV. The inlet whirl to the NGV has been varied by a row of pre-swirl vanes (PSV) located in the turbine rig inlet. The effect of inlet whirl angle on the development of the passage vortices and on the NGV pressure loss is assessed by using measurements and steady state 30 CFD predictions. The area traverse results, which neglect any mixing loss downstream of the traverse plane, show the traditional airfoil loss-loop characteristic with minimum loss at design incidence and increased loss at both positive and negative incidence. By considering the turbine overall performance, however, it is observed that the isentropic turbine efficiency increases for negative incidence and decreases for positive incidence to an extent that cannot be explained by the measured NGV total pressure loss only. This leads us to believe that the non-uniform flow field at the exit of the NGV generated by the wake and secondary flow impacts significantly on the loss generation further downstream in the turbine. Unsteady 3D CFD predictions of the NGV and the downstream rotor passage aerodynamics have been conducted in order to study the convection of the NGV wake and passage vortices through the rotor passage and the resulting unsteady loading on the rotor. The strongest interaction takes place in the hub region. The unsteady loading in the tip region is characterized by incidence variations which typically only affect the rotor unsteady pressure distribution in the leading edge region up to 40% axial chord. In the hub, however, the strong three-dimensional character of the flow forces large amplitude fluctuations to occur in the rotor unsteady pressure distribution at the throat region. These fluctuations affect the character and the level of diffusion on the suction surface and are therefore likely to have significant impact on the rotor loss. In striving to reduce manufacturing cost and engine weight by exploiting high outer annulus wall slope and smaller gap-to-chord ratios these types of effects are bound to become increasingly important. The application of advanced prediction tools, such as used in this paper, will inevitably play an important role in this development.


Author(s):  
Steven W. Burd ◽  
Terrence W. Simon

The vast number of turbine cascade studies in the literature has been performed in straight-endwall, high-aspect-ratio, linear cascades. As a result, there has been little appreciation for the role of, and added complexity imposed by, reduced aspect ratios. There also has been little documentation of endwall profiling at these reduced spans. To examine the role of these factors on cascade hydrodynamics, a large-scale nozzle guide vane simulator was constructed at the Heat Transfer Laboratory of the University of Minnesota. This cascade is comprised of three airfoils between one contoured and one flat endwall. The geometries of the airfoils and endwalls, as well as the experimental conditions in the simulator, are representative of those in commercial operation. Measurements with hot-wire anemometry were taken to characterize the flow approaching the cascade. These measurements show that the flow field in this cascade is highly elliptic and influenced by pressure gradients that are established within the cascade. Exit flow field measurements with triple-sensor anemometry and pressure measurements within the cascade indicate that the acceleration imposed by endwall contouring and airfoil turning is able to suppress the size and strength of key secondary flow features. In addition, the flow field near the contoured endwall differs significantly from that adjacent to the straight endwall.


2004 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Pullan ◽  
John Denton ◽  
Eric Curtis

Experimental data and numerical simulations are presented from a research turbine with low aspect ratio nozzle guide vanes (NGVs). The combined effects of mechanical and aerodynamic constraints on the NGV create very strong secondary flows. This paper describes three designs of NGV that have been tested in the turbine, using the same rotor row in each case. NGV 2 used three-dimensional design techniques in an attempt to improve the performance of the datum NGV 1 blade, but succeeded only in creating an intense vortex shed from the trailing edge (as previously reported) and lowering the measured stage efficiency by 1.1% points. NGV 3 was produced to avoid the “shed vortex” while adopting a highly aft-loaded surface pressure distribution to reduce the influence of the secondary flows. The stage with NGV 3 had an efficiency 0.5% points greater than that with NGV 1. Detailed comparisons between experiment and computations, including predicted entropy generation rates, are used to highlight the areas where the loss reduction has occurred and hence to quantify the effects of employing highly aft-loaded NGVs.


Author(s):  
Shuo Mao ◽  
Ridge A. Sibold ◽  
Stephen Lash ◽  
Wing F. Ng ◽  
Hongzhou Xu ◽  
...  

Abstract Nozzle guide vane platforms often employ complex cooling schemes to mitigate ever-increasing thermal loads on endwall. Understanding the impact of advanced cooling schemes amid the highly complex three-dimensional secondary flow is vital to engine efficiency and durability. This study analyzes and describes the effect of coolant to mainstream blowing ratio, momentum ratio and density ratio for a typical axisymmetric converging nozzle guide vane platform with an upstream doublet staggered, steep-injection, cylindrical hole jet purge cooling scheme. Nominal flow conditions were engine representative and as follows: Maexit = 0.85, Reexit/Cax = 1.5 × 106 and an inlet large-scale freestream turbulence intensity of 16%. Two blowing ratios were investigated, each corresponding to upper and lower engine extrema at M = 3.5 and 2.5, respectively. For each blowing ratio, the coolant to mainstream density ratio was varied between DR = 1.2, representing typical experimental neglect of coolant density, and DR = 1.95, representative of typical engine conditions. An optimal coolant momentum ratio between = 6.3 and 10.2 is identified for in-passage film effectiveness and net heat flux reduction, at which the coolant suppresses and overcomes secondary flows but imparts minimal turbulence and remains attached to endwall. Progression beyond this point leads to cooling effectiveness degradation and increased endwall heat flux. Endwall heat transfer does not scale well with one single parameter; increasing with increasing mass flux for the low density case but decreasing with increasing mass flux of high density coolant. From the results gathered, both coolant to mainstream density ratio and blowing ratio should be considered for accurate testing, analysis and prediction of purge jet cooling scheme performance.


Author(s):  
Thorsten Selic ◽  
Davide Lengani ◽  
Andreas Marn ◽  
Franz Heitmeir

This paper presents the effects of an unshrouded low pressure turbine (LPT) onto the following exit guide vane row (EGV). The measurement results were obtained in the subsonic test turbine facility at Graz University of Technology by means of a fast response pressure probe in planes downstream of the rotor as well as oil flow visualisation. The test rig was designed in cooperation with MTU Aero Engines and represents the last 1.5 stages of a commercial aero engine. Considerable efforts were put into the adjustment of all relevant model parameters to reproduce the full scale LPT situation. Different tip clearances were evaluated by means of CFD obtained using a commercial Navier-Stokes code and validated with experimental results. The goal is to evaluate the effect of the varying leakage flow on the flow in the low aspect ratio EGV. Special attention is given to the impact on the development of secondary flows as well as the flow structures downstream of the EGV. The effect of the leakage flow causes a change of the flow structure of the EGV, particularly losses. Considering the largest investigated tip-clearance, the losses increased by 71% when compared to a zero-leakage case.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Dunn

This paper describes time-averaged heat-flux distributions obtained for the blade of a Garrett TFE 731-2 hp full-stage rotating turbine. Blade measurements were obtained both with and without injection. The injected gas was supplied from a separate reservoir and was directed into the turbine gas path via nozzle guide vane (NGV) pressure surface slots located at approximately 63 percent of the wetted distance. Blade heat-flux measurements were performed for two different injection gas temperatures, Tc/T0 = 0.53 and Tc/T0 = 0.82. A shock tube is used as a short-duration source of heated air to which the turbine is subjected and thin-film gages are used to obtain the heat-flux measurements. Results are presented along the blade in the flow direction at 10, 50, and 90 percent span for both the pressure and suction surfaces. A sufficient number of measurements were obtained to also present span-wise distributions. At approximately the 50 percent span location, two contoured inserts containing closely spaced gages were installed in the blade so that the leading-edge region distribution could be resolved in detail. The blade results are compared with predictions obtained using a flat-plate technique and with predictions obtained using a version of STAN 5. The results suggest that: (1) The suction surface laminar flat-plate prediction is in reasonable agreement with the data from the stagnation point up to approximately 10 percent of the wetted distance. Beyond 10 percent, the laminar prediction falls far below the data and the turbulent flat-plate prediction falls above the data by about 60 percent. The laminar portion of the STAN 5 prediction as configured for the present calculation does not provide good comparison with the data. However, the turbulent flat-plate boundary-layer portion of STAN 5 does provide reasonably good comparison with the data. On the pressure surface, the turbulent flat-plate prediction is in good agreement with the data, but the laminar flat-plate and the STAN 5 predictions fall far low. (2) The influence of upstream NGV injection is to significantly increase the local blade heat flux in the immediate vicinity of the leading edge; i.e., up to 20 percent wetted distance on the suction surface and up to 10 percent on the pressure surface. (3) The effect on local heat flux of increasing the coolant-gas temperature was generally less than 10 percent.


Author(s):  
Graham Pullan ◽  
John Denton ◽  
Eric Curtis

Experimental data and numerical simulations are presented from a research turbine with low aspect ratio nozzle guide vanes (NGVs). The combined effects of mechanical and aerodynamic constraints on the NGV create very strong secondary flows. This paper describes three designs of NGV that have been tested in the turbine, using the same rotor row in each case. NGV 2 used three-dimensional design techniques in an attempt to improve the performance of the datum NGV 1 blade but succeeded only in creating an intense vortex shed from the trailing edge (as previously reported) and lowering the measured stage efficiency by 1.1% points. NGV 3 was produced to avoid the “shed vortex” while adopting a highly aft-loaded surface pressure distribution to reduce the influence of the secondary flows. The stage with NGV 3 had an efficiency 0.5% points greater than that with NGV 1. Detailed comparisons between experiment and CFD, including predicted entropy generation rates, are used to highlight the areas where the loss reduction has occurred and hence to quantify the effects of employing highly aft-loaded NGVs.


Author(s):  
Shawn Siroka ◽  
Melissa Shallcross ◽  
Stephen Lynch

Cylindrical pins, often called pin fins, are used to create turbulence and promote convective heat transfer within many devices, ranging from computer heat sinks to the trailing edge of jet engine turbine blades. Previous experiments have measured the time-averaged heat transfer over a single pin as well as the flow fields around the pin. However, in this study, focus is placed on the instantaneous heat flux around the centerline of a low aspect-ratio pin within an array. Time-mean and unsteady convective heat flux are measured around the circumference of an isothermal heated test pin via a microsensor located at the surface. The pin is positioned at various locations within a staggered array in a large-scale wind tunnel. Reynolds numbers from 3,000 to 50,000, based on pin diameter and maximum velocity between pins, are tested with a streamwise spacing of 1.73 diameters between rows, a spanwise spacing of 2 diameters, and a pin height of 1 diameter. The time-averaged and standard deviation of convective heat flux around the pin is higher over most of the pin surface for pins in downstream row positions of an array relative to the first row pin, except in the wake which has similar levels for all rows. For a given pin position in the array, as the Reynolds number increases, the point of minimum heat transfer moves circumferentially upstream on the pin fin, corresponding to earlier transition of the pin boundary layer. Also, for a given Reynolds number, the minimum heat transfer point on the pin circumference moves upstream for pins further into the array, due to the high turbulence levels within the array which cause early transition. For a single pin row with no downstream pins, heat transfer fluctuations are very high on the backside of the pin due to the significant unsteadiness in the pin wake, but heat transfer fluctuations are suppressed for a pin with downstream rows due to the confining effects of the close spacing. The results from this study can be used to design pin-fin arrays that take advantage of unsteadiness and increase overall convective heat transfer for various industry components.


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