Impact of Swirl Flow on the Cooling Performance of an Effusion Cooled Combustor Liner

Author(s):  
B. Wurm ◽  
A. Schulz ◽  
H.-J. Bauer ◽  
M. Gerendas

An experimental study on combustor liner cooling of modern direct lean injection combustion chambers using coolant ejection from both effusion cooling holes and a starter film has been conducted. The experimental setup consists of a generic scaled three sector planar rig in an open loop hot gas wind tunnel, which has been described earlier in Wurm et al. (2009, “A New Test Facility for Investigating the Interactions Between Swirl Flow and Wall Cooling Films in Combustors, Investigating the Interactions Between Swirl Flow and Wall Cooling Films in Combustors,” ASME Paper No. GT2009-59961). Experiments are performed without combustion. Realistic engine conditions are achieved by applying engine-realistic Reynolds numbers, Mach numbers, and density ratios. A particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement technique is employed, which has been adjusted to allow for high resolution near wall velocity measurements with and without coolant ejection. As the main focus of the present study is a deeper understanding of the interaction of swirl flows and near wall cooling flows, wall pressure measurements are performed for the definition of local blowing ratios and to identify the impact on the local cooling performance. For thermal investigations an infrared thermography measurement technique is employed that allows high resolution thermal studies on the effusion cooled liner surface. The effects of different heat shield geometry on the flow field and performance of the cooling films are investigated in terms of near wall velocity distributions and film cooling effectiveness. Two different heat shield configurations are investigated which differ in shape and inclination angle of the so called heat shield lip. Operating conditions for the hot gas main flow are kept constant. The pressure drop across the effusion cooled liner is varied between 1% and 3% of the total pressure. Results show the impact of the swirled main flow on the stability of the starter film and on the effusion cooling performance. Stagnation areas which could be identified by wall pressure measurements are confirmed by PIV measurements. Thermal investigations reveal reduced cooling performance in the respective stagnation areas.

Author(s):  
B. Wurm ◽  
A. Schulz ◽  
H.-J. Bauer ◽  
M. Gerendas

An experimental study on combustor liner cooling of modern direct lean injection (DLI) combustion chambers using coolant ejection from both effusion cooling holes and a starter film has been conducted. The experimental setup consists of a generic scaled three sector planar rig in an open loop hot gas wind tunnel, which has been described earlier in Wurm et al. [1]. Experiments are performed without combustion. Realistic engine conditions are achieved by applying engine-realistic Reynolds numbers, Mach numbers, and density ratios. A Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement technique is employed, which has been adjusted to allow for high resolution near wall velocity measurements with and without coolant ejection. As the main focus of the present study is a deeper understanding of the interaction of swirl flows and near wall cooling flows, wall pressure measurements are performed for the definition of local blowing ratios and to identify the impact on the local cooling performance. For thermal investigations an infrared thermography measurement technique is employed that allows high resolution thermal studies on the effusion cooled liner surface. The effects of different heat shield geometry on the flow field and performance of the cooling films are investigated in terms of near wall velocity distributions and film cooling effectiveness. Two different heat shield configurations are investigated which differ in shape and inclination angle of the so called heat shield lip. Operating conditions for the hot gas main flow are kept constant. The pressure drop across the effusion cooled liner is varied between 1% and 3% of the total pressure. Results show the impact of the swirled main flow on the stability of the starter film and on the effusion cooling performance. Stagnation areas which could be identified by wall pressure measurements are confirmed by PIV measurements. Thermal investigations reveal reduced cooling performance in the respective stagnation areas.


Author(s):  
B. Wurm ◽  
A. Schulz ◽  
H.-J. Bauer ◽  
M. Gerendas

An experimental and numerical study is presented that deals with the impact of the swirled hot gas main flow on the penetration behaviour and cooling performance of a starter cooling film. Within modern combustion chambers designed for lean combustion the whole fuel/air mixing process is done by the fuel injectors without any additional mixing ports. Typically swirl stabilization is used within this kind of combustion chambers. The swirl flow interacts in a particular way with near wall cooling flows like starter cooling films which assure a proper wall cooling near the fuel injector. Experiments without combustion show the impact of the swirled main flow on the stability of the starter cooling film. Thermal analyses reveal a reduced cooling performance of the starter film near the stagnation area of the swirl flow. Laser optical measurement techniques reveal a significant reduced penetration of the starter cooling film close to the stagnation area. Numerical simulations show the reason for the reduced starter film performance in areas which cannot be accessed by optical measurement techniques. Based on experimental and numerical data different adaptive hole geometries where tested in combination with heat shield ribs in order to improve the starter film cooling performance. Results show that the combined application of heat shield ribs and adaptive cooling holes stabilize the starter cooling film and lead to a homogenous cooling performance.


Author(s):  
B. Wurm ◽  
A. Schulz ◽  
H.-J. Bauer ◽  
M. Gerendas

Based on experimental results on a liner of a modern direct lean injection combustion chamber using coolant ejection from both effusion cooling holes and a starter film, a method is presented that allows the assessment of the cooling performance of the liner. As the main focus of the present study is a deeper understanding of the interaction of swirl flow and near wall cooling flow, wall pressure measurements are performed for the calculation of local blowing ratios and local coolant mass fluxes. Thermal investigations allow the calculation of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients. The pressure drop across the effusion cooled liner is varied between 1% and 3% of the total pressure of the main flow. As experiments are performed without combustion and at low temperature, the influence of radiation is neglected. Results show the impact of the swirled main flow on the stability of the starter film and on the effusion cooling performance. Stagnation areas which could be identified by wall pressure measurements are confirmed by detailed PIV measurements. Thermal investigations reveal reduced cooling performance in the respective stagnation areas. For the definition of the non dimensional cooling efficiency the measurement area is sub divided into rhombic sections, which are located around each effusion cooling hole. Based on the measurement results presented, heat fluxes per unit area can then be calculated and put together to the cooling efficiency.


Author(s):  
Yongbin Ji ◽  
Bing Ge ◽  
Shusheng Zang ◽  
Jiangpeng Yu ◽  
Ji Zhang

Gas turbine combustors design nowadays is aimed at achieving extremely lower NOx emissions through involving more air into the combustor to perform lean combustion, which results in the reduction of cooling air ratio for the liner walls. In this context, effusion cooling, one of the most effective cooling strategies, is adopted on the liner for its advantages of providing well cooling protection with limited amount of air. The swirl flow structure generated by the injector to stabilize flame in most modern lean-burn combustor is very complex with recirculation and vortex breakdown. So the interaction between three dimensional main flow and jets issued from the effusion holes is significant when assessing effusion cooling performance on the liner. In the present work, detailed effusion cooling feature on both inner and outer liners of a scaled annular combustor equipped with three axial swirlers has been provided under non-reactive and reactive conditions. The main flow is electrically heated for the non-reactive condition, while premixed combustion is realized after methane is fueled into the injectors and mixed with the air in the surrounding passage for the reactive condition. Temperature distribution on the target bended plate with 7 rows of discrete cooling holes in an in-line layout is captured by infrared thermography, and the cooling effectiveness is then analyzed. Effects of coolant to mainstream flow rate ratio and equivalence ratio are evaluated respectively. Results show that the macro rotational flow generated by the swirl flows interacts with cooling film and leads to non-symmetric cooling protection circumferentially on both liners. Additionally, averaged cooling effectiveness is found to increase with the flow rate ratio. At reactive conditions, stagnation of the high temperature swirl flow impinging on the liner wall locates at X/D range of 0.4–0.5, which has not been observed at non-reactive conditions. Also cooling effectiveness results indicate that outer liner obtains better cooling protection than inner liner when reaction is activated. Finally, the effect of most interested parameter for combustion process equivalence ratio is surveyed at Φ=0.7, 0.8 and 0.9. With experimental results, the importance of the combustion is highlighted in weighing the effusion cooling performance on the real annular combustor liners, which can’t be predicted comprehensively by non-reactive investigations. To obtain more knowledge of this issue, future work concerned with the flow field and flame visualization needs to be done through experimental techniques and numerical methods.


Author(s):  
Luca Andrei ◽  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Cosimo Bianchini ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Lorenzo Mazzei ◽  
...  

Effusion cooling represents the state of the art of liner cooling technology for modern combustors. This technique consists of an array of closely spaced discrete film cooling holes and contributes to lower the metal temperature by the combined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. Despite many efforts reported in literature to characterize the cooling performance of these devices, detailed analyses of the mixing process between coolant and hot gas are difficult to perform, especially when superposition and density ratio effects as well as the interaction with complex gas side flow field become significant. Furthermore, recent investigations on the acoustic properties of these perforations pointed out the challenge to maintain optimal cooling performance also with orthogonal holes, which showed higher sound absorption. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of a realistic flow field on the adiabatic effectiveness performance of effusion cooling liners to verify the findings available in literature, which are mostly based on effusion flat plates with aligned cross flow, in case of swirled hot gas flow. The geometry consists of a tubular combustion chamber, equipped with a double swirler injection system and characterized by 22 rows of cooling holes on the liner. The liner cooling system employs slot cooling as well: its interactions with the cold gas injected through the effusion plate are investigated too. Taking advantage of the rotational periodicity of the effusion geometry and assuming axisymmetric conditions at the combustor inlet, steady state RANS calculations have been performed with the commercial code Ansys® CFX simulating a single circumferential pitch. Obtained results show how the effusion perforation angle deeply affects the flow-field around the corner of the combustor, in particular, with a strong reduction of slot effectiveness in case of 90 deg angle value.


Author(s):  
L. Andrei ◽  
A. Andreini ◽  
C. Bianchini ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
L. Mazzei ◽  
...  

Effusion cooling represents the state of the art of liner cooling technology for modern combustors. This technique consists of an array of closely spaced discrete film cooling holes and contributes to lower the metal temperature by the combined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. Despite many efforts reported in literature to characterize the cooling performance of these devices, detailed analyses of the mixing process between coolant and hot gas are difficult to perform, especially when superposition and density ratio effects as well as the interaction with complex gas side flow field become significant. Furthermore, recent investigations on the acoustic properties of these perforations pointed out the challenge to maintain optimal cooling performance also with orthogonal holes, which showed higher sound absorption. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of a realistic flow field on the adiabatic effectiveness performance of effusion cooling liners to verify the findings available in literature, which are mostly based on effusion flat plates with aligned crossflow, in case of swirled hot gas flow. The geometry consists of a tubular combustion chamber, equipped with a double swirler injection system and characterized by twenty-two rows of cooling holes on the liner. The liner cooling system employs slot cooling as well: its interactions with the cold gas injected through the effusion plate are investigated too. Taking advantage of the rotational periodicity of the effusion geometry and assuming axisymmetric conditions at the combustor inlet, steady state RANS calculations have been performed with the commercial code ANSYS® CFX simulating a single circumferential pitch. Obtained results show how the effusion perforation angle deeply affects the flow-field around the corner of the combustor, in particular with a strong reduction of slot effectiveness in case of 90° angle value.


Author(s):  
Francesco Montomoli ◽  
Michela Massini ◽  
Nicola Maceli ◽  
Massimiliano Cirri ◽  
Luca Lombardi ◽  
...  

Increased computational capabilities make available for the aero/thermal designers new powerful tools to include more geometrical details, improving the accuracy of the simulations, and reducing design costs and time. In the present work, a low-pressure turbine was analyzed, modeling the rotor-stator including the wheel space region. Attention was focused on the interaction between the coolant and the main flow in order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the behavior of the angel wings, to evaluate the wall heat flux distribution, and to prevent hot gas ingestion. Issues of component reliability related to thermal stress require accurate modeling of the turbulence and unsteadiness of the flow field. To satisfy this accuracy requirement, a full 3D URANS simulation was carried out. A reduced count ratio technique was applied in order to decrease numerical simulation costs. The study was carried out to investigate a new two-stage Low Pressure Turbine from GE Infrastructure Oil&Gas to be coupled to a new aeroderivative gas generator, the LM2500+G4, developed by GE Infrastructure, Aviation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Janssen ◽  
Daniel Pohl ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
Alexander Halcoussis ◽  
Rainer Hain ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents the impact of an axially tilted variable stator vane platform on penny cavity flow and passage flow, with the aid of both optical and pneumatic measurements in an annular cascade wind tunnel as well as steady CFD analyses. Variable stator vanes (VSVs) in axial compressors require a clearance from the endwalls. This means that penny cavities around the vane platform are inevitable. Production and assembly deviations can result in a vane platform which is tilted about the circumferential axis. Due to this deformation, backward facing steps occur on the platform edge. Penny cavity and main flow in geometries with and without platform tilting were compared in an annular cascade wind tunnel, which comprises a single row of 30 VSVs. Detailed particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were conducted inside the penny cavity and in the vane passage. Steady pressure and velocity data was obtained by two-dimensional multi-hole pressure probe traverses in the inflow and the outflow. Furthermore, pneumatic measurements were carried out using pressure taps inside the penny cavity. Additionally, oil flow visualization was conducted on the airfoil, hub, and penny cavity surfaces. Steady CFD simulations with boundary conditions, according to the measurements, have been benchmarked against experimental data. The results show that tilting the VSV platform reduces the mass flow into and out of the penny cavity. By decreasing penny cavity leakage, platform tilting also affects the passage flow where it leads to a reduced turbulence level and total pressure loss in the leakage flow region. In summary, the paper demonstrates the influence of penny platform tilting on cavity flow and passage flow and provides new insights into the mechanisms of penny cavity-associated losses.


Author(s):  
G. J. Sturgess

The paper deals with a small but important part of the overall gas turbine engine combustion system and continues earlier published work on turbulence effects in film cooling to cover the case of film turbulence. Film cooling of the gas turbine combustor liner imposes certain geometric limitations on the coolant injection device. The impact of practical film injection geometry on the cooling is one of increased rates of film decay when compared to the performance from idealized injection geometries at similar injection conditions. It is important to combustor durability and life estimation to be able to predict accurately the performance obtainable from a given practical slot. The coolant film is modeled as three distinct regions, and the effects of injection slot geometry on the development of each region are described in terms of film turbulence intensity and initial circumferential non-uniformity of the injected coolant. The concept of the well-designed slot is introduced and film effectiveness is shown to be dependent on it. Only slots which can be described as well-designed are of interest in practical equipment design. A prediction procedure is provided for well-designed slots which describes growth of the film downstream of the first of the three film regions. Comparisons of predictions with measured data are made for several very different well-designed slots over a relatively wide range of injection conditions, and good agreement is shown.


Author(s):  
Suhyeon Park ◽  
Siddhartha Gadiraju ◽  
Jaideep Pandit ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Federico Liberatore ◽  
...  

PIV measurements to understand the flow differences between reacting and non-reacting conditions were conducted in an optically accessible single can combustor. An industrial fuel nozzle was installed at the inlet of the test section to generate the swirl flow for flame stabilization and simulate realistic conditions of a gas turbine combustor. Five different equivalence ratios between 0.50 and 0.75 were tested with propane as fuel. Main air flow was also varied from Reynolds number from 50000 to 110000 with respect to the fuel nozzle diameter. Effect of preheating was tested by changing inlet air temperature from 23 to 200°C. The pressure at the test section was close to atmospheric condition throughout the tests. The measurements were performed with a 2-D PIV system. Time-averaged flow velocity, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) were obtained from PIV data and flow structures under different conditions were compared. Swirl jet impingement location on the liner wall was determined as well to understand the impact on the liner wall. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) further analyzed the data to compare coherent structures in the reacting and non-reacting flows.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document