Effect of Ingestion on Temperature of Turbine Disks

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver J. Pountney ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
Gary D. Lock ◽  
J. Michael Owen

This paper describes experimental results from a research facility which experimentally models hot-gas ingress into the wheel-space of an axial turbine stage with an axial-clearance rim seal. Thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) was used to determine the effect of ingestion on heat transfer to the rotating disk; as far as the authors are aware, this is the first time that the measured effects of ingestion on adiabatic temperature have been published. An adiabatic effectiveness for the rotor was defined, and this definition was used to determine when the effect of ingress was first experienced by the rotor. Concentration measurements on the stator were used to determine the sealing effectiveness of the rim seal, and transient heat transfer tests with heated sealing air were used to determine the adiabatic effectiveness of the rotor. The thermal buffer ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the sealing flow rate when ingress first occurs to that when it is first experienced by the rotor, was shown to depend on the turbulent flow parameter. The local Nusselt numbers, Nu, which were measured on the rotor, were significantly smaller than those for a free disk; they decreased as the sealing flow rate decreased and as the ingress correspondingly increased. The values of Nu and adiabatic effectiveness obtained in these experiments provide data for the validation of CFD codes but caution is needed if they (particularly the values of Nu) are to be extrapolated to engine conditions.

Author(s):  
Oliver J. Pountney ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
Gary D. Lock ◽  
J. Michael Owen

This paper describes experimental results from a research facility which experimentally models hot-gas ingress into the wheel-space of an axial turbine stage with an axial-clearance rim seal. Thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) was used to determine the effect of ingestion on heat transfer to the rotating disc; as far as the authors are aware, this is the first time that the measured effects of ingestion on adiabatic temperature have been published. An adiabatic effectiveness for the rotor was defined, and this definition was used to determine when the effect of ingress was first experienced by the rotor. Concentration measurements on the stator were used to determine the sealing effectiveness of the rim seal, and transient heat transfer tests with heated sealing air were used to determine the adiabatic effectiveness of the rotor. The thermal buffer ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the sealing flow rate when ingress first occurs to that when it is first experienced by the rotor, was shown to depend on the turbulent flow parameter. The local Nusselt numbers, Nu, which were measured on the rotor, were significantly smaller than those for a free disc; they decreased as the sealing flow rate decreased and as the ingress correspondingly increased. The values of Nu and adiabatic effectiveness obtained in these experiments provide data for the validation of CFD codes but caution is needed if they (particularly the values of Nu) are to be extrapolated to engine conditions.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Mirzaee ◽  
P. Quinn ◽  
M. Wilson ◽  
J. M. Owen

In the system considered here, corotating “turbine” disks are cooled by air supplied at the periphery of the system. The system comprises two corotating disks, connected by a rotating cylindrical hub and shrouded by a stepped, stationary cylindrical outer casing. Cooling air enters the system through holes in the periphery of one disk, and leaves through the clearances between the outer casing and the disks. The paper describes a combined computational and experimental study of the heat transfer in the above-described system. In the experiments, one rotating disk is heated, the hub and outer casing are insulated, and the other disk is quasi-adiabatic. Thermocouples and fluxmeters attached to the heated disc enable the Nusselt numbers, Nu, to be determined for a wide range of rotational speeds and coolant flow rates. Computations are carried out using an axisymmetric elliptic solver incorporating the Launder–Sharma low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model. The flow structure is shown to be complex and depends strongly on the so-called turbulent flow parameter, λT, which incorporates both rotational speed and flow rate. For a given value λT, the computations show that Nu increases as Reφ, the rotational Reynolds number, increases. Despite the complexity of the flow, the agreement between the computed and measured Nusselt numbers is reasonably good.


2009 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. Fiala ◽  
I. Jaswal ◽  
F. E. Ames

Heat transfer and film cooling distributions have been acquired for a vane trailing edge with letterbox partitions. Additionally, pressure drop data have been experimentally determined across a pin fin array and a trailing edge slot with letterbox partitions. The pressure drop across the array and letterbox trailing edge arrangement was measurably higher than for the gill slot geometry. Experimental data for the partitions and the inner suction surface region downstream from the slot have been acquired over a four-to-one range in vane exit condition Reynolds number (500,000, 1,000,000, and 2,000,000), with low (0.7%), grid (8.5%), and aerocombustor (13.5%) turbulence conditions. At these conditions, both heat transfer and adiabatic film cooling distributions have been documented over a range of blowing ratios (0.47≤M≤1.9). Heat transfer distributions on the inner suction surface downstream from the slot ejection were found to be dependent on both ejection flow rate and external conditions. Heat transfer on the partition side surfaces correlated with both exit Reynolds number and blowing ratio. Heat transfer on partition top surfaces largely correlated with exit Reynolds number but blowing ratio had a small effect at higher values. Generally, adiabatic film cooling levels on the inner suction surface are high but decrease near the trailing edge and provide some protection for the trailing edge. Adiabatic effectiveness levels on the partitions correlate with blowing ratio. On the partition sides adiabatic effectiveness is highest at low blowing ratios and decreases with increasing flow rate. On the partition tops adiabatic effectiveness increases with increasing blowing ratio but never exceeds the level on the sides. The present paper, together with a companion paper that documents letterbox trailing edge aerodynamics, is intended to provide engineers with the heat transfer and aerodynamic loss information needed to develop and compare competing trailing edge designs.


Author(s):  
Xingyun Jia ◽  
Liguo Wang ◽  
Qun Zheng ◽  
Hai Zhang ◽  
Yuting Jiang

Performance of generic rim seal configurations, axial-clearance rim seal (ACS), radial-clearance rim seal (RCS), radial-axial clearance rim seal (RACS) are compared under realistic working conditions. Conjugate heat transfer analysis on rim seal is performed in this paper to understand the impact of ingestion on disc temperature. Results show that seal effectiveness and cooling effectiveness of RACS are the best when compared with ACS and RCS, the minimum mass flow rate for seal of RACS is 75% of that of RCS, and 34.6% of ACS. Authors compare the disc temperature distribution between different generic rim seal configurations where the RACS seems to be favorable in terms of low disc temperature. In addition, RACS has higher air-cooled aerodynamic efficiency, minimizing the mainstream performance penalty when compared with ACS and RCS. Corresponding to the respective minimum mass flow rate for seal, the air-cooled aerodynamic efficiency of RACS is 23.71% higher than that of ACS, and 12.79% higher than the RCS.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pilbrow ◽  
H. Karabay ◽  
M. Wilson ◽  
J. M. Owen

In most gas turbines, blade-cooling air is supplied from stationary preswirl nozzles that swirl the air in the direction of rotation of the turbine disk. In the “cover-plate” system, the preswirl nozzles are located radially inward of the blade-cooling holes in the disk, and the swirling airflows radially outward in the cavity between the disk and a cover-plate attached to it. In this combined computational and experimental paper, an axisymmetric elliptic solver, incorporating the Launder–Sharma and the Morse low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence models, is used to compute the flow and heat transfer. The computed Nusselt numbers for the heated “turbine disk” are compared with measured values obtained from a rotating-disk rig. Comparisons are presented, for a wide range of coolant flow rates, for rotational Reynolds numbers in the range 0.5 X 106 to 1.5 X 106, and for 0.9 < βp < 3.1, where βp is the preswirl ratio (or ratio of the tangential component of velocity of the cooling air at inlet to the system to that of the disk). Agreement between the computed and measured Nusselt numbers is reasonably good, particularly at the larger Reynolds numbers. A simplified numerical simulation is also conducted to show the effect of the swirl ratio and the other flow parameters on the flow and heat transfer in the cover-plate system.


Author(s):  
Florian Hoefler ◽  
Nils Dietrich ◽  
Jens von Wolfersdorf

A confined jet impingement configuration has been investigated in which the matter of interest is the convective heat transfer from the airflow to the passage walls. The geometry is similar to gas turbine applications. The setup is distinct from usual cooling passages by the fact that no crossflow and no bulk flow direction are present. The flow exhausts through two staggered rows of holes opposing the impingement wall. Hence, a complex 3-D vortex system arises, which entails a complex heat transfer situation. The transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) method was used to measure the heat transfer on the passage walls. Due to the nature of the experiment, the fluid as well as the wall temperature vary with location and time. As a prerequisite of the transient TLC technique, the heat transfer coefficient is assumed to be constant over the transient experiment. Therefore, additional measures were taken to qualify this assumption. The linear relation between heat flux and temperature difference could be verified for all measurement sites. This validates the assumption of a constant heat transfer coefficient which was made for the transient TLC experiments. Nusselt number evaluations from all techniques show a good agreement, considering the respective uncertainty ranges. For all sites the Nusselt numbers range within ±9% of the values gained from the TLC measurement.


Author(s):  
Reby Roy ◽  
B. V. S. S. S. Prasad ◽  
S. Srinivasa Murthy

The conjugate heat transfer in a stationary cylindrical cavity with a rotating disk and fluid through-flow is analysed at various rotational speeds ranging from 10000 to 50000 rpm by using a finite volume commercial code. The numerical model and code are validated for a problem, which involves rotation and fluid through-flow. A reduction of the thermal boundary layer thickness and increase in the heat transfer coefficients are observed with increase in the rotational speed. Marked differences are noticed between the Nusselt numbers obtained from the conjugate and constant temperature analyses.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-X. Chen ◽  
X. Gan ◽  
J. M. Owen

A superposed radial outflow of air is used to cool two disks that are rotating at equal and opposite speeds at rotational Reynolds numbers up to 1.2 × 106. One disk, which is heated up to 100°C, is instrumented with thermocouples and fluxmeters; the other disk, which is unheated, is made from transparent polycarbonate to allow the measurement of velocity using an LDA system. Measured Nusselt numbers and velocities are compared with computations made using an axisymmetric elliptic solver with a low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model. Over the range of flow rates and rotational speeds tested, agreement between the computations and measurements is mainly good. As suggested by the Reynolds analogy, the Nusselt numbers for contrarotating disks increase strongly with rotational speed and weakly with flow rate; they are lower than the values obtained under equivalent conditions in a rotor–stator system.


Author(s):  
L. Isobel Mear ◽  
J. Michael Owen ◽  
Gary D. Lock

Sealing air is used in gas turbines to reduce the amount of hot gas that is ingested through the rim seals into the wheel-space between the turbine disk and its adjacent stationary casing. The sealing air attaches itself to the rotor, creating a buffering effect that reduces the amount of ingested fluid that can reach the surface of the rotor. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed, and this shows that the maximum buffering effect occurs at a critical flow rate of sealing air, the value of which depends on the seal geometry. The model, which requires two empirical constants, is validated using experimental data, obtained from infrared (IR) temperature measurements, which are presented in a separate paper. There is good agreement between the adiabatic effectiveness of the rotor estimated from the model and that obtained from the IR measurements. Of particular interest to designers is that significant ingress can enter the wheel-space before its effect is sensed by the rotor.


1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Farthing ◽  
J. M. Owen

Flow visualization and heat transfer measurements have been made in a cavity comprising two nonplane disks of 762 mm diameter and a peripheral shroud, all of which could be rotated up to 2000 rpm. “Cobs,” made from a lightweight foam material and shaped to model the geometry of turbine disks, were attached to the center of each disk. Cooling air at flow rates up to 0.1 kg/s entered the cavity through the center of the “upstream” disk and left via holes in the shroud. The flow structure was found to be similar to that observed in earlier tests for the plane-disk case: a source region, Ekman layers, sink layer, and interior core were observed by flow visualization. Providing the source region did not fill the entire cavity, solutions of the turbulent integral boundary-layer equations provided a reasonable approximation to the Nusselt numbers measured on the heated “downstream” disk.


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