Cooling Injection Effect on a Transonic Squealer Tip—Part II: Analysis of Aerothermal Interaction Physics

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ma ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
L. He ◽  
Z. Wang ◽  
L. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Transonic Flow ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Base Flow ◽  
Vortical Flow ◽  
Flow Interactions ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Local Base ◽  
Subsonic Region ◽  
Cavity Floor

A basic attribute for turbine blade film cooling is that coolant injected should be largely passively convected by the local base flow. However, the effective working of the conventional wisdom may be compromised when the cooling injection strongly interacts with the base flow. Rotor blade tip of a transonic high-pressure (HP) turbine is one of such challenging regions for which basic understanding of the relevant aerothermal behavior as a basis for effective heat transfer/cooling design is lacking. The need to increase our understanding and predictability for high-speed transonic blade tip has been underlined by some recent findings that tip heat transfer characteristics in a transonic flow are qualitatively different from those at a low speed. Although there have been extensive studies previously on squealer blade tip cooling, there have been no published experimental studies under a transonic flow condition. The present study investigates the effect of cooling injection on a transonic squealer tip through a closely combined experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) effort. The experimental and computational results as presented in Part I have consistently revealed some distinctive aerothermal signatures of the strong coolant-base flow interactions. In this paper, as Part II, detailed analyses using the validated CFD solutions are conducted to identify, analyze, and understand the causal links between the aerothermal signatures and the driving flow structures and physical mechanisms. It is shown that the interactions between the coolant injection and the base over-tip leakage (OTL) flow in the squealer tip region are much stronger in the frontal subsonic region than the rear transonic region. The dominant vortical flow structure is a counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) associated with each discrete cooling injection. High HTC stripes on the cavity floor are directly linked to the impingement heat transfer augmentation associated with one leg of the CRVP, which is considerably enhanced by the near-floor fluid movement driven by the overall pressure gradient along the camber line (CAM). The strength of the coolant-base flow interaction as signified by the augmented values of the HTC stripes is seen to correlate to the interplay and balance between the OTL flow and the CRVP structure. As such, for the frontal subsonic part of the cavity, there is a prevailing spanwise inward flow initiated by the CRVP, which has profoundly changed the local base flow, leading to high HTC stripes on the cavity floor. On the other hand, for the rear high speed part, the high inertia of the OTL flow dominates; thus, the vortical flow disturbances associated with the CRVP are largely passively convected, leaving clear signatures on the top surface of the suction surface rim. A further interesting side effect of the strong interaction in the frontal subsonic region is that there is considerable net heat flux reduction (NHFR) in an area seemingly unreachable by the injected coolant. The present results have confirmed that this is due to the large reduction in the local HTC as a consequence of the upstream propagated impact of the strong coolant-base flow interactions.

Cooling Injection Effect on a Transonic Squealer Tip: Part 2 — Analysis of Aerothermal Interaction Physics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ma ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
L. He ◽  
Z. Wang ◽  
L. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Transonic Flow ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Base Flow ◽  
Vortical Flow ◽  
Flow Interactions ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Local Base ◽  
Subsonic Region ◽  
Cavity Floor

A basic attribute for turbine blade film cooling is that coolant injected should be largely passively convected by the local base flow. However the effective working of the conventional wisdom may be compromised when the cooling injection strongly interacts with the base flow. Rotor blade tip of a transonic high-pressure (HP) turbine is one of such challenging regions for which basic understanding of the relevant aerothermal behavior as a basis for effective heat transfer/cooling design is lacking. The need to increase our understanding and predictability for high speed transonic blade tip has been underlined by some recent findings that tip heat transfer characteristics in a transonic flow are qualitatively different from those at a low speed. Although there have been extensive studies previously on squealer blade tip cooling, there have been no published experimental studies under a transonic flow condition. The present study investigates the effect of cooling injection on a transonic squealer tip through a closely combined experimental and CFD effort. The experimental and computational results as presented in Part 1 have consistently revealed some distinctive aerothermal signatures of the strong coolant-base flow interactions. In this paper as Part 2, detailed analyses using the validated CFD solutions are conducted to identify, analyze and understand the causal links between the aerothermal signatures and the driving flow structures and physical mechanisms. It is shown that the interactions between the coolant injection and the base Over-Tip Leakage (OTL) flow in the squealer tip region are much stronger in the frontal subsonic region than the rear transonic region. The dominant vortical flow structure is a counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) associated with each discrete cooling injection. High HTC stripes on the cavity floor are directly linked to the impingement heat transfer augmentation associated with one leg of the CRVP, which is considerably enhanced by the near-floor fluid movement driven by the overall pressure gradient along the camber line. The strength of the coolant-base flow interaction as signified by the augmented values of the HTC stripes is seen to correlate to the interplay and balance between the OTL flow and the CRVP structure. As such, for the frontal subsonic part of the cavity, there is a prevailing spanwise inward flow initiated by the CRVP, which has profoundly changed the local base flow, leading to high HTC stripes on the cavity floor. On the other hand, for the rear high speed part, the high inertia of the OTL flow dominates, thus the vortical flow disturbances associated with the CRVP are largely passively convected, leaving clear signatures on the top surface of the suction surface rim. A further interesting side-effect of the strong interaction in the frontal subsonic region is that there is considerable net heat flux reduction in an area seemingly unreachable by the injected coolant. The present results have confirmed that this is due to the large reduction in the local HTC as a consequence of the upstream propagated impact of the strong coolant-base flow interactions.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Optimized Blade Tip Shapes—Part II: Tip Flow Analysis and Loss Mechanisms

2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Pátý ◽  
Bogdan C. Cernat ◽  
Cis De Maesschalck ◽  
Sergio Lavagnoli
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Vortical Flow ◽  
Turbine Stage ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Blade Tip Geometry

The leakage flows within the gap between the tips of unshrouded rotor blades and the stationary casing of high-speed turbines are the source of significant aerodynamic losses and thermal stresses. In the pursuit for higher component performance and reliability, shaping the tip geometry offers a considerable potential to modulate the rotor tip flows and to weaken the heat transfer onto the blade and casing. Nevertheless, a critical shortage of combined experimental and numerical studies addressing the flow and loss generation mechanisms of advanced tip profiles persists in the open literature. A comprehensive study is presented in this two-part paper that investigates the influence of blade tip geometry on the aerothermodynamics of a high-speed turbine. An experimental and numerical campaign has been performed on a high-pressure turbine stage adopting three different blade tip profiles. The aerothermal performance of two optimized tip geometries (one with a full three-dimensional contoured shape and the other featuring a multicavity squealer-like tip) is compared against that of a regular squealer geometry. In the second part of this paper, we report a detailed analysis on the aerodynamics of the turbine as a function of the blade tip geometry. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations, adopting the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model and experimental boundary conditions, were run on high-density unstructured meshes using the numecafine/open solver. The simulations were validated against time-averaged and time-resolved experimental data collected in an instrumented turbine stage specifically setup for the simultaneous testing of multiple blade tips at scaled engine-representative conditions. The tip flow physics is explored to explain variations in turbine performance as a function of the tip geometry. Denton's mixing loss model is applied to the predicted tip gap aerodynamic field to identify and quantify the loss reduction mechanisms of the alternative tip designs. An advanced method based on the local triple decomposition of relative motion is used to track the location, size and intensity of the vortical flow structures arising from the interaction between the tip leakage flow and the main gas path. Ultimately, the comparison between the unconventional tip profiles and the baseline squealer tip highlights distinct aerodynamic features in the associated gap flow field. The flow analysis provides guidelines for the designer to assess the impact of specific tip design strategies on the turbine aerodynamics and rotor heat transfer.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Optimized Blade Tip Shapes: Part II — Tip Flow Analysis and Loss Mechanisms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Pátý ◽  
Bogdan Cernat ◽  
Cis De Maesschalck ◽  
Sergio Lavagnoli
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Vortical Flow ◽  
Turbine Stage ◽  
Tip Leakage Flow ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Blade Tip Geometry

The leakage flows within the gap between the tips of unshrouded rotor blades and the stationary casing of high-speed turbines are the source of significant aerodynamic losses and thermal stresses. In the pursuit for higher component performance and reliability, shaping the tip geometry offers a considerable potential to modulate the rotor tip flows and to weaken the heat transfer onto the blade and casing. Nevertheless, a critical shortage of combined experimental and numerical studies addressing the flow and loss generation mechanisms of advanced tip profiles persists in the open literature. A comprehensive study is presented in this two-part paper that investigates the influence of blade tip geometry on the aerother-modynamics of a high-speed turbine. An experimental and numerical campaign has been performed on a high-pressure turbine stage adopting three different blade tip profiles. The aerothermal performance of two optimized tip geometries (one with a full three-dimensional contoured shape and the other featuring a multi-cavity squealer-like tip) is compared against that of a regular squealer geometry. In the second part of this paper, we report a detailed analysis on the aerodynamics of the turbine as a function of the blade tip geometry. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations, adopting the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model and experimental boundary conditions, were run on high-density unstructured meshes using the Numeca FINE/Open solver. The simulations were validated against time-averaged and time-resolved experimental data collected in an instrumented turbine stage specifically set up for the simultaneous testing of multiple blade tips at scaled engine-representative conditions. The tip flow physics is explored to explain variations in turbine performance as a function of the tip geometry. Denton’s mixing loss model is applied to the predicted tip gap aerodynamic field to identify and quantify the loss reduction mechanisms of the alternative tip designs. An advanced method based on the local triple decomposition of relative motion is used to track the location, size and intensity of the vortical flow structures arising from the interaction between the tip leakage flow and the main gas path. Ultimately, the comparison between the unconventional tip profiles and the baseline squealer tip highlights distinct aerodynamic features in the associated gap flow field. The flow analysis provides guidelines for the designer to assess the impact of specific tip design strategies on the turbine aerodynamics and rotor heat transfer.

Aerothermal Performance of Shroudless Turbine Blade Tips With Effects of Relative Casing Motion

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Virdi ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
L. He ◽  
H. D. Li ◽  
R. Hunsley
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Wall Friction ◽  
Gap Size ◽  
Flow State ◽  
Local Flow ◽  
Bulk Fluid ◽  
Linear Cascade ◽  
Blade Tip

Recent work has indicated qualitatively different heat transfer characteristics between a transonic blade tip and a subsonic one. High resolution experimental data can be acquired for blade tip heat transfer research using a high speed linear cascade. While recognising an important role played by the cascade tests in validating computational models at the same conditions, some questions arise in relation to the effects of relative casing motion: 1) Does the relative casing movement change the main flow physics influencing the blade tip aerothermal performance? 2) Can a cascade set up with stationary casing wall rank different designs? 3) How do the effects of the casing motion depend on tip design configurations? A combined experimental and CFD study on several high pressure blade tip configurations is conducted to address these issues. Firstly, extensive experimental tests with aerodynamic loss and heat transfer measurement in a high speed linear cascade have been carried out for a squealer tip configuration at engine representative aerodynamic conditions. A systematic validation of the CFD solver (Rolls-Royce HYDRA) is presented, which serves as a basis for the computational analyses of the effects of the relative casing motion. Two tip configurations (squealer and flat tip) at three tip gaps (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% span) are analysed. The main aerodynamic impact of the casing motion is seen to promote the passage vortex, which consequently supresses the pitchwise reach of the tip leakage vortex. Inside the tip gap, the behaviour is dominated by the extra wall friction in relation of the inertia of the bulk fluid through the gap. As such, the moving casing effect is particularly strong for the flat tip at a small tip gap. For the large and medium tip gaps, both stationary and moving casing results are shown to consistently capture the trends in overall aerothermal performances. The present results confirm that even with relative casing motion, there is still a significant portion of transonic flow over a blade tip. For both the stationary and moving casing cases, the gap dependence of the over-tip heat transfer shows opposite trends for the transonic and subsonic regions respectively. The gap dependence of the blade tip heat transfer is shown to be clearly dependent on tip geometry configurations, as the bulk flow in a squealer cavity is subsonic regardless of the tip gap size, whilst the local flow state over a flat tip is much more responsive to the change of gap size.

Aerothermal Performance of a Winglet at Engine Representative Mach and Reynolds Numbers

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. O. O’Dowd ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
L. He ◽  
M. L. G. Oldfield ◽  
P. M. Ligrani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Shock Wave ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Local Heat Transfer ◽  
Wave Structure ◽  
Local Heat ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Shock Wave Structure ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Blade Tip

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the aerothermal performance of an uncooled winglet tip, under transonic conditions. Spatially resolved heat transfer data, including winglet tip surface and near-tip side-walls, are obtained using the transient infrared thermography technique within the Oxford high speed linear cascade test facility. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions are also conducted using the Rolls-Royce HYDRA suite. Most of the spatial heat transfer variations on the tip surface are well-captured by the CFD solver. The transonic flow pattern and its influence on heat transfer are analyzed, which shows that the turbine blade tip heat transfer is greatly influenced by the shock wave structure inside the tip gap. The effect of the casing relative motion is also numerically investigated. The CFD results indicate that the local heat transfer distribution on the tip is affected by the relative casing motion but the tip flow choking and shock wave structure within the tip gap still exist in the aft region of the blade.

scholarly journals Ramp Heating in High-Speed Transient Thermal Measurement With Reduced Uncertainty

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ma ◽  
Z. Wang ◽  
L. Wang ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
Z. Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient ◽  
Thermal Measurement ◽  
Design Guideline ◽  
Heating Method ◽  
Speed Flow ◽  
Step Heating ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Transient Thermal

The uncertainty associated with the convective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) obtained in transient thermal measurement is often high, especially in high speed flow. The present study demonstrates that the experimental accuracy could be much improved by an actively controlled ramp heating instead of the conventional step heating approach. A general design guideline for the proposed ramp heating method is derived theoretically and further demonstrated by simulation cases. This paper also presents a detailed experimental study for transonic turbine blade tip heat transfer. Repeatable, high-resolution tip HTC contour was obtained through transient IR measurement with the proposed ramp heating method. Detailed uncertainty analysis shows that the resulting HTC uncertainty level is much lower than the experimental data currently available in the open literature. The ramp heating approach is specially recommended to the high-speed heat transfer experimental research community to improve the accuracy of the transient thermal measurement technique.

Impact of Wall Temperature on Turbine Blade Tip Aerothermal Performance

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Zhang ◽  
L. He
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Temperature Dependence ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
Wall Temperature ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Blade Tip

Currently the aerodynamics and heat transfer over a turbine blade tip tend to be analyzed separately with the assumption that the wall thermal boundary conditions do not affect the over-tip-leakage (OTL) flow field. There are some existing correlations for correcting the wall temperature effect on heat transfer when scaled to engine realistic conditions. But they were either developed to account for the temperature dependence of fluid properties largely empirically, or based on a boundary-layer model. It would be difficult (if not impossible) to define a boundary layer in many parts of a realistic blade passage with marked three-dimensional (3D) end wall and secondary flows (including those within a blade tip and around it). The questions to be asked here are: is the OTL aerodynamics significantly affected by the wall thermal condition? And if it is, how can we count this effect consistently in turbine blade tip design and analysis using modern CFD methods? In the present study the problem has been examined for typical high-pressure turbine blade tip configurations. An extensively developed RANS code (HYDRA) is employed and validated against the experimental data from a high speed linear cascade testing rig. The numerical analysis reveals that the wall–gas temperature ratio could greatly affect the transonic OTL flow field and there is a strong two-way coupling between aerodynamics and heat transfer. The feedbacks of the thermal boundary condition to aerodynamics behave differently at different flow regimes over the tip, clearly indicating a highly localized dependence of the convective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) upon wall temperatures. This implies that to use HTC for blade metal temperature predictions without resorting a fully conjugate solution, the temperature dependence needs to be corrected locally. A nonlinear correction approach has been adopted in the present work, and the results demonstrate its effectiveness for the transonic turbine tip configurations studied.

scholarly journals Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Optimized Blade Tip Shapes: Part I — Turbine Rainbow Rotor Testing and CFD Methods

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Cernat ◽  
Marek Pátý ◽  
Cis De Maesschalck ◽  
Sergio Lavagnoli
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Flow Physics ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Blade Tip

Blade tip design and tip leakage flows are crucial aspects for the development of modern aero-engines. The inevitable clearance between stationary and rotating parts in turbine stages generates high-enthalpy unsteady leakage flows that strongly reduce the engine efficiency and can cause thermally induced blade failures. An improved understanding of the tip flow physics is essential to refine the current design strategies and achieve increased turbine aerothermal performance. However, while past studies have mainly focused on conventional tip shapes (flat tip or squealer geometries), the open literature suffers from a shortage of experimental and numerical data on advanced blade tip configurations of unshrouded rotors. This work presents a complete numerical and experimental investigation on the unsteady flow field of a high-pressure turbine, adopting three different blade tip profiles. The aerothermal characteristics of two novel high-performance tip geometries, one with a fully contoured shape and the other presenting a multi-cavity squealer-like tip with partially open external rims, are compared against the baseline performance of a regular squealer geometry. The turbine stage is tested at engine-representative conditions in the high-speed turbine facility of the von Karman Institute. A rainbow rotor is mounted for simultaneous aerothermal testing of multiple blade tip geometries. On the rotor disk, the blades are arranged in sectors operating at two different clearance levels. A numerical campaign of full-stage simulations was also conducted on all the investigated tip designs to model the secondary flows development and identify the tip loss and heat transfer mechanisms. In the first part of this work, we describe the experimental setup, instrumentation and data processing techniques used to measure the unsteady aerothermal field of multiple blade tip geometries using the rainbow rotor approach. We report the time-average and time-resolved static pressure and heat transfer measured on the shroud of the turbine rotor. The experimental data are compared against CFD predictions. These numerical results are then used in the second part of the paper to analyze the tip flow physics, model the tip loss mechanisms and quantify the aero-thermal performance of each tip geometry.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Optimized Blade Tip Shapes—Part I: Turbine Rainbow Rotor Testing and Numerical Methods

2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan C. Cernat ◽  
Marek Pátý ◽  
Cis De Maesschalck ◽  
Sergio Lavagnoli
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Speed ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Flow Physics ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Numerical Predictions ◽  
Blade Tip

Blade tip design and tip leakage flows are crucial aspects for the development of modern aero-engines. The inevitable clearance between stationary and rotating parts in turbine stages generates high-enthalpy unsteady leakage flows that strongly reduce the engine efficiency and can cause thermally induced blade failures. An improved understanding of the tip flow physics is essential to refine the current design strategies and achieve increased turbine aerothermal performance. However, while past studies have mainly focused on conventional tip shapes (flat tip or squealer geometries), the open literature suffers from a shortage of experimental and numerical data on advanced blade tip configurations of unshrouded rotors. This work presents a complete numerical and experimental investigation on the unsteady flow field of a high-pressure turbine, adopting three different blade tip profiles. The aerothermal characteristics of two novel high-performance tip geometries, one with a fully contoured shape and the other presenting a multicavity squealer-like tip with partially open external rims, are compared against the baseline performance of a regular squealer geometry. The turbine stage is tested at engine-representative conditions in the high-speed turbine facility of the von Karman Institute. A rainbow rotor is mounted for simultaneous aerothermal testing of multiple blade tip geometries. On the rotor disk, the blades are arranged in sectors operating at two different clearance levels. A numerical campaign of full-stage simulations was also conducted on all the investigated tip designs to model the secondary flows development and identify the tip loss and heat transfer mechanisms. In the first part of this work, we describe the experimental setup, instrumentation, and data processing techniques used to measure the unsteady aerothermal field of multiple blade tip geometries using the rainbow rotor approach. We report the time-average and time-resolved static pressure and heat transfer measured on the shroud of the turbine rotor. The experimental data are compared against numerical predictions. These numerical results are then used in the second part of the paper to analyze the tip flow physics, model the tip loss mechanisms, and quantify the aero-thermal performance of each tip geometry.

scholarly journals Turbine blade tip aero-thermal management: Some recent advances and research outlook

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. K7ADQC ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Zhang ◽  
Li He
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Management ◽  
Turbine Blade ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Blade Tip ◽  
Flow Turbulence ◽  
And Control

AbstractThis article provides an overview of some recent progress in understanding HP turbine blade shroudless tip heat transfer and aerodynamics, especially in a transonic regime. The review is mostly based on the experimental and numerical efforts the authors have been involved in during the past ten years. Some fundamental flow physics especially in high speed Over-Tip-Leakage (OTL) flows are highlighted, including tip choking, shock waves, and the roles played by flow turbulence, etc. These mechanisms bring qualitative differences in tip heat transfer and loss generation, and prospects in tip aerothermal management and control. Of great interest is the strong OTL flow–coolant interaction, which can dramatically affect the tip aerodynamics, and thus would challenge any “optimized” tip geometry based on an uncooled configuration. It is suggested that optimal tip aero-thermal configurations should be an iterative process between blade tip shaping and cooling injection scheme. Combining tip geometry shaping and cooling injection patterns concurrently may provide more extensive exploitation of tip aerothermal design space.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document