Egress Interaction Through Turbine Rim Seals

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Scobie ◽  
Fabian P. Hualca ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
Gary D. Lock
Keyword(s):  
Film Cooling ◽  
Outer Region ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Flow Coefficient ◽  
Cfd Validation ◽  
Engine Efficiency ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Rotor Disk ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
Cooling Air

Engine designers require accurate predictions of ingestion (or ingress) principally caused by circumferential pressure asymmetry in the mainstream annulus. Cooling air systems provide purge flow designed to limit metal temperatures and protect vulnerable components from the hot gases which would otherwise be entrained into disk cavities through clearances between rotating and static disks. Rim seals are fitted at the periphery of these disks to minimize purge. The mixing between the efflux of purge (or egress) and the mainstream gases near the hub end-wall results in a deterioration of aerodynamic performance. This paper presents experimental results using a turbine test rig with wheel-spaces upstream and downstream of a rotor disk. Ingress and egress was quantified using a CO2 concentration probe, with seeding injected into the upstream and downstream sealing flows. The probe measurements have identified an outer region in the wheel-space and confirmed the expected flow structure. For the first time, asymmetric variations of concentration have been shown to penetrate through the seal clearance and the outer portion of the wheel-space between the disks. For a given flow coefficient in the annulus, the concentration profiles were invariant with rotational Reynolds number. The measurements also reveal that the egress provides a film-cooling benefit on the vane and rotor platforms. Further, these measurements provide unprecedented insight into the flow interaction and provide quantitative data for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) validation, which should help to reduce the use of purge and improve engine efficiency.

Egress Interaction Through Turbine Rim Seals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Scobie ◽  
Fabian P. Hualca ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
Gary D. Lock
Keyword(s):  
Film Cooling ◽  
Outer Region ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Flow Coefficient ◽  
Cfd Validation ◽  
Engine Efficiency ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Cooling Air ◽  
End Wall ◽  
First Time

Engine designers require accurate predictions of ingestion (or ingress) principally caused by circumferential pressure asymmetry in the mainstream annulus. Cooling air systems provide purge flow designed to limit metal temperatures and protect vulnerable components from the hot gases which would otherwise be entrained into disc cavities through clearances between rotating and static discs. Rim seals are fitted at the periphery of these discs to minimise purge. The mixing between the efflux of purge (or egress) and the mainstream gases near the hub end-wall results in a deterioration of aerodynamic performance. This paper presents experimental results using a turbine test rig with wheel-spaces upstream and downstream of a rotor disc. Ingress and egress was quantified using a CO2 concentration probe, with seeding injected into the upstream and downstream sealing flows. The probe measurements have identified an outer region in the wheel-space and confirmed the expected flow structure. For the first time, asymmetric variations of concentration have been shown to penetrate through the seal clearance and the outer portion of the wheel-space between the discs. For a given flow coefficient in the annulus, the concentration profiles were invariant with rotational Reynolds number. The measurements also reveal that the egress provides a film-cooling benefit on the vane and rotor platforms. Further, these measurements provide unprecedented insight into the flow interaction, and provide quantitative data for CFD validation, which should help reduce the use of purge and improve engine efficiency.

Turbine Stator Well CFD Studies: Effects of Coolant Supply Geometry on Cavity Sealing Performance

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Riccardo Da Soghe ◽  
Bruno Facchini
Keyword(s):  
Air Cooling ◽  
Sector Model ◽  
Engine Efficiency ◽  
Air Supply ◽  
Sealing Performance ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
Cooling Air ◽  
Supply Systems

The increase of aeroengine performance through the improvement of aerodynamic efficiency of core flow is becoming more and more difficult to achieve. However, there are still some devices that could be improved to enhance global engine efficiency. Particularly, investigations on the internal air cooling systems may lead to a reduction of cooling air with a direct benefit to the overall performance. At the same time, further investigations on heat transfer mechanisms within turbine cavities may help to optimize cooling air flows, saving engine life duration. This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study aimed at the characterization of the effects of different geometries for cooling air supply within turbine cavities on wall thermal effectiveness and sealing mass flow rate. Several sealing air supply geometries were considered in order to point out the role of cooling air injection position, swirl number, and jet penetration on the cavities’ sealing performance. Steady state calculations were performed using two different computational domains: the first consists of a sector model of the whole turbine including the second stator well, while the second is a cut-down model of the stator well. Thanks to the simplified geometry of the test rig with respect to actual engines, the study has pointed out clear design suggestions regarding the effects of geometry modification of cooling air supply systems.

Aerothermal Impact of Stator-Rim Purge Flow and Rotor-Platform Film Cooling on a Transonic Turbine Stage

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pau ◽  
G. Paniagua ◽  
D. Delhaye ◽  
A. de la Loma ◽  
P. Ginibre
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Film Cooling ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Turbine Stage ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Rotor Disk ◽  
Transonic Turbine ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes the effects on the mainstream flow of two types of cooling techniques in a transonic turbine stage: purge gas ejected out of the cavity between the stator rim and the rotor disk, as well as film cooling gas discharged from the rotor-platform. The tests were carried out in a full annular stage fed by a compression tube, at M2is = 1.1, Re = 1.1×106, and at temperature ratios reproducing engine conditions. The stator outlet was instrumented to allow the aerothermal characterization of the purge flow. The rotor blade was heavily instrumented with fast-response pressure sensors and double-layer thin film gauges. The tests are coupled with numerical calculations performed using the ONERA’s code elsA. The stator-rotor interaction is seen to be significantly affected by the stator-rim seal, both in terms of heat transfer and pressure fluctuations. The flow exchange between the rotor disk cavity and the mainstream passage is mainly governed by the vane shock patterns. The purge flow leads to the appearance of a large coherent vortex structure on the suction side of the blade which enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient due to the blockage effect created. Secondly, the impact of the platform cooling is observed to be restricted to the platform, with negligible effects on the blade suction side. The platform cooling results in a clear attenuation of pressure pulsations at some specific locations. Finally the turbine performance was analyzed, comparing measured and CFD results. A detailed loss breakdown analysis has been done using correlations, in order to isolate the different loss component contributions. The presented results should help designers improve the protection of the rotor platform and minimize the amount of coolant used.

Aerothermal Impact of Stator-Rim Purge Flow and Rotor-Platform Film Cooling on a Transonic Turbine Stage

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pau ◽  
G. Paniagua ◽  
D. Delhaye ◽  
A. de la Loma ◽  
P. Ginibre
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Film Cooling ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Rotor Disk ◽  
Layer Thin Film ◽  
The Impact

The sealing of the stator-rotor gap and rotor-platform cooling are vital to the safe operation of the high-pressure turbine. Contrary to the experience in subsonic turbines, this paper demonstrates the potential to improve the efficiency in transonic turbines at certain rim seal rates. Two types of cooling techniques were investigated: purge gas ejected out of the cavity between the stator rim and the rotor disk, and cooling at the rotor-platform. The tests were carried out in a full annular stage fed by a compression tube at M2is=1.1, Re=1.1×106, and at temperature ratios reproducing engine conditions. The stator outlet was instrumented to allow the aerothermal characterization of the purge flow. The rotor blade was heavily instrumented with fast-response pressure sensors and double-layer thin film gauges. The tests are coupled with numerical calculations performed using the ONERA’s code ELSA. The results indicate that the stator-rotor interaction is significantly affected by the stator-rim seal, both in terms of heat transfer and pressure fluctuations. The flow exchange between the rotor disk cavity and the mainstream passage is mainly governed by the vane trailing edge shock patterns. The purge flow leads to the appearance of a large coherent vortex structure on the suction side of the blade, which enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient due to the blockage effect created. The impact of the platform cooling is observed to be restricted to the platform, with negligible effects on the blade suction side. The platform cooling results in a clear attenuation of pressure pulsations at some specific locations. The experimental and computational fluid dynamics results show an increase in the turbine performance compared with the no rim seal case. A detailed loss breakdown analysis helped to identify the shock loss as the major loss source. The presented results should help designers improve the protection of the rotor platform while minimizing the amount of coolant used.

Computational Analysis of a Novel Cooling Scheme for Ultra Compact Combustor Turbine Vanes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian T. Bohan ◽  
Marc D. Polanka ◽  
James L. Rutledge
Keyword(s):  
Film Cooling ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Cold Region ◽  
Stagnation Region ◽  
Engine Efficiency ◽  
Turbine Vanes ◽  
Turbine Vane ◽  
Cooling Hole ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd

The Ultra Compact Combustor (UCC) has the potential to improve overall engine efficiency at a reduced size, while offering a unique component configuration that can allow for novel cooling of turbine vanes located below the circumferential cavity. In this configuration the leading edge of the turbine vane is located upstream of the combustor, with hot gases impinging near 1/5-chord and aft to the trailing edge. Therefore the leading edge remains in a cold region of the flow allowing openings in the stagnation region of the vane to ingest cool core flow. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented that analyzed stagnation fed cooling variations for the current UCC turbine vane. The variants included several internal only cooling schemes and one external film cooling scheme. The internal only variants showed that with proper component geometry the internal pressure could exceed the external pressure downstream from the leading edge. The film cooling hole variant showed that coolant did in fact exit the vane through 3 of the 8 cooling holes in a similar fashion as a compressor fed scheme. The determination if coolant would exit the holes was highly dependent on the external pressure gradient on the vane.

Design of an Improved Turbine Rim-Seal

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Scobie ◽  
Roy Teuber ◽  
Yan Sheng Li ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
Michael Wilson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Gas Concentration ◽  
Engine Design ◽  
Successful Design ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Rotor Disk ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
Improved Performance

Rim seals are fitted in gas turbines at the periphery of the wheel-space formed between rotor disks and their adjacent casings. These seals, also called platform overlap seals, reduce the ingress of hot gases which can limit the life of highly stressed components in the engine. This paper describes the development of a new, patented rim-seal concept showing improved performance relative to a reference engine design, using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) computations of a turbine stage at engine conditions. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was limited to a small number of purge-flow rates due to computational time and cost, and the computations were validated experimentally at a lower rotational Reynolds number and in conditions under incompressible flow. The new rim seal features a stator-side angel wing and two buffer cavities between outer and inner seals: the angel-wing promotes a counter-rotating vortex to reduce the effect of the ingress on the stator; the two buffer cavities are shown to attenuate the circumferential pressure asymmetries of the fluid ingested from the mainstream annulus. Rotor disk pumping is exploited to reduce the sealing flow rate required to prevent ingress, with the rotor boundary layer also providing protective cooling. Measurements of gas concentration and swirl ratio, determined from static and total pressure, were used to assess the performance of the new seal concept relative to a benchmark generic seal. The radial variation of concentration through the seal was measured in the experiments and these data captured the improvements due to the intermediate buffer cavities predicted by the CFD. This successful design approach is a potent combination of insight provided by computation, and the flexibility and expedience provided by experiment.

Re-Ingestion of Upstream Egress in a 1.5-Stage Gas Turbine Rig

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Scobie ◽  
Fabian P. Hualca ◽  
Marios Patinios ◽  
Carl M. Sangan ◽  
J. Michael Owen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Operating Life ◽  
Annulus Flow ◽  
Purge Flow ◽  
Rotor Disk ◽  
First Time ◽  
Measured Mass ◽  
Insight Into

In gas turbines, rim seals are fitted at the periphery of stator and rotor discs to minimize the purge flow required to seal the wheel-space between the discs. Ingestion (or ingress) of hot mainstream gases through rim seals is a threat to the operating life and integrity of highly stressed components, particularly in the first-stage turbine. Egress of sealing flow from the first-stage can be re-ingested in downstream stages. This paper presents experimental results using a 1.5-stage test facility designed to investigate ingress into the wheel-spaces upstream and downstream of a rotor disk. Re-ingestion was quantified using measurements of CO2 concentration, with seeding injected into the upstream and downstream sealing flows. Here, a theoretical mixing model has been developed from first principles and validated by the experimental measurements. For the first time, a method to quantify the mass fraction of the fluid carried over from upstream egress into downstream ingress has been presented and measured; it was shown that this fraction increased as the downstream sealing flow rate increased. The upstream purge was shown to not significantly disturb the fluid dynamics but only partially mixes with the annulus flow near the downstream seal, with the ingested fluid emanating from the boundary layer on the blade platform. From the analogy between heat and mass transfer, the measured mass-concentration flux is equivalent to an enthalpy flux, and this re-ingestion could significantly reduce the adverse effect of ingress in the downstream wheel-space. Radial traverses using a concentration probe in and around the rim seal clearances provide insight into the complex interaction between the egress, ingress and mainstream flows.

scholarly journals The Problem of Accounting for Heat Exchange between the Flow and the Flow Part Surfaces When Modeling a Viscous Flow in Low-Flow Stages of a Centrifugal Compressor

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 9138
Author(s):  
Sergey Kartashov ◽  
Yuri Kozhukhov ◽  
Vycheslav Ivanov ◽  
Aleksei Danilishin ◽  
Aleksey Yablokov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchange ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Calculation Model ◽  
Flow Coefficient ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Relative Width ◽  
Adiabatic Wall ◽  
Flow Part ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd

In this paper, we review the problem of accounting for heat exchange between the flow and the flow part surfaces when creating a calculation model for modeling the workflow process of low-flow stages of a centrifugal compressor using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The objective selected for this study was a low-flow intermediate type stage with the conditional flow coefficient Փ = 0.008 and the relative width at the impeller exit b2/D2 = 0.0133. We show that, in the case of modeling with widespread adiabatic wall simplification, the calculated temperature in the gaps between the impeller and the stator elements is significantly overestimated. Modeling of the working process in the flow part was carried out with a coupled heat exchanger, as well as with simplified accounting for heat transfer by setting the temperatures of the walls. The gas-dynamic characteristics of the stage were compared with the experimental data, the heat transfer influence on the disks friction coefficient was estimated, and the temperature distributions in the gaps between disks and in the flow part of the stage were analyzed. It is shown that the main principle when modeling the flow in low-flow stage is to ensure correct temperature distribution in the gaps.

The Effect of Freestream Turbulence on Film Cooling Adiabatic Effectiveness

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Mayhew ◽  
James W. Baughn ◽  
Aaron R. Byerley
Keyword(s):  
Flat Plate ◽  
Film Cooling ◽  
Density Ratio ◽  
Main Flow ◽  
Freestream Turbulence ◽  
Coverage Area ◽  
Liquid Crystal Thermography ◽  
Blowing Ratio ◽  
Adiabatic Effectiveness ◽  
Cooling Air

The film-cooling performance of a flat plate in the presence of low and high freestream turbulence is investigated using liquid crystal thermography. High-resolution distributions of the adiabatic effectiveness are determined over the film-cooled surface of the flat plate using the hue method and image processing. Three blowing rates are investigated for a model with three straight holes spaced three diameters apart, with density ratio near unity. High freestream turbulence is shown to increase the area-averaged effectiveness at high blowing rates, but decrease it at low blowing rates. At low blowing ratio, freestream turbulence clearly reduces the coverage area of the cooling air due to increased mixing with the main flow. However, at high blowing ratio, when much of the jet has lifted off in the low turbulence case, high freestream turbulence turns its increased mixing into an asset, entraining some of the coolant that penetrates into the main flow and mixing it with the air near the surface.

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