New Insights From Conceptual Design of an Additive Manufactured 300 W Micro Gas Turbine Towards UAV Applications

Author(s):  
Lukas Badum ◽  
Boris Leizeronok ◽  
Beni Cukurel

Abstract Owing to high energy density of hydrocarbon fuels, ultra-micro gas turbines with power outputs below 1 kW have potential as battery replacement in drones. To overcome the obstacles observed in previous works on gas turbines of this scale, novel gas turbine architecture is proposed based on conventional roller bearing technology that operates at up to 500,000 RPM and additively manufactured monolithic rotor in cantilevered configuration, equipped with internal cooling blades. The optimum turbomachinery design is elaborated using diabatic cycle calculation, coupled with turbomachinery meanline design. This approach provides new insights on interdependencies of heat transfer, component efficiency and system electric efficiency. Thereby, reduced design pressure ratio of 2.5 with 1200 K turbine inlet temperature is identified as most suitable for 300 W electric power output. In following, material properties and design constraints for the monolithic rotor are obtained from available additive manufacturing technologies. Rotordynamic simulations are then conducted for four available materials using simplified rotor model. CFD simulations are conducted to quantify compressor efficiency and conjugate heat transfer analysis is performed to assess the benefit of internal cooling cavity and vanes for different rotor materials. It is demonstrated that the cavity flow absorbs large heat flux from turbine to compressor, thus cooling the rotor structure and improving the diabatic cycle efficiency. Finally, results of this conceptual study show that ultra-micro gas turbine with electric efficiency of up to 5% is feasible, while energy density is increased by factor of 3.6, compared to lithium-ion batteries.

Author(s):  
L. Badum ◽  
B. Leizeronok ◽  
B. Cukurel

Abstract Owing to the high energy density of hydrocarbon fuels, ultra-micro gas turbines with power outputs below 1 kW have clear potential as battery replacement in drones. However, previous works on gas turbines of this scale revealed severe challenges due to air bearing failures, heat transfer from turbine to compressor, rotordynamic instability and manufacturing limitations. To overcome these obstacles, a novel gas turbine architecture is proposed based on conventional roller bearing technology that operates at up to 500,000 RPM and an additively manufactured monolithic rotor in cantilevered configuration, equipped with internal cooling blades. The optimum turbomachinery design is elaborated using diabatic cycle calculation, coupled with turbomachinery meanline design code. This approach provides new insights on the interdependencies of heat transfer, component efficiency and system electric efficiency. Thereby, a reduced design pressure ratio of 2.5 with 1200 K turbine inlet temperature is identified as most suitable for 300 W electric power output. In following, a review of available additive manufacturing technologies yields material properties, surface roughness and design constraints for the monolithic rotor. Rotordynamic simulations are then conducted for four available materials using a simplified rotor model to identify valid permanent magnet dimensions that would avoid operation close to bending modes. To complete the baseline engine architecture, a novel radial inflow combustor concept is proposed based on porous inert media combustion. CFD simulations are conducted to quantify compressor efficiency and conjugate heat transfer analysis of the monolithic rotor is performed to assess the benefit of the internal cooling cavity and vanes for different rotor materials. It is demonstrated that the cavity flow absorbs large amount of heat flux from turbine to compressor, thus cooling the rotor structure and improving the diabatic cycle efficiency. Finally, the results of this conceptual study show that ultra-micro gas turbine with electric efficiency of up to 5% is feasible, while energy density is increased by factor of 3.6, compared to lithium-ion batteries.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ky-Quang Pham ◽  
Quang-Hai Nguyen ◽  
Tai-Duy Vu ◽  
Cong-Truong Dinh

Abstract Gas turbine engine has been widely applied to many heavy industries, such as marine propulsion and aerospace fields. Increasing turbine inlet temperature is one of the major ways to improve the thermal efficiency of gas turbines. Internal cooling for gas turbine cooling system is one of the most commonly used approaches to reduce the temperature of blades by casting various kinds of ribs in serpentine passages to enhance the heat transfer between the coolant and hot surface of gas turbine blades. This paper presents an investigation of boot-shaped rib design to increase the heat transfer performances in the internal cooling turbine blades for gas turbine engines. By varying the design parameter configuration, the airflow is taken with higher momentum, and the minor vortex being at the front rib is relatively removed. The object of this investigation is increasing the reattachment airflow to wall and reducing the vortex occurring near the rib for improving the performances of heat transfer using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes with the SST model. A parametric study of the boot-shaped rib design was performed using various geometric parameters related to the heel-angle, toe-angle, slope-height and rib-width to find their effect on the Nusselt number, temperature on the ribbed wall, friction factor ratio of the channel and thermal performance factor. The numerical results showed that the heat transfer performances are significantly increased with the heel-angle, toe-angle, slope-height, while that remained relatively constant with the rib-width.


Author(s):  
Takayuki Matsunuma ◽  
Hiro Yoshida ◽  
Norihiko Iki ◽  
Takumi Ebara ◽  
Satoshi Sodeoka ◽  
...  

A series of operation tests of a ceramic micro gas turbine has been successfully carried out. The baseline machine is a small single-shaft turbojet engine (J-850, Sophia Precision Corp.) with a centrifugal compressor, an annular type combustor, and a radial turbine. As a first step, an Inconel 713C alloy turbine rotor of 55 mm in diameter was replaced with a ceramic rotor (SN-235, Kyocera Corporation). A running test was conducted at rotational speeds of up to 140,000 rpm in atmospheric air. At this rotor speed, the compression pressure ratio and the thrust were 3 and 100 N, respectively. The total energy level (enthalpy and kinetic energy) of the exhaust gas jet was 240 kW. If, for example, it is assumed that 10% of the total power of the exhaust jet gas was converted into electricity, the present system would correspond to a generator with 24 kW output power. The measured turbine outlet temperature was 950°C (1,740°F) and the turbine inlet temperature was estimated to be 1,280°C (2,340°F). Although the ceramic rotor showed no evidence of degradation, the Inconel nozzle immediately in front of the turbine rotor partially melted in this rotor condition. As a second step, the Inconel turbine nozzle and casing were replaced with ceramic parts (SN-01, Ohtsuka Ceramics Inc.). The ceramic nozzle and case were supported by metal parts. Through tests with the ceramic nozzle, it became evident that one of the key technologies for the development of ceramic gas turbines is the design of the interface between the ceramic components and the metallic components, because the difference between the coefficients of linear thermal expansion of the ceramic and metal produces large thermal stress at their interface in the high-temperature condition. A buffer material made of alumina fiber was therefore introduced at the interface between the ceramic and metal.


Author(s):  
Shinjan Ghosh ◽  
Jayanta S. Kapat

Abstract Gas Turbine blade cooling is an important topic of research, as a high turbine inlet temperature (TIT) essentially means an increase in efficiency of gas turbine cycles. Internal cooling channels in gas turbine blades are key to the cooling and prevention of thermal failure of the material. Serpentine channels are a common feature in internal blade cooling. Optimization methods are often employed in the design of blade internal cooling channels to improve heat-transfer and reduce pressure drop. Topology optimization uses a variable porosity approach to manipulate flow geometries by adding or removing material. Such a method has been employed in the current work to modify the geometric configuration of a serpentine channel to improve total heat transferred and reduce the pressure drop. An in-house OpenFOAM solver has been used to create non-traditional geometries from two generic designs. Geometry-1 is a 2-D serpentine passage with an inlet and 4 bleeding holes as outlets for ejection into the trailing edge. Geometry-2 is a 3-D serpentine passage with an aspect ratio of 3:1 and consists of two 180-degree bends. The inlet velocity for both the geometries was used as 20 m/s. The governing equations employ a “Brinkman porosity parameter” to account for the porous cells in the flow domain. Results have shown a change in shape of the channel walls to enhance heat-transfer in the passage. Additive manufacturing can be employed to make such unconventional shapes.


Author(s):  
A. Bonini ◽  
A. Andreini ◽  
C. Carcasci ◽  
B. Facchini ◽  
A. Ciani ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures, is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. This two part work presents a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer procedure developed in the framework of an internal research project of GE Oil & Gas. The procedure, applied to the first rotor blade of the MS5002E gas turbine, consists of a conjugate heat transfer analysis in which the internal cooling system was modeled by an in-house one dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution have been evaluated through 3D CFD and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D FEM solution. The first part of this work is focused on the description of the procedures in terms of set up of the equivalent fluid network model of internal cooling system and its tuning through experimental measurements of blade flow function. A first computation of blade metal temperature was obtained by coupling with CFD computations carried out on a de-featured geometry of the blade. Achieved results are compared with the data of a metallographic analysis performed on a blade operated on an actual engine. Some discrepancies are observed between datasets, suggesting the necessity to improve the models, mainly from the CFD side.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Burberi ◽  
D. Massini ◽  
L. Cocchi ◽  
L. Mazzei ◽  
A. Andreini ◽  
...  

Increasing turbine inlet temperature is one of the main strategies used to accomplish the demand for increased performance of modern gas turbines. Thus, optimization of the cooling system is becoming of paramount importance in gas turbine development. Leading edge (LE) represents a critical part of cooled nozzles and blades, given the presence of the hot gases stagnation point, and the unfavorable geometrical characteristics for cooling purposes. This paper reports the results of a numerical investigation, carried out to support a parallel experimental campaign, aimed at assessing the rotation effects on the internal heat transfer coefficient (HTC) distribution in a realistic LE cooling system of a high pressure blade. Experiments were performed in static and rotating conditions replicating a typical range of jet Reynolds number (10,000–40,000) and Rotation number (0–0.05). The experimental results consist of flowfield measurements on several internal planes and HTC distributions on the LE internal surface. Hybrid RANS–large eddy simulation (LES) models were exploited for the simulations, such as scale adaptive simulation and detached eddy simulation, given their ability to resolve the complex flowfield associated with jet impingement. Numerical flowfield results are reported in terms of both jet velocity profiles and 2D vector plots on two internal planes, while the HTC distributions are presented as detailed 2D maps together with averaged Nusselt number profiles. A fairly good agreement with experiments is observed, which represents a validation of the adopted modeling strategy, allowing an in-depth interpretation of the experimental results.


Author(s):  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Sin Chien Siw

The performance goal of modern gas turbine engines, both land-base and air-breathing engines, can be achieved by increasing the turbine inlet temperature (TIT). The level of TIT in the near future can reach as high as 1700 °C for utility turbines and over 1900 °C for advanced military engines. Advanced and innovative cooling techniques become one of the crucial major elements supporting the development of modern gas turbines, both land-based and air-breathing engines with continual increment of turbine inlet temperature (TIT) in order to meet higher energy demand and efficiency. This paper discusses state-of-the-art airfoil cooling techniques that are mainly applicable in the mainbody and trailing edge section of turbine airfoil. Potential internal cooling designs for near-term applications based on current manufacturing capabilities are identified. A literature survey focusing primarily on the past four to five years has also been performed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Winchler ◽  
Antonio Andreini ◽  
Bruno Facchini ◽  
Luca Andrei ◽  
Alessio Bonini ◽  
...  

Gas turbine design has been characterized over the years by a continuous increase of the maximum cycle temperature, justified by a corresponding increase of cycle efficiency and power output. In such way, turbine components heat load management has become a compulsory activity, and then, a reliable procedure to evaluate the blades and vanes metal temperatures is, nowadays, a crucial aspect for a safe components design. In the framework of the design and validation process of high pressure turbine cooled components of the BHGE NovaLTTM 16 gas turbine, a decoupled methodology for conjugate heat transfer prediction has been applied and validated against measurement data. The procedure consists of a conjugate heat transfer analysis in which the internal cooling system (for both airfoils and platforms) is modeled by an in-house one-dimensional thermo-fluid network solver, the external heat loads and pressure distribution are evaluated through 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and the heat conduction in the solid is carried out through a 3D finite element method (FEM) solution. Film cooling effect has been treated by means of a dedicated CFD analysis, implementing a source term approach. Predicted metal temperatures are finally compared with measurements from an extensive test campaign of the engine in order to validate the presented procedure.


Author(s):  
Norihiko Iki ◽  
Hirohide Furutani ◽  
Sanyo Takahashi

The mirror gas turbine proposed by Tsujikawa and Fujii extends the applications of turbo machinery. The characteristic component of a mirror gas turbine is a thermal generator, which is a kind of “inverted Brayton cycle”. The operating sequence of the thermal generator is reverse that of an ordinary gas turbine, namely, the hot working fluid is first expanded, and then cooled, compressed, and finally exhausted. In this work, we investigated the theoretical feasibility of inserting a thermal generator to a small reheat gas turbine of 30–100kW classes. Using process simulator software, we calculated and compared the thermal efficiency of this reheat gas turbine to that of a micro gas turbine under several conditions, turbine inlet temperature. This comparison showed that the performances of the both gas turbines are significantly influenced by the performance of the heat exchanger used for the recuperator. The efficiency of the micro gas turbine is also improved by using water injection into the compressor to cool the inlet gas. The resulting thermal efficiency of this reheat gas turbine is about 7% higher than that of a micro gas turbine with the same power unit.


Author(s):  
Valentina Zaccaria ◽  
Mario L. Ferrari ◽  
Konstantinos Kyprianidis

Abstract Micro gas turbine engines in the range of 1–100 kW are playing a key role in distributed generation applications, due to the high reliability and quick load following that favor their integration with intermittent renewable sources. Micro-CHP systems based on gas turbine technology are obtaining a higher share in the market and are aiming at reducing the costs and increasing energy conversion efficiency. An effective control of system operating parameters during the whole engine lifetime is essential to maintain desired performance and at the same time guarantee safe operations. Because of the necessity to reduce the costs, fewer sensors are usually available than in standard industrial gas turbines, limiting the choice of control parameters. This aspect is aggravated by engine aging and deterioration phenomena that change operating performance from the expected one. In this situation, a control architecture designed for healthy operations may not be adequate anymore, because the relationship between measured parameters and unmeasured variables (e.g. turbine inlet temperature or efficiency) varies depending on the level of engine deterioration. In this work, an adaptive control scheme is proposed to compensate the effects of engine degradation over the lifetime. Component degradation level is monitored by a diagnostic tool that estimates performance variations from available measurements; then, the information on the gas turbine health condition is used by an observer-based model predictive controller to maintain the machine in a safe range of operation and limit the reduction in system efficiency.


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