Experimental Study on Flow Behavior and Heat Transfer Enhancement with Distinct Dimpled Gas Turbine Blade Internal Cooling Channel

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Farah Nazifa Nourin ◽  
Ryoichi S. Amano

Abstract The study presents the investigation on heat transfer distribution along a gas turbine blade internal cooling channel. Six different cases were considered in this study, using the smooth surface channel as a baseline. Three different dimples depth-to-diameter ratios with 0.1, 0.25, and 0.50 were considered. Different combinations of partial spherical and leaf dimples were also studied with the Reynolds numbers of 6,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000. In addition to the experimental investigation, the numerical study was conducted using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to validate the data. It was found that the highest depth-to-diameter ratio showed the highest heat transfer rate. However, there is a penalty for increased pressure drop. The highest pressure drop affects the overall thermal performance of the cooling channel. The results showed that the leaf dimpled surface is the best cooling channel based on the highest Reynolds number's heat transfer enhancement and friction factor. However, at the lowest Reynolds number, partial spherical dimples with a 0.25 depth to diameter ratio showed the highest thermal performance.

Author(s):  
Shian Li ◽  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Bengt Sunden

Purpose – The employment of continuous ribs in a passage involves a noticeable pressure drop penalty, while other studies have shown that truncated ribs may provide a potential to reduce the pressure drop while keeping a significant heat transfer enhancement. The purpose of this paper is to perform computer-aided simulations of turbulent flow and heat transfer of a rectangular cooling passage with continuous or truncated 45-deg V-shaped ribs on opposite walls. Design/methodology/approach – Computational fluid dynamics technique is used to study the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in a three-dimensional rectangular passage with continuous and truncated V-shaped ribs. Findings – The inlet Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter, is ranged from 12,000 to 60,000 and a low-Re k-e model is selected for the turbulent computations. The local flow structure and heat transfer in the internal cooling passages are presented and the thermal performances of the ribbed passages are compared. It is found that the passage with truncated V-shaped ribs on opposite walls provides nearly equivalent heat transfer enhancement with a lower (about 17 percent at high Reynolds number of 60,000) pressure loss compared to a passage with continuous V-shaped ribs or continuous transversal ribs. Research limitations/implications – The fluid is incompressible with constant thermophysical properties and the flow is steady. The passage is stationary. Practical implications – New and additional data will be helpful in the design of ribbed passages to achieve a good thermal performance. Originality/value – The results imply that truncated V-shaped ribs are very effective in improving the thermal performance and thus are suggested to be applied in gas turbine blade internal cooling, especially at high velocity or Reynolds number.


2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Neil Jordan ◽  
Lesley M. Wright

An alternative to ribs for internal heat transfer enhancement of gas turbine airfoils is dimpled depressions. Relative to ribs, dimples incur a reduced pressure drop, which can increase the overall thermal performance of the channel. This experimental investigation measures detailed Nusselt number ratio distributions obtained from an array of V-shaped dimples (δ/D = 0.30). Although the V-shaped dimple array is derived from a traditional hemispherical dimple array, the V-shaped dimples are arranged in an in-line pattern. The resulting spacing of the V-shaped dimples is 3.2D in both the streamwise and spanwise directions. A single wide wall of a rectangular channel (AR = 3:1) is lined with V-shaped dimples. The channel Reynolds number ranges from 10,000–40,000. Detailed Nusselt number ratios are obtained using both a transient liquid crystal technique and a newly developed transient temperature sensitive paint (TSP) technique. Therefore, the TSP technique is not only validated against a baseline geometry (smooth channel), but it is also validated against a more established technique. Measurements indicate that the proposed V-shaped dimple design is a promising alternative to traditional ribs or hemispherical dimples. At lower Reynolds numbers, the V-shaped dimples display heat transfer and friction behavior similar to traditional dimples. However, as the Reynolds number increases to 30,000 and 40,000, secondary flows developed in the V-shaped concavities further enhance the heat transfer from the dimpled surface (similar to angled and V-shaped rib induced secondary flows). This additional enhancement is obtained with only a marginal increase in the pressure drop. Therefore, as the Reynolds number within the channel increases, the thermal performance also increases. While this trend has been confirmed with both the transient TSP and liquid crystal techniques, TSP is shown to have limited capabilities when acquiring highly resolved detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions.


Author(s):  
I-Lun Chen ◽  
Izzet Sahin ◽  
Lesley M. Wright ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Robert Krewinkel

Abstract The thermal performance of two V-type rib configurations is measured in a rotating, two-pass cooling channel. Modeling modern, high pressure, turbine blades, the cross-section of the cooling channel varies from the first pass to the second pass. The coolant travels radially outward in the rectangular first pass with an aspect ratio of 4:1. Near the tip region, the coolant turns 180°, and travels radially inward in a 2:1 rectangular channel. The serpentine passage is positioned such that both the first and second passes are oriented 90° to the direction of rotation. The leading and trailing surfaces of both the first and second pass of the channel are roughened with V-type rib turbulators. The thermal performance of two V-type configurations is measured in this two-pass channel. The first V-shaped configuration is similar to a traditional V-shaped turbulator with a narrow gap at the apex of the V. The configuration is modified by off-setting one leg of the V to create a staggered discrete, V-shaped configuration. The ribs are oriented 45° relative to the streamwise coolant direction. In both passes, the rib spacing is P/e = 10 and the rib height – to – channel height is e/H = 0.16. The heat transfer enhancement and frictional losses are measured for both rib configurations with varying Reynolds and rotation numbers. The Reynolds number varies from 10,000 to 45,000 in the AR = 4:1 first pass; this corresponds to 16,000 to 73,500 in the AR = 2:1 second pass. Considering the effect of rotation, the rotational speed of the channel varies from 0–400 rpm with maximum rotation numbers of 0.39 and 0.16 in the first and second passes, respectively. The heat transfer enhancement on both the leading and trailing surfaces of the first pass of the 45° V-shaped channel is slightly reduced with rotation. In the second pass, the heat transfer increases on the leading surface while it decreases on the trailing surface. The 45° staggered, discrete V-shaped ribs provide increased heat transfer and thermal performance compared to the traditional V-shaped and standard, 45° angled rib turbulators.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew F. Chen ◽  
Hao-Wei Wu ◽  
Nian Wang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

Experimental investigation on rotation and turning vane effects on heat transfer was performed in a two-pass rectangular internal cooling channel. The channel has an aspect ratio of AR = 2:1 and a 180 deg tip-turn, which is a scaled up model of a typical internal cooling passage of gas turbine airfoils. The leading surface (LS) and trailing surface (TS) are roughened with 45 deg angled parallel ribs (staggered P/e = 8, e/Dh = 0.1). Tests were performed in a pressurized vessel (570 kPa) where higher rotation numbers (Ro) can be achieved with a maximum Ro = 0.42. Five Reynolds numbers (Re) were examined (Re = 10,000–40,000). At each Reynolds number, five rotational speeds (Ω = 0–400 rpm) were considered. Results showed that rotation effects are stronger in the tip regions as compared to other surfaces. Heat transfer enhancement up to four times was observed on the tip wall at the highest rotation number. However, heat transfer enhancement is reduced to about 1.5 times with the presence of a tip turning vane at the highest rotation number. Generally, the tip turning vane reduces the effects of rotation, especially in the turn portion.


Author(s):  
D. J. Stankiewicz ◽  
T. R. Kirkham

A technique of heat transfer enhancement is investigated whereby the internal span-wise cooling passages of a typical first stage gas turbine blade are modified by the introduction of circumferential ribs. The technique is verified by the use of a test rig incorporating a heated internally ribbed tube operating at the same range of Mach and Reynolds numbers as the turbine blade as well as by a test rig incorporating actual production blades immersed in a heated oil bath.


Author(s):  
Izzet Sahin ◽  
Andrew F. Chen ◽  
Chao-Cheng Shiau ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Robert Krewinkel

Abstract The internal cooling passages of gas turbine blades mostly have varying aspect ratios from one passage to another. However, there are limited data available in the open literature that used a reduced cross-section and aspect ratio, AR, after the tip turn. Therefore, the current study presents heat transfer and pressure drop of three different α = 45° profiled rib orientations, typical parallel (usual), reversed parallel (unusual), and criss-cross patterns in a rotating two-pass rectangular channel with AR = 4:1 and 2:1 in the first radially outward flow and second radially inward flow passages respectively. For each rib orientation, regional averaged heat transfer results are obtained for both the flow passages with the Reynolds number ranging from 10,000 to 70,000 for the first passage and 16000 to 114000 for the second passage with a rotational speed range of 0 rpm to 400 rpm. This results in the highest rotation number of 0.39 and 0.16 for the first and second passage respectively. The effects of rib orientation, aspect ratio variation, 180° tip turn, and rotation number on the heat transfer and pressure drop will be addressed. According to the results, for usual, unusual and criss-cross rib patterns, increasing rotation number causes the heat transfer to decrease on the leading surface and increase on the trailing surface for the first passage and vice versa for the second passage. Overall heat transfer enhancement of the usual and unusual rib patterns is higher than criss-cross one. In terms of the pressure losses, the criss-cross rib pattern has the lowest and the usual rib pattern has the highest-pressure loss coefficients. When pressure loss and heat transfer enhancement are both taken into account together, the criss-cross or unusual rib pattern might be an option to use in the internal cooling method. Therefore, the results can be useful for turbine blade internal cooling design and heat transfer analysis.


Author(s):  
Emad Y. Tanbour ◽  
Ramin K. Rahmani

Enhancement of the natural and forced convection heat transfer has been the subject of numerous academic and industrial studies. Air blenders, mechanical agitators, and static mixers have been developed to increase the forced convection heat transfer rate in compressible and incompressible flows. Stationary inserts can be efficiently employed as heat transfer enhancement devices in the natural convection systems. Generally, a stationary heat transfer enhancement insert consists of a number of equal motionless segments, placed inside of a pipe in order to control flowing fluid streams. These devices have low maintenance and operating costs, low space requirements and no moving parts. A range of designs exists for a wide range of specific applications. The shape of the elements determines the character of the fluid motion and thus determines thermal effectiveness of the insert. There are several key parameters that may be considered in the design procedure of a heat transfer enhancement insert, which lead to significant differences in the performance of various designs. An ideal insert, for natural conventional heat transfer in compressible flow applications, provides a higher rate of heat transfer and a thermally homogenous fluid with minimized pressure drop and required space. To choose an insert for a given application or in order to design a new insert, besides experimentation, it is possible to use Computational Fluid Dynamics to study the insert performance. This paper presents the outcomes of the numerical studies on industrial stationary heat transfer enhancement inserts and illustrates how a heat transfer enhancement insert can improve the heat transfer in buoyancy driven compressible flows. Using different measuring tools, thermal performance of two different inserts (twisted and helix) are studied. It is shown that the helix design leads to a higher rate of heat transfer, while causes a lower pressure drop in the flowfield, suggesting the insert effectiveness is higher for the helix design, compared to a twisted plate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Luo ◽  
Zhiqi Zhao ◽  
Xiaoxu Kan ◽  
Dandan Qiu ◽  
Songtao Wang ◽  
...  

This paper numerically investigated the impact of the holes and their location on the flow and tip internal heat transfer in a U-bend channel (aspect ratio = 1:2), which is applicable to the cooling passage with dirt purge holes in the mid-chord region of a typical gas turbine blade. Six different tip ejection configurations are calculated at Reynolds numbers from 25,000 to 200,000. The detailed three-dimensional flow and heat transfer over the tip wall are presented, and the overall thermal performances are evaluated. The topological methodology, which is first applied to the flow analysis in an internal cooling passage of the blade, is used to explore the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement on the tip wall. This study concludes that the production of the counter-rotating vortex pair in the bend region provides a strong shear force and then increases the local heat transfer. The side-mounted single hole and center-mounted double holes can further enhance tip heat transfer, which is attributed to the enhanced shear effect and disturbed low-energy fluid. The overall thermal performance of the optimum hole location is a factor of 1.13 higher than that of the smooth tip. However, if double holes are placed on the upstream of a tip wall, the tip surface cannot be well protected. The results of this study are useful for understanding the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement in a realistic gas turbine blade and for efficient designing of blade tips for engine service.


Author(s):  
Jibing Lan ◽  
Yonghui Xie ◽  
Di Zhang

Rib turbulators can enhance the heat transfer successfully, but in most cases this is associated with large pressure loss penalties. Recently, dimple techniques become an attractive method for gas turbine blade internal cooling because dimples enhance heat transfer with low pressure penalty. In the present paper, a compound heat transfer enhancement technique, heat transfer enhancement in rectangular channel (Aspect ratio = 4) with the combination of ribs, dimples and protrusions, are investigated. The calculations are conducted on five different channel configurations. Case 1 which is the baseline configuration is a rectangular channel with rectangular ribs (e/Dh = 0.078, P/e = 10). In case 2, one row of dimples are placed between two ribs. In case 3, instead of dimples, one row of protrusions are placed between two ribs. In case 4, three rows of dimples are place between two ribs. Case 5 places three rows of protrusions between two ribs instead of dimples. The present paper focuses on Reynolds numbers (based on the channel hydraulic diameter) ranging from 10000 to 60000. In all configurations, the non-dimensional dimple/protrusion depths are 0.2. The results show that the rib+dimple cases provide minor increase in Nu/Nu0, f/f0 and thermal performance. Within the Reynolds number range studied, the Nu/Nu0 values of the three row rib+protrusion case is 17% ∼ 7% higher than that of the baseline case, and the decrease in f/f0 is about 10%. The thermal performance of the three row rib+protrusion case is about 16% higher than that of the baseline case. The Nu/Nu0 values of the one row rib+protrusion case is about 9% higher than that of the baseline case, and the decrease in f/f0 is about 12%. The thermal performance of the one row rib+protrusion case is about 14% higher than that of the baseline case. It can be concluded that rib+protrusion technique in rectangular channel has the potential to provide heat transfer enhancement with low pressure penalty.


Author(s):  
Metapun Nuntakulamarat ◽  
Chao-Cheng Shiau ◽  
Je-Chin Han

Abstract This paper focuses on the measurements of heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop of different pin or fin configurations in a high aspect ratio (AR = 9.57/1.2) channel. Two different pin-fin shapes including circular pins and strip fins were studied. Different pin-fin spacings for circular pins (S/D = 2, 4) and strip fins (S/W = 8, 16) were investigated, respectively. In addition, the thickness effect of the strip fin was included in this study. The regionally averaged heat transfer measurement method was used to acquire the heat transfer coefficients on two opposite featured surfaces within the test channel. For each configuration, the tested Reynolds number was ranging from 20,000 to 80,000. The results indicate that the channel with circular pins has better heat transfer enhancement and higher pressure loss than their strip fins counterparts. However, the strip fins are considered better designs in terms of thermal performance. For the gas turbine designers aim at developing an improved internal cooling feature, this work demonstrates the great potential of the strip fins as a novel and effective cooling design compared with the conventional circular pins.


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