Vaporization Cooling for Gas Turbines, the Return-Flow Cascade

1999 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Kerrebrock ◽  
D. B. Stickler

A new paradigm for gas turbine design is treated, in which major elements of the hot section flow path are cooled by vaporization of a suitable two-phase coolant. This enables the blades to be maintained at nearly uniform temperature without detailed knowledge of the heat flux to the blades, and makes operation feasible at higher combustion temperatures using a wider range of materials than is possible in conventional gas turbines with air cooling. The new enabling technology for such cooling is the return-flow cascade, which extends to the rotating blades the heat flux capability and self-regulation usually associated with heat-pipe technology. In this paper the potential characteristics of gas turbines that use vaporization cooling are outlined briefly, but the principal emphasis is on the concept of the return-flow cascade. The concept is described and its characteristics are outlined. Experimental results are presented that confirm its conceptual validity and demonstrate its capability for blade cooling at heat fluxes representative of those required for high pressure ratio high temperature gas turbines. [S0742-4795(00)00601-3]

Author(s):  
Jack L. Kerrebrock ◽  
David B. Stickler

A new paradigm for gas turbine design is treated, in which major elements of the hot section flow path are cooled by vaporization of a suitable two-phase coolant. This enables the blades to be maintained at nearly uniform temperature without detailed knowledge of the heat flux to the blades, and makes operation feasible at higher combustion temperatures using a wider range of materials than is possible in conventional gas turbines with air cooling. The new enabling technology for such cooling is the Return-Flow Cascade, which extends to the rotating blades the heat flux capability and self-regulation usually associated with heat-pipe technology. In this paper the potential characteristics of gas turbines that use vaporization cooling are outlined briefly, but the principal emphasis is on the concept of the Return-Flow Cascade. The concept is described and its characteristics are outlined. Experimental results are presented that confirm its conceptual validity and demonstrate its capability for blade cooling at heat fluxes representative of those required for high pressure ratio high temperature gas turbines.


Fluids ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Heinrich ◽  
Guido Kuenne ◽  
Sebastian Ganter ◽  
Christian Hasse ◽  
Johannes Janicka

Combustion will play a major part in fulfilling the world’s energy demand in the next 20 years. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the fundamentals of the flame–wall interaction (FWI), which takes place in internal combustion engines or gas turbines. The FWI can increase heat losses, increase pollutant formations and lowers efficiencies. In this work, a Large Eddy Simulation combined with a tabulated chemistry approach is used to investigate the transient near wall behavior of a turbulent premixed stoichiometric methane flame. This sidewall quenching configuration is based on an experimental burner with non-homogeneous turbulence and an actively cooled wall. The burner was used in a previous study for validation purposes. The transient behavior of the movement of the flame tip is analyzed by categorizing it into three different scenarios: an upstream, a downstream and a jump-like upstream movement. The distributions of the wall heat flux, the quenching distance or the detachment of the maximum heat flux and the quenching point are strongly dependent on this movement. The highest heat fluxes appear mostly at the jump-like movement because the flame behaves locally like a head-on quenching flame.


Author(s):  
Farzad Houshmand ◽  
Hyoungsoon Lee ◽  
Mehdi Asheghi ◽  
Kenneth E. Goodson

As the proper cooling of the electronic devices leads to significant increase in the performance, two-phase heat transfer to dielectric liquids can be of an interest especially for thermal management solutions for high power density devices with extremely high heat fluxes. In this paper, the pressure drop and critical heat flux (CHF) for subcooled flow boiling of methanol at high heat fluxes exceeding 1 kW/cm2 is investigated. Methanol was propelled into microtubes (ID = 265 and 150 μm) at flow rates up to 40 ml/min (mass fluxes approaching 10000 kg/m2-s), boiled in a portion of the microtube by passing DC current through the walls, and the two-phase pressure drop and CHF were measured for a range of operating parameters. The two-phase pressure drop for subcooled flow boiling was found to be significantly lower than the saturated flow boiling case, which can lead to lower pumping powers and more stability in the cooling systems. CHF was found to be increasing almost linearly with Re and inverse of inner diameter (1/ID), while for a given inner diameter, it decreases with increasing heated length.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 646-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. S. Zhao ◽  
Q. Liao ◽  
P. Cheng

This paper presents an experimental study of a buoyancy-induced flow of water with phase-change heat transfer in a vertical porous tube heated at a constant heat flux. Experiments were carried out from subcooled liquid flow to connective boiling by varying the imposed heat fluxes. At a prescribed heat flux the steady-state mass flux of water, as well as the temperatures along the tube wall and along the centerline of the packed tube, were measured. It is shown that for both single-phase flow and the two-phase flow with a rather low vapor fraction, the induced mass flux increased as the heat flux was increased. However, as the imposed heat flux was increased further, the induced mass flux dropped drastically, and remained relatively constant afterwards. The influences of various parameters such as the porous tube diameter, the particle sizes, and the hydrostatic head on the induced mass flux are also examined.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Girard ◽  
Seung M. You ◽  
Suresh V. Garimella

Flow boiling was investigated on a hydrophobic surface by coating Teflon® onto a 1×1 cm2 copper surface, resulting in contact angle of 118°. The images depicted were taken using distilled water flowing at 299 kg/m2s with 3°C subcooling. In the first series, the number of active nucleation sites increased as heat flux increased. For lower values of heat flux (< 80 kW/m2), vapor bubbles remained almost stationary on the surface. The hydrophobic contact angle makes the horizontal component of surface tension force act radially outward, causing the bubble interface to grow. This leads to increased triple contact line and increased vertical component surface force. The buoyancy force due to the vapor bubble volume appears to be insufficient to overcome this vertical force for liftoff. This explains the stationary bubbles observed at the lower heat fluxes. The bubbles show an increase in size and number with heat flux. After this increasing trend, the bubble continues to grow larger when heat flux is higher than 80 kW/m2, eventually leading to the dryout at 117.5 kW/m2. The later bubble growth at high heat fluxes is caused primarily by the coalescences of neighboring bubbles. These larger bubbles are more affected by flow induced drag forces and move downstream. This can be seen in the lower sequential series at 100 kW/m2. The larger vapor masses slide across the surface, continue to absorb smaller bubbles as they move downstream, and are swept off the surface.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. El-Masri

Reheat gas turbines have fundamental thermodynamic advantages in combined cycles. However, a larger proportion of the turbine expansion path is exposed to elevated temperatures, leading to increased cooling losses. Identifying cooling technologies which minimize those losses is crucial to realizing the full potential of reheat cycles. The strong role played by cooling losses in reheat cycles necessitates their inclusion in cycle optimization. To this end, the models for the thermodynamics of combined cycles and cooled turbines presented in Parts 1 and 2 of this paper have been extended where needed and applied to the analysis of a wide variety of cycles. The cooling methods considered range from established air-cooling technology to methods under current research and development such as air-transpiration, open-loop, and closed-loop water cooling. Two schemes thought worthy of longer-term consideration are also assessed. These are two-phase transpiration cooling and the regenerative thermosyphon. A variety of configurations are examined, ranging from Brayton-cycles to one or two-turbine reheats, with or without compressor intercooling. Both surface intercoolers and evaporative water-spray types are considered. The most attractive cycle configurations as well as the optimum pressure ratio and peak temperature are found to vary significantly with types of cooling technology. Based upon the results of the model, it appears that internal closed-loop liquid cooling offers the greatest potential for midterm development. Hybrid systems with internally liquid-cooled nozzles and traditional air-cooled rotors seem most attractive for the near term. These could be further improved by using steam rather than air for cooling the rotor.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Fukuizumi ◽  
J. Masada ◽  
V. Kallianpur ◽  
Y. Iwasaki

Mitsubishi completed design development and verification load testing of a steam-cooled M501H gas turbine at a combined cycle power plant at Takasago, Japan in 2001. Several advanced technologies were specifically developed in addition to the steam-cooled components consisting of the combustor, turbine blades, vanes, and the rotor. Some of the other key technologies consisted of an advanced compressor with a pressure ratio of 25:1, active clearance control, and advanced seal technology. Prior to the M501H, Mitsubishi introduced cooling-steam in “G series” gas turbines in 1997 to cool combustor liners. Recently, some of the advanced design technologies from the M501H gas turbine were applied to the G series gas turbine resulting in significant improvement in output and thermal efficiency. A noteworthy aspect of the technology transfer is that the upgraded G series M701G2 gas turbine has an almost equivalent output and thermal efficiency as H class gas turbines while continuing to rely on conventional air cooling of turbine blades and vanes, and time-proven materials from industrial gas turbine experience. In this paper we describe the key design features of the M701G2 gas turbine that make this possible such as the advanced 21:1 compressor with 14 stages, an advanced premix DLN combustor, etc., as well as shop load test results that were completed in 2002 at Mitsubishi’s in-house facility.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Green ◽  
Peter Kottke ◽  
Xuefei Han ◽  
Casey Woodrum ◽  
Thomas Sarvey ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional (3D) stacked electronics present significant advantages from an electrical design perspective, ranging from shorter interconnect lengths to enabling heterogeneous integration. However, multitier stacking exacerbates an already difficult thermal problem. Localized hotspots within individual tiers can provide an additional challenge when the high heat flux region is buried within the stack. Numerous investigations have been launched in the previous decade seeking to develop cooling solutions that can be integrated within the 3D stack, allowing the cooling to scale with the number of tiers in the system. Two-phase cooling is of particular interest, because the associated reduced flow rates may allow reduction in pumping power, and the saturated temperature condition of the coolant may offer enhanced device temperature uniformity. This paper presents a review of the advances in two-phase forced cooling in the past decade, with a focus on the challenges of integrating the technology in high heat flux 3D systems. A holistic approach is applied, considering not only the thermal performance of standalone cooling strategies but also coolant selection, fluidic routing, packaging, and system reliability. Finally, a cohesive approach to thermal design of an evaporative cooling based heat sink developed by the authors is presented, taking into account all of the integration considerations discussed previously. The thermal design seeks to achieve the dissipation of very large (in excess of 500 W/cm2) background heat fluxes over a large 1 cm × 1 cm chip area, as well as extreme (in excess of 2 kW/cm2) hotspot heat fluxes over small 200 μm × 200 μm areas, employing a hybrid design strategy that combines a micropin–fin heat sink for background cooling as well as localized, ultrathin microgaps for hotspot cooling.


1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Wolf ◽  
S. Moskowitz

Studies of combined cycle electic power plants have shown that increasing the firing temperature and pressure ratio of the gas turbine can substantially improve the specific power output of the gas turbine as well as the combined cycle plant efficiency. Clearly this is a direction in which we can proceed to conserve the world’s dwindling petroleum fuel supplies. Furthermore, tomorrow’s gas turbines must do more than operate at higher temperature; they will likely face an aggressive hot gas stream created by the combustion of heavier oils or coal-derived liquid or gaseous fuels. Extensive tests have been performed on two rotating turbine rigs, each with a transpiration air cooled turbine operating in the 2600 to 3000°F (1427 to 1649°C) temperature range at increasing levels of gas stream particulates and alkali metal salts to simulate operation on coal-derived fuel. Transpiration air cooling was shown to be effective in maintaining acceptable metal temperatures, and there was no evidence of corrosion, erosion, or deposition. The rate of transpiration skin cooling flow capacity exhibited a minor loss in the initial exposure to the particulate laden gas stream of less than 100 hours, but the flow reduction was commensurate with that produced by normal oxidation of the skin material at the operating temperatures of 1350°F (732°C). The data on skin permeability loss from both cascade and engine tests compared favorably with laboratory furnace oxidation skin specimens. To date, over 10,000 hr of furnace exposure has been conducted. Extrapolation of the data to 50,000 hr indicates the flow capacity loss would produce an acceptable 50°F (10°C) increase in skin operating temperature.


2016 ◽  
Vol 366 ◽  
pp. 151-156
Author(s):  
Bei Chen Zhang ◽  
Qing Lian Li ◽  
Yuan Wang ◽  
Jian Qiang Zhang

Two-phase pressure drop fluctuations during flow boiling in a single mini-channel were experimentally investigated. Degassed water was tested in circular cross section mini-channels with the hydraulic diameter of 1.0 mm at liquid mass fluxes range of 21.19-84.77 kg m-2 s-1 and heat fluxes of 0~155.75 kW m-2. Effects of heat flux and mass flux on pressure drop fluctuations were discussed based on the time and frequency domain analysis of the measured pressure drop. Two types of fluctuations were identified, which are the incipient boiling fluctuation (IBF) and the explosive boiling fluctuation (EBF) respectively. The IBF is a low frequency low amplitude fluctuation, which relates to the bubble dynamics when incipient boiling occurs. It is sensitive to the thermal and flow conditions. With the increase of heat flux and mass flux, the IBF is suppressed. The EBF is a low frequency high amplitude fluctuation, which occurs near the critical heat flux.


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