Simulations of Multi-Phase Particle Deposition on Endwall Film-Cooling Holes in Transverse Trenches

Author(s):  
Seth A. Lawson ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants allow for increased efficiency and reduced emissions as compared to pulverized coal plants. A concern with IGCCs is that impurities in the fuel from the gasification of coal can deposit on turbine components reducing the performance of sophisticated film-cooling geometries. Studies have shown that recessing a row of film-cooling holes in a transverse trench can improve cooling performance; however, the question remains as to whether or not these improvements exist in severe environments such as when particle deposition occurs. Dynamic simulations of deposition were completed using wax injection in a large-scale vane cascade with endwall film-cooling. Endwall cooling effectiveness was quantified in two specific endwall locations using trenches with depths of 0.4D, 0.8D, and 1.2D, where D is the diameter of a film-cooling hole. The effects of trench depth, momentum flux ratio, and particle phase on adiabatic effectiveness were quantified using infrared thermography. Results showed that the 0.8D trench outperformed other geometries with and without deposition on the surface. Deposition of particles reduced the cooling effectiveness by as much as 15% at I = 0.23 with the trenched holes as compared to 30% for holes that were not placed in a transverse trench.

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth A. Lawson ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants allow for increased efficiency and reduced emissions as compared to pulverized coal plants. A concern with IGCCs is that impurities in the fuel from the gasification of coal can deposit on turbine components reducing the performance of sophisticated film-cooling geometries. Studies have shown that recessing a row of film-cooling holes in a transverse trench can improve cooling performance; however, the question remains as to whether or not these improvements exist in severe environments such as when particle deposition occurs. Dynamic simulations of deposition were completed using wax injection in a large-scale vane cascade with endwall film cooling. Endwall cooling effectiveness was quantified in two specific endwall locations using trenches with depths of 0.4D, 0.8D, and 1.2D, where D is the diameter of a film-cooling hole. The effects of trench depth, momentum flux ratio, and particle phase on adiabatic effectiveness were quantified using infrared thermography. Results showed that the 0.8D trench outperformed other geometries with and without deposition on the surface. Deposition of particles reduced the cooling effectiveness by as much as 15% at I = 0.23 with the trenched holes as compared to 30% for holes that were not placed in a transverse trench.


Author(s):  
S. A. Lawson ◽  
K. A. Thole

Diminishing natural gas resources has increased incentive to develop cleaner, more efficient combined cycle power plants capable of burning alternative fuels such as coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas). Although syngas is typically filtered, particulate matter still exists in the hot gas path that has proven to be detrimental to the life of turbine components. Solid and molten particles deposit on film cooled surfaces that can alter cooling dynamics and block cooling holes. To gain an understanding of the effects that particle deposits have on film cooling, a methodology was developed to simulate deposition in a low speed wind tunnel using a low melt wax, which can simulate solid and molten phases. A facility was constructed to simulate particle deposition on a flat plate with a row of film cooling holes. Infrared thermography was used to measure wall temperatures for quantifying spatially resolved adiabatic effectiveness values in the vicinity of the film cooling holes as deposition occurred. Results showed that deposition reduced cooling effectiveness by approximately 20% at momentum flux ratios of 0.23 and 0.5 and only 6% at a momentum flux ratio of 0.95.


2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Lawson ◽  
K. A. Thole

Diminishing natural gas resources has increased incentive to develop cleaner, more efficient combined-cycle power plants capable of burning alternative fuels such as coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas). Although syngas is typically filtered, particulate matter still exists in the hot gas path that has proven to be detrimental to the life of turbine components. Solid and molten particles deposit on film-cooled surfaces that can alter cooling dynamics and block cooling holes. To gain an understanding of the effects that particle deposits have on film cooling, a methodology was developed to simulate deposition in a low speed wind tunnel using a low melt wax, which can simulate solid and molten phases. A facility was constructed to simulate particle deposition on a flat plate with a row of film cooling holes. Infrared thermography was used to measure wall temperatures for quantifying spatially resolved adiabatic effectiveness values in the vicinity of the film cooling holes as deposition occurred. Results showed that deposition reduced cooling effectiveness by approximately 20% at momentum flux ratios of 0.23 and 0.5 and only 6% at a momentum flux ratio of 0.95.


2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth A. Lawson ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Demand for clean energy has increased motivation to design gas turbines capable of burning alternative fuels such as coal derived synthesis gas (syngas). One challenge associated with burning coal derived syngas is that trace amounts of particulate matter in the fuel and air can deposit on turbine hardware reducing the effectiveness of film-cooling. For the current study, a method was developed to dynamically simulate multiphase particle deposition through injection of a low melting temperature wax. The method was developed so the effects of deposition on endwall film-cooling could be quantified using a large scale vane cascade in a low speed wind tunnel. A microcrystalline wax was injected into the mainstream flow using atomizing spray nozzles to simulate both solid and molten particulate matter in a turbine gas path. Infrared thermography was used to quantify cooling effectiveness with and without deposition at various locations on a film-cooled endwall. Measured results indicated reductions in adiabatic effectiveness by as much as 30% whereby the reduction was highly dependent on the location of the film-cooling holes relative to the vane.


Author(s):  
Seth A. Lawson ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Demand for clean energy has increased motivation to design gas turbines capable of burning alternative fuels such as coal derived synthesis gas (syngas). One challenge associated with burning coal derived syngas is that trace amounts of particulate matter in the fuel and air can deposit on turbine hardware reducing the effectiveness of film cooling. For the current study, a method was developed to dynamically simulate multi-phase particle deposition through injection of a low melting temperature wax. The method was developed so the effects of deposition on endwall film cooling could be quantified using a large scale vane cascade in a low speed wind tunnel. A microcrystalline wax was injected into the mainstream flow using atomizing spray nozzles to simulate both solid and molten particulate matter in a turbine gas path. Infrared thermography was used to quantify cooling effectiveness with and without deposition at various locations on a film cooled endwall. Measured results indicated reductions in adiabatic effectiveness by as much as 30% whereby the reduction was highly dependent upon the location of the film-cooling holes relative to the vane.


Author(s):  
Seth A. Lawson ◽  
Stephen P. Lynch ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Designing turbine components for maximum aerodynamic performance with adequate cooling is a critical challenge for gas turbine engineers, particularly at the endwall of a turbine due to complex secondary flows. To complicate matters, impurities from the fuel and intake air can deposit on film-cooled components downstream of the combustor. Deposition induced roughness can reduce cooling effectiveness and aerodynamic performance dramatically. One method commonly used for reducing the effects of secondary flows on aerodynamic performance is endwall contouring. The current study evaluates deposition effects on endwall contouring given the change to the secondary flow pattern. For the current study, deposition was dynamically simulated in a turbine cascade to determine its effects on film-cooling with and without endwall contouring. Computationally predicted impactions were in qualitative agreement with experimental deposition simulations showing that contouring reduced deposition around strategically placed film-cooling holes. Deposition reduced cooling effectiveness by 50% on a flat endwall and 40% on an identically cooled contoured endwall. Although 40% is still a dramatic reduction in effectiveness, the method of using the endwall contouring to alter deposition effects shows promise.


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

The combined effects of inlet purge flow and the slashface leakage flow on the film cooling effectiveness of a turbine blade platform were studied using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on the endwall were obtained and analyzed. The inlet purge flow was generated by a row of equally-spaced cylindrical injection holes inside a single-tooth generic stator-rotor seal. In addition to the traditional 90 degree (radial outward) injection for the inlet purge flow, injection at a 45 degree angle was adopted to create a circumferential/azimuthal velocity component toward the suction side of the blades, which created a swirl ratio (SR) of 0.6. Discrete cylindrical film cooling holes were arranged to achieve an improved coverage on the endwall. Backward injection was attempted by placing backward injection holes near the pressure side leading edge portion. Slashface leakage flow was simulated by equally-spaced cylindrical injection holes inside a slot. Experiments were done in a five-blade linear cascade with an average turbulence intensity of 10.5%. The inlet and exit Mach numbers were 0.26 and 0.43, respectively. The inlet and exit mainstream Reynolds numbers based on the axial chord length of the blade were 475,000 and 720,000, respectively. The coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratios (MFR) were varied from 0.5%, 0.75%, to 1% for the inlet purge flow. For the endwall film cooling holes and slashface leakage flow, blowing ratios (M) of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 were examined. Coolant-to-mainstream density ratios (DR) that range from 1.0 (close to low temperature experiments) to 1.5 (intermediate DR) and 2.0 (close to engine conditions) were also examined. The results provide the gas turbine engine designers a better insight into improved film cooling hole configurations as well as various parametric effects on endwall film cooling when the inlet (swirl) purge flow and slashface leakage flow were incorporated.


Author(s):  
R.-D. Baier ◽  
W. Koschel ◽  
K.-D. Broichhausen ◽  
G. Fritsch

The design of discrete film cooling holes for gas turbine airfoil applications is governed by a number of parameters influencing both their aerodynamic and thermal behaviour. This numerical and experimental study focuses on the marked differences between film cooling holes with combined streamwise and lateral inclination and film cooling holes with streamwise inclination only. The variation in the blowing angle was chosen on a newly defined and physically motivated basis. High resolution low speed experiments on a large scale turbine airfoil gave insights particularly into the intensified mixing process with lateral ejection. The extensive computational study is performed with the aid of a 3D block-structured Navier-Stokes solver incorporating a low-Reynolds-number k-ε turbulence model. Special attention is paid to mesh generation as a precondition for accurate high-resolution results. The downstream temperature fields of the jets show reduced spanwise variations with increasing lateral blowing angle; these variations are quantified for a comprehensive variety of configurations in terms of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness.


Author(s):  
N. Sundaram ◽  
K. A. Thole

With the increase in usage of gas turbines for power generation and given that natural gas resources continue to be depleted, it has become increasingly important to search for alternate fuels. One source of alternate fuels is coal derived synthetic fuels. Coal derived fuels, however, contain traces of ash and other contaminants that can deposit on vane and turbine surfaces affecting their heat transfer through reduced film-cooling. The endwall of a first stage vane is one such region that can be susceptible to depositions from these contaminants. This study uses a large-scale turbine vane cascade in which the following effects on film-cooling adiabatic effectiveness were investigated in the endwall region: the effect of near-hole deposition, the effect of partial film-cooling hole blockage, and the effect of spallation of a thermal barrier coating. The results indicated that deposits near the hole exit can sometimes improve the cooling effectiveness at the leading edge, but with increased deposition heights the cooling deteriorates. Partial hole blockage studies revealed that the cooling effectiveness deteriorates with increases in the number of blocked holes. Spallation studies showed that for a spalled endwall surface downstream of the leading edge cooling row, cooling effectiveness worsened with an increase in blowing ratio.


Author(s):  
Alok Dhungel ◽  
Yiping Lu ◽  
Wynn Phillips ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad ◽  
James Heidmann

The primary focus of this paper is to study the film cooling performance for a row of cylindrical holes each supplemented with two symmetrical anti vortex holes which branch out from the main holes. The anti-vortex design was originally developed at NASA-Glenn Research Center by Dr. James Heidmann, co-author of this paper. This “anti-vortex” design is unique in that it requires only easily machinable round holes, unlike shaped film cooling holes and other advanced concepts. The hole design is intended to counteract the detrimental vorticity associated with standard circular cross-section film cooling holes. The geometry and orientation of the anti vortex holes greatly affect the cooling performance downstream, which is thoroughly investigated. By performing experiments at a single mainstream Reynolds number of 9683 based on the free stream velocity and film hole diameter at four different coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratio of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and using the transient IR thermography technique, detailed film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients are obtained simultaneously from a single test. When the anti vortex holes are nearer to the primary film cooling holes and are developing from the base of the primary holes, better film cooling is accomplished as compared to other anti vortex hole orientations. When the anti vortex holes are laid back in the upstream region, film cooling diminishes considerably. Although an enhancement in heat transfer coefficient is seen in cases with high film cooling effectiveness, the overall heat flux ratio as compared to standard cylindrical holes is much lower. Thus cases with anti vortex holes placed near the main holes certainly show promising results.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document