Design and Test of a Highly Loaded Single-Stage High Pressure Turbine

Author(s):  
T. Wolf ◽  
E. Janke ◽  
R. Benton ◽  
F. Kost ◽  
F. Haselbach ◽  
...  

For the small to medium thrust range of modern aero engines, highly loaded single-stage HP turbines facilitate an attractive alternative to a more conventional 2-stage HPT architecture. Within the German government funded LUFO-3 programme “Transonic Single Stage High-Pressure Turbine”, a substantial activity towards the development and test of supersonic aerodynamic technology for single stage turbines was launched in 2003. This paper describes fundamental aerodynamic concept studies and related cascade experiments in support of a future highly loaded high-pressure turbine architecture. Details of the first out of two builds featuring an engine representative single-stage HPT is described in detail. Focus will be on instrumentation design, selected results from performance, area traverse and unsteady blade surface pressure measurements and the comparison of experiments with numerical simulations. The successfully completed test campaign confirms the existence of an aerodynamically efficient design of a highly loaded HPT, thereby enabling a competitive building block for a small to medium size engine concept.

Author(s):  
T. Wolf ◽  
F. Kost ◽  
E. Janke ◽  
F. Haselbach ◽  
L. Willer

For the small to medium thrust range of modern aero engines, highly loaded single stage HP turbines facilitate an attractive alternative to a more conventional 2-stage HPT architecture. Whereas the potential benefits of reductions in component length and part count, hence, in weight and cost do motivate their application, the related risks are in maintaining associated losses of supersonic flows at low values as well as managing the interaction losses between HPT and the downstream sub-component to arrive at competitive levels of component efficiencies. This paper focuses on fundamental aerodynamic concept studies and related cascade experiments in support of a future highly loaded high-pressure turbine architecture. Starting with some general remarks on low-loss supersonic aerodynamic concepts for high-pressure turbines, results from development efforts towards 2D airfoil concepts viable for high-pressure turbine airfoils are shown. In particular, CFD based design approaches are compared against experimental data taken at DLR Go¨ttingen in un-cooled cascade tests and at engine representative levels of Mach and Reynolds numbers. For the airfoils investigated, it turns out that there is indeed a supersonic Mach number range were loss levels are comparable to high Mach number subsonic values, thereby enabling a competitive aerodynamic design concept for a 3D high-pressure turbine stage.


Author(s):  
Richard Celestina ◽  
Spencer Sperling ◽  
Louis Christensen ◽  
Randall Mathison ◽  
Hakan Aksoy ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents the development and implementation of a new generation of double-sided heat-flux gauges at The Ohio State University Gas Turbine Laboratory (GTL) along with heat transfer measurements for film-cooled airfoils in a single-stage high-pressure transonic turbine operating at design corrected conditions. Double-sided heat flux gauges are a critical part of turbine cooling studies, and the new generation improves upon the durability and stability of previous designs while also introducing high-density layouts that provide better spatial resolution. These new customizable high-density double-sided heat flux gauges allow for multiple heat transfer measurements in a small geometric area such as immediately downstream of a row of cooling holes on an airfoil. Two high-density designs are utilized: Type A consists of 9 gauges laid out within a 5 mm by 2.6 mm (0.20 inch by 0.10 inch) area on the pressure surface of an airfoil, and Type B consists of 7 gauges located at points of predicted interest on the suction surface. Both individual and high-density heat flux gauges are installed on the blades of a transonic turbine experiment for the second build of the High-Pressure Turbine Innovative Cooling program (HPTIC2). Run in a short duration facility, the single-stage high-pressure turbine operated at design-corrected conditions (matching corrected speed, flow function, and pressure ratio) with forward and aft purge flow and film-cooled blades. Gauges are placed at repeated locations across different cooling schemes in a rainbow rotor configuration. Airfoil film-cooling schemes include round, fan, and advanced shaped cooling holes in addition to uncooled airfoils. Both the pressure and suction surfaces of the airfoils are instrumented at multiple wetted distance locations and percent spans from roughly 10% to 90%. Results from these tests are presented as both time-average values and time-accurate ensemble averages in order to capture unsteady motion and heat transfer distribution created by strong secondary flows and cooling flows.


Author(s):  
J. P. Clark ◽  
A. S. Aggarwala ◽  
M. A. Velonis ◽  
R. E. Gacek ◽  
S. S. Magge ◽  
...  

The ability to predict levels of unsteady forcing on high-pressure turbine blades is critical to avoid high-cycle fatigue failures. In this study, 3D time-resolved computational fluid dynamics is used within the design cycle to predict accurately the levels of unsteady forcing on a single-stage high-pressure turbine blade. Further, nozzle-guide-vane geometry changes including asymmetric circumferential spacing and suction-side modification are considered and rigorously analyzed to reduce levels of unsteady blade forcing. The latter is ultimately implemented in a development engine, and it is shown successfully to reduce resonant stresses on the blade. This investigation builds upon data that was recently obtained in a full-scale, transonic turbine rig to validate a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow solver for the prediction of both the magnitude and phase of unsteady forcing in a single-stage HPT and the lessons learned in that study.


Author(s):  
Harjit S. Hura ◽  
Scott Carson ◽  
Rob Saeidi ◽  
Hyoun-Woo Shin ◽  
Paul Giel

This paper describes the engine and rig design, and test results of an ultra-highly loaded single stage high pressure turbine. In service aviation single stage HPTs typically operate at a total-to-total pressure ratio of less than 4.0. At higher pressure ratios or energy extraction the nozzle and blade both have regions of supersonic flow and shock structures which, if not mitigated, can result in a large loss in efficiency both in the turbine itself and due to interaction with the downstream component which may be a turbine center frame or a low pressure turbine. Extending the viability of the single stage HPT to higher pressure ratios is attractive as it enables a compact engine with less weight, and lower initial and maintenance costs as compared to a two stage HPT. The present work was performed as part of the NASA UEET (Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology) program from 2002 through 2005. The goal of the program was to design and rig test a cooled single stage HPT with a pressure ratio of 5.5 with an efficiency at least two points higher than the state of the art. Preliminary design tools and a design of experiments approach were used to design the flow path. Stage loading and through-flow were set at appropriate levels based on prior experience on high pressure ratio single stage turbines. Appropriate choices of blade aspect ratio, count, and reaction were made based on comparison with similar HPT designs. A low shock blading design approach was used to minimize the shock strength in the blade during design iterations. CFD calculations were made to assess performance. The HPT aerodynamics and cooling design was replicated and tested in a high speed rig at design point and off-design conditions. The turbine met or exceeded the expected performance level based on both steady state and radial/circumferential traverse data. High frequency dynamic total pressure measurements were made to understand the presence of unsteadiness that persists in the exhaust of a transonic turbine.


Author(s):  
Brian R. Green ◽  
John W. Barter ◽  
Charles W. Haldeman ◽  
Michael G. Dunn

The unsteady aero-dynamics of a single-stage high-pressure turbine blade operating at design corrected conditions has been the subject of a thorough study involving detailed measurements and computations. The experimental configuration consisted of a single-stage high-pressure turbine and the adjacent, downstream, low-pressure turbine nozzle row. All three blade-rows were instrumented at three spanwise locations with flush-mounted, high frequency response pressure transducers. The rotor was also instrumented with the same transducers on the blade tip and platform and the stationary shroud was instrumented with pressure transducers at specific locations above the rotating blade. Predictions of the time-dependent flow field around the rotor were obtained using MSU-TURBO, a 3D, non-linear, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Using an isolated blade-row unsteady analysis method, the unsteady surface pressure for the high-pressure turbine rotor due to the upstream high-pressure turbine nozzle was calculated. The predicted unsteady pressure on the rotor surface was compared to the measurements at selected spanwise locations on the blade, in the recessed cavity, and on the shroud. The rig and computational models included a flat and recessed blade tip geometry and were used for the comparisons presented in the paper. Comparisons of the measured and predicted static pressure loading on the blade surface show excellent correlation from both a time-average and time-accurate standpoint. This paper concentrates on the tip and shroud comparisons between the experiments and the predictions and these results also show good correlation with the time-resolved data. These data comparisons provide confidence in the CFD modeling and its ability to capture unsteady flow physics on the blade surface, in the flat and recessed tip regions of the blade, and on the stationary shroud.


Author(s):  
D. S. Pascovici ◽  
K. G. Kyprianidis ◽  
F. Colmenares ◽  
S. O. T. Ogaji ◽  
P. Pilidis

This paper presents the use of Weibull formulation to the life analysis of different parts of the engine in order to estimate the cost of maintenance, the direct operating costs (DOC) and net present cost (NPC) of future type turbofan engines. The Weibull distribution is often used in the field of life data analysis due to its flexibility—it can mimic the behavior of other statistical distributions such as the normal and the exponential. The developed economic model is composed of three modules: a lifing module, an economic module and a risk module. The lifing module estimates the life of the high pressure turbine blades through the analysis of creep and fatigue over a full working cycle of the engine. The value of life calculated by the lifing is then taken as the baseline distribution to calculate the life of other important modules of the engine using the Weibull approach. Then the lower of the values of life of all the distributions is taken as time between overhaul (TBO), and used into the economic module calculations. The economic module uses the TBO together with the cost of labour and the cost of the engine (needed to determine the cost of spare parts) to estimate the cost of maintenance and DOC of the engine. In the present work five Weibull distributions are used for five important sources of interruption of the working life of the engine: Combustor, Life Limited Parts (LLP), High Pressure Compressor (HPC), General breakdowns and High Pressure Turbine (HPT). The risk analysis done in this work shows the impact of the breakdown of different parts of the engine on the NPC and DOC, the importance that each module of the engine has in its life, and how the application of the Weibull theory can help us in the risk assessment of future aero engines. A detailed explanation of the economic model is done in two other works (Pascovici et. al. [6] and Pascovici et. al. [7]), so in this paper only a general overview is done.


Author(s):  
Martin Thomas ◽  
Jerome Dombard ◽  
Florent Duchaine ◽  
Laurent Gicquel ◽  
Charlie Koupper

Abstract Development goals for next generation aircraft engines are mainly determined by the need to reduce fuel consumption and environmental impact. To reduce NOx emissions lean combustion technologies will be applied in future development projects. The more compact design and the absence of dilution holes in this type of engines shortens residence times in the combustion chamber and reduces mixing which results in higher levels of swirl, turbulence and temperature distortions at the exit of the combustion chamber. For these engines interactions between components are more important, so that the traditional engine design approach of component-wise optimization will have to be adapted. To study new lean burn architectures the European FACTOR project investigates the transport of hot streaks produced by a non-reactive combustor simulator through a single stage high-pressure turbine. In this work high-fidelity Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of combustor and complete high-pressure turbine are discussed and validated against experimental data. Measurement data is available on P40 (exit of the combustion chamber), P41 (exit of the stator) and P42 (exit of the rotor) and generally shows a good agreement to LES data.


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