Experimental Investigation of Louver Cooling Scheme on Gas Turbine Vane Suction Side

Author(s):  
T. Elnady ◽  
O. Hassan ◽  
I. Hassan ◽  
L. Kadem ◽  
T. Lucas

An experimental investigation has been performed to measure the film cooling performance of louver scheme over a scaled vane of high-pressure gas turbine using a two-dimensional cascade. Two rows of axially oriented louver scheme are used to cool the suction side and their performance is compared with two similar rows of standard cylindrical holes. The effect of hole location on the cooling performance is investigated for each row individually, then the row interaction is investigated for both rows at four different blowing ratios ranging from 1 to 2 with a 0.9 density ratio. The exit Reynolds number based on the true chord is 1.5E5 and exit Mach number is 0.23. The temperature distribution on the vane is mapped using a transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) technique to obtain the local distributions of the heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness. The louver scheme shows a superior cooling effectiveness than that of the cylindrical holes at all blowing ratios in terms of protection and lateral coverage. The row location highly affects the cooling performance for both the louver and cylindrical scheme.

2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruwan P. Somawardhana ◽  
David G. Bogard

Recent studies have shown that film cooling with holes embedded in a shallow trench significantly improves cooling performance. In this study, the performance of shallow trench configurations was investigated for simulated deteriorated surface conditions, i.e., increased surface roughness and near-hole obstructions. Experiments were conducted on the suction side of a scaled-up simulated turbine vane. Results from the study indicated that as much as 50% degradation occurred with upstream obstructions, but downstream obstructions actually enhanced film cooling effectiveness. However, the transverse trench configuration performed significantly better than the traditional cylindrical holes, both with and without obstructions and almost eliminated the effects of both surface roughness and obstructions.


Author(s):  
O. Hassan ◽  
I. Hassan

This paper presents experimental investigations of the film cooling effectiveness performance of a Micro-Tangential-Jet (MTJ) Film cooling scheme on a gas turbine vane using transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) technique. The MTJ scheme is a micro-shaped scheme designed so that the secondary jet is supplied tangentially to the vane surface. The scheme combines the benefits of micro jets and tangential injection. The film cooling performance of one row of holes on both pressure and suction sides were investigated at a blowing ratio ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 on the pressure side and 0.25 to 0.625 on the suction side. The average density ratio during the investigations was 0.93, and the Reynolds Number was 1.4E+5, based on the free stream velocity and the main duct hydraulic diameter. The pitch to diameter ratio of the cooling holes is 5 on the pressure side and 6.5 on the suction side. The turbulence intensity during all investigations was 8.5%. Minor changes in the Mach number distribution around the airfoil surface were observed due to the presence of the MTJ scheme, compared with the case with no MTJ scheme. The investigations showed great film cooling performance for the MTJ scheme, high effectiveness values, and excellent lateral jet spreading. A 2-D coolant film was observed in the results, which is a characteristic of the continuous slot schemes only. The presence of this 2-D film layer helps minimize the rate of mixing between the main and coolant streams and provides uniform thermal loads on the surface. Furthermore, it was noticed that the rate of effectiveness decay on the suction side was less than that on the pressure side, while the lateral jet spreading on the pressure side was better than that of the suction side. The main disadvantage of the MTJ scheme is the increased pressure drop.


Author(s):  
Chang Han ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Hongde Jiang

Film cooling is widely used in modern gas turbines for the protection of the hot components against hot gases from the combustion process. Film cooling directly influences the thermal efficiency of the gas turbine, as the cooling gas is extracted from the compressor and mixed with the mainstream in the hot component. Huge efforts by industry as well as research organizations have been undertaken to improve the film cooling effectiveness. It can been concluded that there are two key points for the improvement of film cooling effectiveness, constraining the blow-off of cooling ejection and extending the lateral coverage of cooling gas. The paper presents a new cooling technology, which reaches high film-cooling effectiveness as a result of a well-designed cooling hole, named SYCEE film cooling technology (SFCT). Plate film cooling experiments of SYCEE tested by pressure sensitive paint (PSP) are carried out in this work, and traditional shape-hole are included as well for baselines. It is resulted that SFCT has a better film cooling performance than shape-hole in the same conditions, and the gap of the averaged film cooling effectiveness between them continuously enlarges as the blowing ratio increases. Furthermore, an application of SFCT on the first stage vane of an F-class gas turbine is studied as well. A two-dimension cascade has been employed to measure the cooling performance of SFCT using pressure sensitive paint (PSP) as well, and the tested vanes separately with round-hole and shape-hole are considered again for baselines. The different kinds of film holes separately locate on the pressure and suction side, while the showerhead in different cases are kept the same, arranged with round-holes. The cooling air is ejected at inclination angle 45° with compound-angle 90° in the showerhead and inclination angle 35°∼45° without compound-angle on the pressure side and suction side. The detailed local cooling effectiveness distributions as well as the span-averaged effectiveness over the vane surface are presented. As expected, the film cooling performance of round-hole is the worst due to the lift-off of the cooling ejection. SFCT has better film cooling performance than shape-hole on the pressure side, but the advantage decreases along the mainstream direction. However, the span-averaged film cooling effectiveness of SYCEE is similar with that of the shape-hole on the suction side. This may be due to enhanced impact of mainstream flow derived from the pressure gradient in the turbine passage, and consequently weakening the effect of film hole on the suction side.


Author(s):  
Jin Young Jeong ◽  
Jae Su Kwak ◽  
Jung Shin Park ◽  
Kidon Lee

The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness for the first-stage vane and endwall of a gas turbine were investigated in a low speed cascade using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. The cascade consisted of four linear vanes. The tested Reynolds number based on the vane chord and vane exit velocity was 7.15 × 105. The overall blowing ratio of the coolant was controlled between 1 to 2, and two density ratios, 1.5 and 2.0, were tested. In order to test the different density ratios, two different coolants were used, one carbon dioxide and the other a mixture of nitrogen and sulfur hexafluoride. All cases showed clear traces of coolant on the vane surfaces and the endwall. The film cooling effectiveness near the film cooling holes was very high and gradually decreased downstream. The coolant trace showed an almost two-dimensional distribution on the pressure side. However, the coolant on the suction side shifted mid-span due to the passage vortex. Generally, the film cooling effectiveness on the vane and the endwall increased as the blowing ratio increased. The film cooling effectiveness on the vane was strongly affected by the shower head injection. Depending on the blowing ratio, the effect of density ratio on the vane surface film cooling effectiveness was varied. On the endwall, the film cooling effectiveness was higher for higher density ratio cases.


Author(s):  
Ruwan P. Somawardhana ◽  
David G. Bogard

Recent studies have shown that film cooling with holes imbedded in a shallow trench significantly improve cooling performance. In this study, the performance of shallow trench configurations were investigated for simulated deteriorated surface conditions, i.e. increased surface roughness and near hole obstructions. Experiments were conducted on the suction side of a scaled-up simulated turbine vane. Results from the study indicated that as much as 50% degradation occurred with upstream obstructions, but downstream obstructions actually enhanced film cooling effectiveness. However, the transverse trench configuration performed significantly better than the traditional cylindrical holes, both with and without obstructions and almost eliminated the effects of both surface roughness and obstructions.


Author(s):  
Rui Zhu ◽  
Terrence W. Simon ◽  
Gongnan Xie

Abstract In modern gas turbines, film cooling is the most common and efficient way to provide thermal protection for hot components. Secondary holes to a primary film cooling hole are used to improve film cooling performance by creating anti-kidney vortices, a technique that has been well documented using flat plate models. This study aims to evaluate the effects of secondary holes on film cooling effectiveness over an airfoil. The film cooling performance and flow fields of a row of primary holes with secondary holes on the pressure side and suction side of a C3X vane are numerically investigated and compared with the results of a single row of cylindrical holes and two rows of staggered cylindrical holes. Cases with different blowing ratios are analyzed. It is shown from the simulation that film cooling effectiveness of primary holes with secondary holes is much better than with a single row of cylindrical holes, and slightly better than with two rows of staggered holes on both pressure side and suction side, with the same amount of coolant usage and blowing ratio. The enhancement is higher on the pressure side than on the suction side. The results show that adding secondary holes can enhance film cooling effectiveness by creating anti-kidney vortices, which will weaken jet lift-off from the primary holes caused by the kidney vortex pair, especially at higher blowing ratios. In addition, film coverage of primary holes with secondary holes is wider and persists further downstream than for a single row of cylindrical holes.


Author(s):  
T. Elnady ◽  
I. Hassan ◽  
L. Kadem ◽  
T. Lucas

An experimental investigation has been performed to study the film cooling of a smooth expansion exit at the leading edge of a gas turbine vane. A two-dimensional cascade has been employed to measure the cooling performance of the proposed expansion using a transient Thermochromatic Liquid Crystal technique. One row of cylindrical holes, located on the stagnation line, is investigated with two expansion levels at the hole exit, 2d and 4d, in addition to the standard cylindrical exit. The air is injected at 0° and 30° inclination angles with the mainstream direction at four blowing ratios ranging from 1 and 2 and a 0.9 density ratio. The Mach number and the Reynolds number based on the cascade exit velocity and the axial chord are 0.23 and 1.4E5, respectively. The detailed local cooling effectiveness over both the pressure side and the suction side are presented in addition to the lateral-averaged cooling effectiveness. The proposed expansion enhances the coolant distribution over the leading edge, particularly over the suction side. The cooling effectiveness increases with the increase of the blowing ratio due to the decrease in the jet lift-off, hence higher cooling capacity is provided. The complete confrontation between both streams on the 0° inclination angle causes a strong dispersion to the coolant, yielding a significant reduction in the effectiveness.


Author(s):  
M. Ghorab ◽  
I. Hassan ◽  
T. Lucas

The experimental investigation of the film cooling performance of louver schemes using Thermochromic Liquid Crystal technique is presented in this paper. The louver scheme allows the cooling flow to pass through a bend and impinges with the blade material, which then exits to the outer surface of the aerofoil through the film cooling hole. The cooling performance for the louver scheme was analyzed across blowing ratios of 0.5 to 1.5 at a density ratio of 0.94. The results showed that the louver scheme enhances the local and the average film cooling performances in terms of film cooling effectiveness, and net heat flux reduction better than other published film hole configurations. As well, it provides a widely spread of the secondary flow extensively over the downstream surface, thus, it enhances the lateral film cooling performance. Moreover, the louver scheme produces a lower heat transfer coefficient ratio than other film hole geometries at low and high blowing ratios. As a result, the louver scheme is expected to reduce the gas turbine airfoil’s outer surface temperature and provides superior cooling performance which increases airfoil life time.


Author(s):  
Patricia Demling ◽  
David G. Bogard

The effects of obstructions on film cooling performance on a scaled-up 1st stage turbine vane will be discussed. Experimental results show that obstructions located upstream or inside of a film cooling hole will degrade adiabatic effectiveness up to 80% of the levels found with no obstructions. Downstream obstructions had little effect on performance. The location where the upstream obstructions ceased to degrade adiabatic effectiveness was determined and temperature profiles were constructed to determine how the upstream obstructions were affecting the mainstream and coolant flow.


Author(s):  
Kevin Liu ◽  
Shang-Feng Yang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

A detailed parametric study of film-cooling effectiveness was carried out on a turbine blade platform. The platform was cooled by purge flow from a simulated stator–rotor seal combined with discrete hole film-cooling. The cylindrical holes and laidback fan-shaped holes were accessed in terms of film-cooling effectiveness. This paper focuses on the effect of coolant-to-mainstream density ratio on platform film-cooling (DR = 1 to 2). Other fundamental parameters were also examined in this study—a fixed purge flow of 0.5%, three discrete-hole film-cooling blowing ratios between 1.0 and 2.0, and two freestream turbulence intensities of 4.2% and 10.5%. Experiments were done in a five-blade linear cascade with inlet and exit Mach number of 0.27 and 0.44, respectively. Reynolds number of the mainstream flow was 750,000 and was based on the exit velocity and chord length of the blade. The measurement technique adopted was the conduction-free pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Results indicated that with the same density ratio, shaped holes present higher film-cooling effectiveness and wider film coverage than the cylindrical holes, particularly at higher blowing ratios. The optimum blowing ratio of 1.5 exists for the cylindrical holes, whereas the effectiveness for the shaped holes increases with an increase of blowing ratio. Results also indicate that the platform film-cooling effectiveness increases with density ratio but decreases with turbulence intensity.


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