Massively-Parallel DNS and LES of Turbine Vane Endwall Horseshoe Vortex Dynamics and Heat Transfer

Author(s):  
Markus Schwa¨nen ◽  
Michael Meador ◽  
Josh Camp ◽  
Shriram Jagannathan ◽  
Andrew Duggleby

Higher turbine inlet temperatures enable increased gas turbine efficiency but significantly reduce component lifetimes through melting of the blade and endwall surfaces. This melting is exacerbated by the horseshoe vortex that forms as the boundary layer stagnates in front of the blade, driving hot gasses to the surface. Furthermore, this vortex exhibits significant dynamical motions that increase the surface heat transfer above that of a stationary vortex. To further understand this heat transfer augmentation, the dynamics of the horseshoe vortex must be characterized in a 3D time-resolved fashion which is difficult to obtain experimentally. In this paper, a 1st stage high pressure stator passage is examined using a spectral element direct numerical simulation at a Reynolds number Re = U∞C/v = 10,000. Although the Re is lower than engine conditions, the vortex already exhibits similar strong aperiodic motions and any uncertainty due to sub-grid scale modeling is avoided. The vortex dynamics are analyzed and their impact on the surface heat transfer is characterized. Results from a baseline case with a smooth endwall are also compared to a passage with film cooling holes. Higher Reynolds number simulations require a Large Eddy Simulation turbulent viscosity model that can handle the high accelerations around the blade. A high-pass-filter sub-grid scale model is tested at the same low Reynolds number to test its effectiveness by direct comparisons to the DNS. This resulted in a significant drop in turbulence intensity due to the high strain rate in the freestream, resulting in different dynamics of the vortex than observed in the DNS. Appropriate upstream engine conditions of high freestream turbulence and large integral length scales for all cases are generated via a novel inflow turbulence development domain using a periodic solution of Taylor vortices that are convected over a square grid. The size of the vortices and grid spacing is used to control the integral length scale, and the intensity of the vortices and upstream distance is used to control the turbulence intensity. The baseline DNS exhibits a bi-modal horseshoe vortex, and the presence of cooling-holes qualitatively increases the number of vortex cores resulting in more complex interactions.

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Carullo ◽  
S. Nasir ◽  
R. D. Cress ◽  
W. F. Ng ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
...  

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of high freestream turbulence intensity, turbulence length scale, and exit Reynolds number on the surface heat transfer distribution of a turbine blade at realistic engine Mach numbers. Passive turbulence grids were used to generate freestream turbulence levels of 2%, 12%, and 14% at the cascade inlet. The turbulence grids produced length scales normalized by the blade pitches of 0.02, 0.26, and 0.41, respectively. Surface heat transfer measurements were made at the midspan of the blade using thin film gauges. Experiments were performed at the exit Mach numbers of 0.55, 0.78, and 1.03, which represent flow conditions below, near, and above nominal conditions. The exit Mach numbers tested correspond to exit Reynolds numbers of 6×105, 8×105, and 11×105, based on true chord. The experimental results showed that the high freestream turbulence augmented the heat transfer on both the pressure and suction sides of the blade as compared with the low freestream turbulence case. At nominal conditions, exit Mach 0.78, average heat transfer augmentations of 23% and 35% were observed on the pressure side and suction side of the blade, respectively.


Author(s):  
Shinyoung Jeon ◽  
Changmin Son ◽  
Jangsik Yang

Turbine generator operates with complex cooling system due to the challenge in controlling the peak temperature of the stator bar caused by ohm loss, which is unavoidable. Therefore, it is important to characterise and quantifies the thermal performance of the cooling system. The focus of the present research is to investigate the heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics of typical cooling system, so-called stator ventilation duct. A real scale model was built at its operating conditions for the present study. The direction of cooling air is varied to consider its operation condition, so that there are (1) outward flow and (2) inward flow cases. In addition, the effect of (3) cross flow (inward with cross flow case) is also studied. The transient heat transfer method using thermochromic liquid crystals is implemented to measure full surface heat transfer distribution. A series of Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis is also conducted to support the observation from the experiment. For the inward flow case, the results suggest that the average Nusselt number of the 2nd duct is about 30% higher than the 3rd duct. The trend is similar with the effect of cross flow. The CFD results are in good agreement with the experimental data.


Author(s):  
Nojin Park ◽  
Changmin Son ◽  
Jangsik Yang ◽  
Changyong Lee ◽  
Kidon Lee

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the detailed heat transfer characteristics of a large scaled model of a turbine blade internal cooling system. The cooling system has one passage in the leading edge and a triple passage for the remained region with two U-bends. A large scaled model (2 times) is designed to acquire high resolution measurement. The similarity of the test model was conducted with Reynolds number at the inlet of the internal cooling system. The model is designed to simulate the flow at engine condition including film extractions to match the changes in flowrates through the internal cooling system. Also, 45 deg ribs were installed for heat transfer enhancement. The experiments were performed varying Reynolds number in the range of 20,000 to 100,000 with and without ribs under stationary condition. This study employs transient heat transfer technique using thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) to obtain full surface heat transfer distributions. The results show the detailed heat transfer distributions and pressure loss. The characteristics of pressure loss is largely dependent on the changes in cross-sectional area along the passages, the presence of U-bends and the extraction of coolant flow through film holes. The local and area averaged Nusselt number were compared to available correlations. Finally, the thermal performance counting the heat transfer enhancement as well as pressure penalty is presented.


Author(s):  
D. R. Sabatino ◽  
C. R. Smith

The spatial-temporal flow-field and associated surface heat transfer within the leading edge, end-wall region of a bluff body were examined using both particle image velocimetry and thermochromic liquid crystal temperature measurements. The horseshoe vortex system in the end-wall region is mechanistically linked to the upstream boundary layer unsteadiness. Hairpin vortex packets, associated with turbulent boundary layer bursting behavior, amalgamate with the horseshoe vortex resulting in unsteady strengthening and streamwise motion. The horseshoe vortex unsteadiness exhibits two different natural frequencies: one associated with the transient motion of the horseshoe vortex, and the other with the transient surface heat transfer. Comparable unsteadiness occurs in the end-wall region of the more complex airfoil geometry of a linear turbine cascade. To directly compare the horseshoe vortex behavior around a turning airfoil to that of a simple bluff body, a length scale based on the maximum airfoil thickness is proposed.


Author(s):  
J. S. Carullo ◽  
S. Nasir ◽  
R. D. Cress ◽  
W. F. Ng ◽  
K. A. Thole ◽  
...  

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of high freestream turbulence intensity, turbulence length scale, and exit Reynolds number on the surface heat transfer distribution of a turbine blade at realistic engine Mach numbers. Passive turbulence grids were used to generate freestream turbulence levels of 2%, 12%, and 14% at the cascade inlet. The turbulence grids produced length scales normalized by the blade pitch of 0.02, 0.26, and 0.41, respectively. Surface heat transfer measurements were made at the midspan of the blade using thin film gauges. Experiments were performed at exit Mach numbers of 0.55, 0.78 and 1.03 which represent flow conditions below, near, and above nominal conditions. The exit Mach numbers tested correspond to exit Reynolds numbers of 6 × 105, 8 × 105, and 11 × 105, based on true chord. The experimental results showed that the high freestream turbulence augmented the heat transfer on both the pressure and suction sides of the blade as compared to the low freestream turbulence case. At nominal conditions, exit Mach 0.78, average heat transfer augmentations of 23% and 35% were observed on the pressure side and suction side of the blade, respectively.


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Sabatino ◽  
C. R. Smith

The spatial-temporal flow field and associated surface heat transfer within the leading edge, end-wall region of a bluff body were examined using both particle image velocimetry and thermochromic liquid crystal temperature measurements. The horseshoe vortex system in the end-wall region is mechanistically linked to the upstream boundary layer unsteadiness. Hairpin vortex packets, associated with turbulent boundary layer bursting behavior, amalgamate with the horseshoe vortex resulting in unsteady strengthening and streamwise motion. The horseshoe vortex unsteadiness exhibits two different natural frequencies: one associated with the transient motion of the horseshoe vortex and the other with the transient surface heat transfer. Comparable unsteadiness occurs in the end-wall region of the more complex airfoil geometry of a linear turbine cascade. To directly compare the horseshoe vortex behavior around a turning airfoil to that of a simple bluff body, a length scale based on the maximum airfoil thickness is proposed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Y. Won ◽  
N. K. Burgess ◽  
S. Peddicord ◽  
P. M. Ligrani

Spatially resolved Nusselt numbers, spatially-averaged Nusselt numbers, and friction factors are presented for a stationary channel with an aspect ratio of 4 and angled rib turbulators inclined at 45 deg with parallel orientations on two opposite surfaces. Results are given at different Reynolds numbers based on channel height from 9000 to 76,000. The ratio of rib height to hydraulic diameter is 0.078, the rib pitch-to-height ratio is 10, and the blockage provided by the ribs is 25 percent of the channel cross-sectional area. Nusselt numbers are determined with three-dimensional conduction considered within the acrylic test surface. Test surface conduction results in important variations of surface heat flux, which give decreased local Nusselt number ratios near corners, where each rib joins the flat part of the test surface, and along the central part of each rib top surface. However, even with test surface conduction included in the analysis, spatially-resolved local Nusselt numbers are highest on tops of the rib turbulators, with lower magnitudes on flat surfaces between the ribs, where regions of flow separation and shear layer re-attachment have pronounced influences on local surface heat transfer behavior. The augmented local and spatially averaged Nusselt number ratios (rib turbulator Nusselt numbers normalized by values measured in a smooth channel) decrease on the rib tops, and on the flat regions away from the ribs, especially at locations just downstream of the ribs, as Reynolds number increases. With conduction along and within the test surface considered, globally averaged Nusselt number ratios vary from 3.53 to 1.79 as Reynolds number increases from 9000 to 76,000. Corresponding thermal performance parameters also decrease as Reynolds number increases over this range.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 4137
Author(s):  
Shinyoung Jeon ◽  
Changmin Son ◽  
Jangsik Yang ◽  
Sunghoon Ha ◽  
Kyeha Hwang

Turbine generators operate with complex cooling systems due to the challenge in controlling the peak temperature of the stator bar caused by Ohm loss, which is unavoidable. Therefore, it is important to characterize and quantify the thermal performance of the cooling system. The focus of the present research is to investigate the heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics of a typical cooling system, the so-called stator ventilation duct. A real scale model was built at its operating conditions for the present study. The direction of cooling air was varied to consider its operation condition, so that there are: (1) outward flow; and (2) inward flow cases. In addition, the effect of (3) cross flow (inward with cross flow case) was also studied. The transient heat transfer method using thermochromic liquid crystals is implemented to measure full surface heat transfer distribution. A series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses were also conducted to support the observation from the experiment. For the outward flow case, the results suggest that the average Nusselt numbers of the 2nd and 3rd ducts are at maximum 100% and 30% higher, respectively, than the inward flow case. The trend was similar with the effect of cross flow. The CFD results were in good agreement with the experimental data.


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