Characterization of Metallic W-Seals for Inner to Outer Shroud Sealing in Industrial Gas Turbines

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neelesh Sarawate ◽  
Chris Wolfe ◽  
Ibrahim Sezer ◽  
Ryan Ziegler ◽  
Raymond Chupp
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Pressure Differential ◽  
Flow Models ◽  
Operational Life ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines ◽  
Stage 1

Sealing and clearance control are two of the most cost effective methods to reach desired goals of efficiency, power output, operational life and emission levels in turbomachinery. Metallic seals such as W seals are widely used in gas turbines to seal axial gaps between adjacent static components such as shrouds and nozzles. Often the seals are characterized in a laboratory controlled environment, and the test results are used in modeling the secondary flows. However in real operating conditions, the static components can shift relative to each other creating misalignments that result in non-uniform sealing surfaces. One such application includes sealing between the stage 1 outer and inner shrouds. The inner shrouds are often stacked with axial misalignments relative to the neighboring shrouds due to manufacturing and assembly tolerances. Characterizing the effect of shroud misalignments on the W seal leakage is reported in this article. A comprehensive test matrix is conducted to characterize W seal leakage for four different magnitudes of shroud offsets, three types of seals having varying stiffness, and two compression levels. It is observed that the W seal leakage is fairly insensitive to the compression levels and the type of seal at zero misalignments. The seal leakage increases substantially with misalignments up to four times than for a perfectly aligned condition. The seal behavior also changes with increasing offsets. The seal exhibits typical properties of a positively loaded member for small misalignments, however, the behavior resembles a loose seal for larger misalignments. For a positively loaded seal, the effective clearance of the seal increases with pressure differential, whereas in case of a loose seal, the effective clearance decreases with increasing pressure differential. The effect of misalignments must be considered when modeling the seal in the engine flow models using a weighted average of the effective clearance.

Advanced Multi-Functional Coatings for Land-Based Industrial Gas Turbines

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Subramanian ◽  
Andrew Burns ◽  
Werner Stamm
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Performance Limits ◽  
Functional Coatings ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Barrier Coating ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines ◽  
Environmentally Sound

The utilization of fossil fuels for powering industrial gas turbines is expected to continue growing resulting in continued emphasis on increasing performance and reliability while simultaneously providing a cost effective, efficient, and environmentally sound power generation solution. The push to higher firing temperatures, increased efficiencies, reduced emissions and multiple fuel capability continues to demand more out of the gas turbine design and materials systems capabilities. Coatings are an integral part of many IGT materials systems, contributing several key functions such as thermal and oxidation protection, clearance control, wear resistance and sensing capabilities. Each of these coating functionalities presents unique challenges and requirements as they are super-imposed upon each other, especially with engine operating conditions becoming harsher and increasing service interval expectations. A full life cycle systematic approach in understanding the materials systems performance limits is essential for a successful engine implementation. As an example, thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems degradation mechanisms will be presented and examples of innovative systematic approaches towards engineering of production feasible, advanced high temperature capable coating systems will be provided.

GT26 2006 Turbine Stage 1 Blade Reconditioning Development and Qualification at Ansaldo Repair Centre

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Mela ◽  
Federico Fignino ◽  
Alessio Gabrielli ◽  
Paola Guarnone ◽  
Emanuele Porro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Base Material ◽  
Repair Process ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Technology Improvement ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Stage 1 ◽  
Welding Procedure ◽  
Repair Techniques

Abstract The evolution of industrial gas turbines towards increased efficiency and performance requires even higher operating temperatures for the engines. In order to remain competitive in the market, OEM companies continuously need to develop maintenance programs and repair technologies able to extend the life of these components as much as possible. The repair technology improvement is fundamental to reduce scrap rates and maintenance costs to be competitive on the market. The Ansaldo Repair Centre answers to this market demand by providing advanced and competitive repair techniques and an increasing broad repair portfolio to its customers. This paper describes the steps and approach to determine the repair process of GT26 LPT Blade 1 in order to allow the component to run another service interval. The base material status and the indication found after service was used as the foundation for a development of a dedicated repair sequence from stripping, to suitable heat treatments, to enhanced repair technique to recoating of the blade. Particular attention was paid to the most damaged area, for which a particular welding procedure including an optimized filler material has been applied for the rebuilding of the tip and platform zones as well as for the restoration of the unique tip closing features.

A State-of-the-Art CFD Setup for Axial Compressors: Details and Validation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cozzi ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Savino Depalo ◽  
Pio Astrua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Cfd Modelling ◽  
Axial Compressors ◽  
Surge Margin ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract The overall fraction of the power produced by renewable sources in the energy market has significantly increased in recent years. The power output of most of these clean sources is intrinsically variable. At present day and most likely in the upcoming future, due to the lack of inexpensive and reliable large energy storage systems, conventional power plants burning fossil fuels will still be part of the energy horizon. In particular, power generators able to promptly support the grid stability, such as gas turbines, will retain a strategic role. This new energy scenario is pushing gas turbine producers to improve the flexibility of their turbomachines, increasing the need for reliable numerical tools adopted to design and validate the new products also in operating conditions far from the nominal one. Especially when dealing with axial compressors, i.e. machines experiencing intense adverse pressure gradients, complex flow structures and severe secondary flows, CFD modelling of offdesign operation can be a real challenge. In this work, a state-of-the art CFD framework for RANS analysis of axial compressors is presented. The various aspects involved in the whole setup are discussed, including boundary conditions, meshing strategies, mixing planes modelling, tip clearance treatment, shroud leakages and turbulence modelling. Some experiences about the choice of these aspects are provided, derived from a long-date practice on this kind of turbomachines. Numerical results are reported for different full-scale compressors of the Ansaldo Energia fleet, covering a wide range of operating conditions. Furthermore, details about the capability of the setup to predict compressor performance and surge-margin have been added to the work. In particular, the setup surge-margin prediction has been evaluated in an operating condition in which the turbomachine experiences experimental stall. Finally, thanks to several on-field data available at different corrected speeds for operating conditions ranging from minimum to full load, a comprehensive validation of the presented numerical framework is also included in the paper.

Oxidation Behavior of LTA/YSZ Intermixed Layer Coating

2018 ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Pritee Purohit ◽  
Shashikant T. Vagge
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Power Generators ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Aero Engines ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbine ◽  
Day By Day ◽  
Very High

This chapter describes how for power generators like gas turbines and aero engines, the economic and environmental challenges are increasing day by day for producing electricity more efficiently. The efficiency of power generators can be increased by changing its operating conditions like inlet temperature and procedure. Currently, the inlet temperature to the industrial gas turbine is reaching up to 1400°C. Also, in aero engines, the ring temperature reaches around 1550°C. Therefore, the coatings used in aero engine applications undergo short duration thermal cycles at very high temperature. The mean metal temperatures reach around 950°C and can increase up to 1100°C. But in industrial gas turbines, it varies from 800 to 950°C. Operating temperature of industrial gas turbines slowly reaches to maximum and ideally remains constant for thousands of hours, unlike aero engines.

Development and Testing of Harsh Environment, Wireless Sensor Systems for Industrial Gas Turbines

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mitchell ◽  
Anand Kulkarni ◽  
Alex Lostetter ◽  
Marcelo Schupbach ◽  
John Fraley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Condition Based Maintenance ◽  
Harsh Environment ◽  
Sensor Systems ◽  
Wireless Telemetry ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines

The potential for savings provided to worldwide operators of industrial gas turbines, by transitioning from the current standard of interval-based maintenance to condition-based maintenance may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, the operational flexibility that may be obtained by knowing the historical and current condition of life-limiting components will enable more efficient use of industrial gas turbine resources, with less risk of unplanned outages as a result of off-parameter operations. To date, it has been impossible to apply true condition-based maintenance to industrial gas turbines because the extremely harsh operating conditions in the heart of a gas turbine preclude using the necessary advanced sensor systems to monitor the machine’s condition continuously. Siemens, Rove Technical Services, and Arkansas Power Electronics International are working together to develop a potentially industry-changing technology to build smart, self-aware engine components that incorporate embedded, harsh-environment-capable sensors and high temperature capable wireless telemetry systems for continuously monitoring component condition in the hot gas path turbine sections. The approach involves embedding sensors on complex shapes, such as turbine blades, embedding wireless telemetry systems in regions with temperatures that preclude the use of conventional silicon-based electronics, and successfully transmitting the sensor information from an environment very hostile to wireless signals. The results presented will include those from advanced, harsh environment sensor and wireless telemetry component development activities. In addition, results from laboratory and high temperature rig and spin testing will be discussed.

scholarly journals Industrial Gas Turbine Performance: Compressor Fouling and On-Line Washing

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uyioghosa Igie ◽  
Pericles Pilidis ◽  
Dimitrios Fouflias ◽  
Kenneth Ramsden ◽  
Panagiotis Laskaridis
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Engine Performance ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Compressor Cascade ◽  
Compressor Blades ◽  
Turbine Performance ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

Industrial gas turbines are susceptible to compressor fouling, which is the deposition and accretion of airborne particles or contaminants on the compressor blades. This paper demonstrates the blade aerodynamic effects of fouling through experimental compressor cascade tests and the accompanied engine performance degradation using turbomatch, an in-house gas turbine performance software. Similarly, on-line compressor washing is implemented taking into account typical operating conditions comparable with industry high pressure washing. The fouling study shows the changes in the individual stage maps of the compressor in this condition, the impact of degradation during part-load, influence of control variables, and the identification of key parameters to ascertain fouling levels. Applying demineralized water for 10 min, with a liquid-to-air ratio of 0.2%, the aerodynamic performance of the blade is shown to improve, however most of the cleaning effect occurred in the first 5 min. The most effectively washed part of the blade was the pressure side, in which most of the particles deposited during the accelerated fouling. The simulation of fouled and washed engine conditions indicates 30% recovery of the lost power due to washing.

scholarly journals Quantifying acoustic damping using flame chemiluminescence

2016 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
pp. 245-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Boujo ◽  
A. Denisov ◽  
B. Schuermans ◽  
N. Noiray
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Linear Growth ◽  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Linear Growth Rate ◽  
Acoustic Damping ◽  
Output Only

Thermoacoustic instabilities in gas turbines and aeroengine combustors fall within the category of complex systems. They can be described phenomenologically using nonlinear stochastic differential equations, which constitute the grounds for output-only model-based system identification. It has been shown recently that one can extract the governing parameters of the instabilities, namely the linear growth rate and the nonlinear component of the thermoacoustic feedback, using dynamic pressure time series only. This is highly relevant for practical systems, which cannot be actively controlled due to a lack of cost-effective actuators. The thermoacoustic stability is given by the linear growth rate, which results from the combination of the acoustic damping and the coherent feedback from the flame. In this paper, it is shown that it is possible to quantify the acoustic damping of the system, and thus to separate its contribution to the linear growth rate from the one of the flame. This is achieved by postprocessing in a simple way simultaneously acquired chemiluminescence and acoustic pressure data. It provides an additional approach to further unravel from observed time series the key mechanisms governing the system dynamics. This straightforward method is illustrated here using experimental data from a combustion chamber operated at several linearly stable and unstable operating conditions.

An Experimental Study of Effects of Confinement Ratio on Swirl Stabilized Flame Macrostructures

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiheng Tong ◽  
Mao Li ◽  
Marcus Thern ◽  
Jens Klingmann
Keyword(s):  
Flame Front ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Recirculation Zone ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Combustion Stability ◽  
Reconstruction Method ◽  
Lean Blowout ◽  
Image Reconstruction Method ◽  
Root Position ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines

Swirl stabilized premixed flames are common in industrial gas turbines. The flame shape in the combustor is highly related to the combustion stability and the performance of the gas turbine. In the current paper, the effects of confinement on the time averaged flame structures or flame macrostructures are studied experimentally. Experiments are carried out with swirl number S = 0.66 in two cylindrical confinements with diameters of d1 = 39 mm and d2 = 64 mm and confinement ratio c1 = 0.148 and c2 = 0.0567. All the experiments were carried out in atmospheric. CH∗ chemiluminescence from the flame was recorded to visualize the flame behavior. An inverse Abel image reconstruction method was employed to better distinguish the flame macrostructures. Different mechanisms forming the time averaged M shape flames are proposed and analyzed. It is found that the confinement wall plays an important role in determining the flame macrostructures. The flow structures including the inner and outer recirculation zones formed in the confinement are revealed to be the main reasons that affects different flame macrostructures. Meanwhile, the alternation of flame shapes determines the flame stability characteristics. A smaller confinement diameter forced the flame front to bend upstream into the outer recirculation zone hence forming a M shape flame. A strong noise caused by the interaction of the flame front in the outer recirculation zone with the combustor wall was observed. Another unsteady behavior of the flame in the bigger combustor, which was caused by the alternation of the flame root position inside and outside the premixing tube, is also presented. The V shape flame in the two combustors radiated weaker chemiluminescence but the main heat release zone was elongated than the M shape flame. Other operating conditions, i.e. total mass flow rate of the air flow and the equivalence ratio also affect the flame macrostructures. The flame blowout limits were also altered under different test conditions. The bigger confinement has better performance in stabilizing the flame by having lower lean blowout limits.

Modeling and Control of Combustion Dynamics in Industrial Gas Turbines

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith McManus ◽  
Fei Han ◽  
Wayne Dunstan ◽  
Corneliu Barbu ◽  
Minesh Shah
Keyword(s):  
Gas Turbine ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Pressure Oscillation ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Fuel System ◽  
Combustion Dynamics ◽  
Modeling And Control ◽  
Persistent Excitation ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines

The thermoacoustic response of an industrial-scale gas turbine combustor to fuel flow perturbations is examined. Experimental measurements in a laboratory combustor along with numerical modeling results are used to identify the dynamic behavior of the combustor over a variety of operating conditions. A fast-response actuator was coupled to the fuel system to apply continuous sinusoidal perturbations to the total fuel mass flow rate. The effects of these perturbations on the combustor pressure oscillation characteristics as well as overall operability of the system are described. The results of this work suggest that persistent excitation of the fuel system may present a viable means of controlling combustion dynamics in industrial gas turbine and, in turn, enhance their performance.

Nonlinear Heat-Release/Acoustic Model for Thermoacoustic Instability in Lean Premixed Combustors

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Peracchio ◽  
W. M. Proscia
Keyword(s):  
Heat Release ◽  
Limit Cycle ◽  
Gas Turbines ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Parametric Model ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Cycle Frequency ◽  
Thermoacoustic Instability ◽  
Lean Premixed ◽  
Industrial Gas Turbines

Lean premixed combustors, such as those used in industrial gas turbines to achieve low emissions, are often susceptible to the thermoacoustic combustion instabilities, which manifest themselves as pressure and heat release oscillations in the combustor. These oscillations can result in increased noise and decreased durability due to vibration and flame motion. A physically based nonlinear parametric model has been developed that captures this instability. It describes the coupling of combustor acoustics with the rate of heat release. The model represents this coupling by accounting for the effect of acoustic pressure fluctuations on the varying fuel/air ratio being delivered to the flame, causing a fluctuating heat release due to both fuel air ratio variations and flame front oscillations. If the phasing of the fluctuating heat release and pressure are proper, an instability results that grows into a limit cycle. The nonlinear nature of the model predicts the onset of the instability and additionally captures the resulting limit cycle. Tests of a lean premixed nozzle run at engine scale and engine operating conditions in the UTRC single nozzle rig, conducted under DARPA contract, exhibited instabilities. Parameters from the model were adjusted so that analytical results were consistent with relevant experimental data from this test. The parametric model captures the limit cycle behavior over a range of mean fuel air ratios, showing the instability amplitude (pressure and heat release) to increase and limit cycle frequency to decrease as mean fuel air ratio is reduced.

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