Browsing by Subject "Gas Turbine"
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Item Massively-Parallel Direct Numerical Simulation of Gas Turbine Endwall Film-Cooling Conjugate Heat Transfer(2011-02-22) Meador, Charles MichaelImprovements to gas turbine efficiency depend closely on cooling technologies, as efficiency increases with turbine inlet temperature. To aid in this process, simulations that consider real engine conditions need to be considered. The first step towards this goal is a benchmark study using direct numerical simulations to consider a single periodic film cooling hole that characterizes the error in adiabatic boundary conditions, a common numerical simpliflication. Two cases are considered: an adiabatic case and a conjugate case. The adiabatic case is for validation to previous work conducted by Pietrzyk and Peet. The conjugate case considers heat transfer in the solid endwall in addition to the fluid, eliminating any simplified boundary conditions. It also includes an impinging jet and plenum, typical of actual endwall configurations. The numerical solver is NEK5000 and the two cases were run at 504 and 128 processors for the adiabatic and conjugate cases respectively. The approximate combined time is 100,000 CPU hours. In the adiabatic case, the results show good agreement for average velocity profiles but over prediction of the film cooling effectiveness. A convergence study suggests that there may be an area of unresolved flow, and the film cooling momentum flux may be too high. Preliminary conjugate results show agreement with velocity profiles, and significant differences in cooling effectiveness. Both cases will need to be refined near the cooling hole exit, and another convergence study done. The results from this study will be used in a larger case that considers an actual turbine vane and film cooling hole arrangement with real engine conditions.Item Massively-Parallel Spectral Element Large Eddy Simulation of a Ring-Type Gas Turbine Combustor(2012-07-16) Camp, Joshua LaneThe average and fluctuating components in a model ring-type gas turbine combustor are characterized using a Large Eddy Simulation at a Reynolds number of 11,000, based on the bulk velocity and the mean channel height. A spatial filter is applied to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and a high pass filtered Smagorinsky model is used to model the sub-grid scales. Two cases are studied: one with only the swirler inlet active, and one with a single row of dilution jets activated, operating at a momentum flux ratio J of 100. The goal of both of these studies is to validate the capabilities of the solver NEK5000 to resolve important flow features inherent to gas turbine combustors by comparing qualitatively to the work of Jakirlic. Both cases show strong evidence of the Precessing Vortex Core, an essential flow feature in gas turbine combustors. Each case captures other important flow characteristics, such as corner eddies, and in general predicts bulk flow movements well. However, the simulations performed quite poorly in terms of predicting turbulence shear stress quantities. Difficulties in properly emulating the turbulent velocity entering the combustor for the swirl, as well as mesh quality concerns, may have skewed the results. Overall, though small length scale quantities were not accurately captured, the large scale quantities were, and this stress test on the HPF LES model will be built upon in future work that looks at more complex combustors.Item Numerical Investigation of Temperature Distribution on a High Pressure Gas Turbine Blade(2014-08-10) Zirakzadeh, HootanA numerical code is developed to calculate the temperature distributions on the surface of a gas turbine blade. This code is a tool for quick prediction of the temperatures by knowing the boundary conditions and the flow conditions, and doesn?t necessarily provide the most accurate results that could be obtained by performing an experiment or precise CFD simulations. Different systems of blade external and internal cooling, such as rib turbulated cooling, impingement cooling, pin-fins, and injection holes for film cooling, are considered in the code by using the appropriate correlations or factors. When the code is run and the results are obtained a gas turbine blade designer can modify his blade terms and conditions such as mass flow rate, number of injection holes in each passage, even the blade material thickness to find an optimum design for cooling purposes. Code is first applied to an E? blade; the external heat transfer coefficients for this blade is inserted as a known boundary condition; Next, code is run for the same blade but this time using the flat plate and convectional correlations for predicting transition on suction side of the blade for external heat transfer coefficient. This code provides an easy way to get a better understanding of the cooling design and its ability to be modified for any gas turbine blade makes it more flexible to be developed as a commercial tool in future. In the next step, code is applied to a Samsung-Rotor2 blade with different cooling design than an E? blade and results are presented. Another part is introduced to this project by running a CFD simulation using commercial software Fluent and Gambit, to capture heat transfer coefficient distributions around the surface of the blade and the obtained values is used back in the code. In the meanwhile some interesting observations made during the CFD simulation is discussed. The CFD simulation is performed for the cases where there are not any data available for external heat transfer coefficient distribution already. Two turbulence models, k-epsilon and SST-Transition were utilized for the 2D CFD study; and for the 3D CFD case, only k-epsilon model was applied. It was revealed that even though SST- Transition has a better prediction of Mach number, but in terms of heat transfer coefficient k-epsilon model provides closer values to the reference values from previous works. Finally, combining the code and the CFD results could act as a useful assistant to give a designer a general and quick idea of how his blade design will perform at the end.Item Numerical simulation of flow and heat transfer of internal cooling passage in gas turbine blade(Texas A&M University, 2007-04-25) Su, GuoguangA computational study of three-dimensional turbulent flow and heat transfer was performed in four types of rotating channels. The first type is a rotating rectangular channel with V-shaped ribs. The channel aspect ratio (AR) is 4:1, the rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio (e/Dh) is 0.078 and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) is 10. The rotation number and inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio were varied from 0.0 to 0.28 and from 0.122 to 0.40, respectively, while the Reynolds number was varied from 10,000 to 500,000. Three channel orientations (90 degrees, -135 degrees, and 135 degrees from the rotation direction) were also investigated. The second type is a rotating rectangular channel with staggered arrays of pinfins. The channel aspect ratio (AR) is 4:1, the pin length-to-diameter ratio is 2.0, and the pin spacing-to-diameter ratio is 2.0 in both the stream-wise and span-wise directions. The rotation number and inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio varied from 0.0 to 0.28 and from 0.122 to 0.20, respectively, while the Reynolds number varied from 10,000 to 100,000. For the rotating cases, the rectangular channel was oriented at 150 degrees with respect to the plane of rotation. In the rotating two-pass rectangular channel with 45-degree rib turbulators, three channels with different aspect ratios (AR=1:1; AR=1:2; AR=1:4) were investigated. Detailed predictions of mean velocity, mean temperature, and Nusselt number for two Reynolds numbers (Re=10,000 and Re=100,000) were carried out. The rib height is fixed as constant and the rib-pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) is 10, but the rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratios (e/Dh) are 0.125, 0.094, and 0.078, for AR=1:1, AR=1:2, and AR=1:4 channels, respectively. The channel orientations are set as 90 degrees, the rotation number and inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio varied from 0.0 to 0.28 and from 0.13 to 0.40, respectively. The last type is the rotating two-pass smooth channel with three aspect ratios (AR=1:1; AR=1:2; AR=1:4). Detailed predictions of mean velocity, mean temperature and Nusselt number for two Reynolds numbers (Re=10,000 and Re=100,000) were carried out. The rotation number and inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio varied from 0.0 to 0.28 and from 0.13 to 0.40, respectively. A multi-block Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method was employed in conjunction with a near-wall second-moment turbulence closure.Item Orthogonal Decomposition Methods for Turbulent Heat Transfer Analysis with Application to Gas Turbines(2012-07-16) Schwaenen, MarkusGas turbine engines are the main propulsion source for world wide aviation and are also used for power generation. Even though they rely mainly on fossil fuel and emit climate active gasses, their importance is not likely to decrease in the future. But more efficient ways of using finite resources and hence reducing emissions have to be found. Thus, the interest to improve engine efficiency is growing. Considering the efficiency of the underlying thermodynamic cycle, an increase can be achieved by raising the turbine inlet temperature or compression ratio. Due to the complex nature of the underlying flow physics, however, the aero-thermal processes are still not fully understood. For this reason, one needs to perform research at high spatial and temporal resolution, in turn creating the need for effective means of postprocessing the large amounts of data. This dissertation addresses both sides of the problem - using high-scale, high resolution simulations as well as effective post processing techniques. As an example for the latter, a temporal highly resolved data set from wall pressure measurements of a transonic compressor stage is analyzed using proper orthogonal decomposition. The underlying experiments were performed by collaborators at Technical University Darmstadt. To decompose signals into optimal orthogonal basis functions based on temporal correlations including temperature, a formal mathematical framework is developed. A method to rank the reduced order representations with respect to heat transfer effectiveness is presented. To test both methods, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation and large eddy simulation (LES) are performed on turbulent heat transfer in a square duct with one single row of pin fins. While the LES results show closer agreement to experiments, both simulations unveil flow parts that do not contribute to heat transfer augmentation and can be considered wasteful. From the most effective mode, a wall contour for the same domain is derived and applied. In the wall contoured domain, energy in wasteful modes decreased, heat transfer increased and the temperature fluctuations at the wall decreased. Another stagnating boundary layer flow is examined in a direct numerical simulation of a first stage stator vane. Elevated levels of free stream turbulence and integral length scale are generated to simulate the features of combustor exit flow. The horseshoe vortex dynamics cause an increase in endwall heat transfer upstream of the vane. The link between energy optimal orthogonal basis functions and flow structures is examined using this data and the reduced order heat transfer analysis shows high energy modes with comparatively low impact on turbulent heat transfer. The analysis further shows that there are multiple horseshoe vortices that oscillate upstream of the blade, vanish, regenerate and can also merge. There is a punctual correlation of intense vortex dynamics and peaks in the orthogonal temperature basis function. For all data considered, the link between the energy optimal orthogonal basis functions and flow structures is neither guaranteed to exist nor straightforward to establish. The orthogonal expansion locks onto flow parts with high fluctuating kinetic energy - which might or might not be the ones that are looked for. The heat transfer ranking eliminates this problem and is valid independently of how certain basis functions are interpreted.Item Parametric Study of Gas Turbine Film-Cooling(2012-10-19) Liu, KevinIn this study, the film-cooling effectiveness in different regions of gas turbine blades was investigated with various film hole/slot configurations and mainstream flow conditions. The study consisted of three parts: 1) turbine blade span film-cooling, 2) turbine platform film-cooling, and 3) blade tip film-cooling. Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique was used to get the conduction-free film-cooling effectiveness distribution. Film-cooling effectiveness is assessed in terms of cooling hole geometry, blowing ratio, freestream turbulence, and coolant-to-mainstream density ratio. Blade span film-cooling test shows that the compound angle shaped holes offer better film effectiveness than the axial shaped holes. Greater coolant-to-mainstream density ratio prevents coolant to lift-off. Higher freestream turbulence causes effectiveness to drop everywhere except in the region downstream of suction side. Results are also correlated with momentum flux, compound shaped hole has the greatest optimum momentum flux ratio, and then followed by axial shaped hole, compound cylindrical hole, and axial cylindrical hole. For platform purge flow cooling, the stator-rotor gap was simulated by a typical labyrinth-like seal. Two different film-cooling hole geometries, three blowing ratios and density ratios, and two freestream turbulence are examined. Results showed that the shaped holes present higher film-cooling effectiveness and wider film coverage than the cylindrical holes, particularly at higher blowing ratios. Moreover, the platform film-cooling effectiveness increases with density ratio but decreases with turbulence intensity. The blade tip study was performed in a blow-down flow loop. Results show that a blowing ratio of 2.0 is found to give best results on the tip floor. Lift-off of the coolant jet can be observed for the holes closer to the leading edge as blowing ratio increases from 1.5 to 2.0. A stator vane suction side heat transfer study was conducted in a partial annular cascade. The heat transfer coefficients were measured by using the transient liquid crystal technique. At X/L=0.15, a low heat transfer region where transition occurs. The heat transfer coefficients increase toward the trailing edge as flow accelerates; a spanwise variation can be found at neat tip and hub portions due to passage and horseshoe vortices.