The heat transfer and friction augmentation in the fully developed portion of a 2:1 aspect ratio rectangular channel with orthogonal ribs at channel Reynolds numbers of 20,000, 30,000, and 40,000 is studied both experimentally and computationally. Ribs are applied to the two opposite wide walls. The rib aspect ratio is varied systematically at 1, 3, and 5, with a constant rib height and constant rib pitch (rib-pitch-to-rib-height ratio of 10). The purpose of the study is to extend the knowledge of the performance of rectangular channels with ribs to include high aspect ratio ribs. The experimental investigation is performed using transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystals technique to measure the distribution of the local Nusselt numbers on the ribbed walls. Overall channel pressure drop and friction factor augmentation is also obtained with the experimental setup. A numerical simulation is also performed by solving the 3-D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the realizable-k-Greek lowercase letter episilon] turbulence model for closure. Flow visualization is obtained from the computational results as well as numerical predictions of local distributions of Nusselt numbers and overal channel pressure drop. Results indicate that with increasing rib width, the heat transfer augmentation of the ribbed walls decreases with a corresponding reduction in channel pressure drop.

To push the thermal efficiency of turbomachinery, the turbine inlet temperature must be raised, eventually reaching and surpassing the blade material thermal limits. Internal geometry, such as pin fin arrays, has been the go-to solution for higher thermal environments to remove heat from blades and vanes to prevent material failure. The industry standard for turbomachinery in energy generation uses the steam Rankine or the Brayton cycle. Classically, these cycles have used air as the operating fluid environment. Over the past decade, novel solutions have begun changing how we design cycles, with one promising solution emerging: the supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycle. Promising higher cycle efficiency with a smaller footprint has quickly become an attractive alternative for power generation. Although thorough research of pin fin arrays as turbulators in the trailing edge of turbine blade internal design has been a focus of research for the past several decades, in the sCO2 novel working environment, the need to re-visit the heat transfer characterization of internal cooling is necessary. This study was executed two-fold, first numerically and then experimentally. The first objective of this paper is to explore the heat transfer characteristics of sCO2 as the cooling environment in a staggered pin fin array, defined within the supercritical phase, using steady RANS conjugate heat transfer. An adapted correlation for the Nusselt number was derived, dependent on the Reynolds number, to provide a stronger correlation than existing air data-derived correlations in the literature. Taking this numerically derived correlation, the second objective of this paper is to design and run a matching experimental geometry fabricated for testing at target operating conditions of 400 Celsius and 200 bar. This data was then processed in tandem with the numerical and available derived data in the literature for direct comparison.

Conjugate heat transfer analysis has been carried out on an 89kN thrust chamber in order to evaluate whether combined discrete film cooling and regenerative cooling in a rocket nozzle is feasible. Several cooling configurations were tested against a baseline design of regenerative cooling only. New designs include combined cooling channels with one row of discrete film cooling holes near the throat of the nozzle, and turbulated cooling channels combined with a row of discrete film cooling holes. Blowing ratio and channel mass flow rate were both varied for each design. The effectiveness of each configuration was measured via the maximum hot gas-side nozzle wall temperature, which can be correlated to number of cycles to failure. A target maximum temperature of 613K was chosen. Combined film and regenerative cooling, when compared to the baseline regenerative cooling, reduced the hot gas side wall temperature from 667K to 638K. After adding turbulators to the cooling channels, combined film and regenerative cooling reduced the temperature to 592K. Analysis shows that combined regenerative and film cooling is feasible with significant consequences, however further improvements are possible with the use of turbulators in the regenerative cooling channels.

Jet engines often operate under dirty conditions where large amounts of particulate matter can be ingested, especially, sand, ash and dirt. Particulate matter in different engine components can lead to degradation in performance. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate sand transport and deposition in the internal cooling passages of turbine blades. A simplified rectangular geometry is simulated to mimic the flow field, heat transfer and particle transport in a two pass internal cooling geometry. Two major challenges are identified while trying to simulate particle deposition. First, no reliable particle-wall collision model is available to calculate energy losses during a particle wall interaction. Second, available deposition models for particle deposition do not take into consideration all the impact parameters like impact velocity, impact angle, and particle temperature. These challenges led to the development of particle wall collision and deposition models in the current study. First a preliminary simulation is carried out to investigate sand transport and impingement patterns in the two pass geometry by using an idealized elastic collision model with the walls of the duct without any deposition. Wall Modeled Large Eddy Simulations (WMLES) are carried to calculate the flow field and a Lagrangian approach is used for particle transport. The outcome of these simulations was to get a qualitative comparison with experimental visualizations of the impingement patterns in the two pass geometry. The results showed good agreement with experimental distributions and identified surfaces most prone to deposition in the two pass geometry. The initial study is followed by the development of a particle-wall collision model based on elastic-plastic deformation and adhesion forces by building on available theories of deformation and adhesion for a spherical contact with a flat surface. The model calculates deformation losses and adhesion losses from particle-wall material properties and impact parameters and is broadly applicable to spherical particles undergoing oblique impact with a rigid wall. The model is shown to successfully predict the general trends observed in experiments. To address the issue of predicting deposition, an improved physical model based on the critical viscosity approach and energy losses during particle-wall collisions is developed to predict the sand deposition at high temperatures in gas turbine components. The model calculates a sticking or deposition probability based on the energy lost during particle collision and the proximity of the particle temperature to the softening temperature. For validation purposes, the deposition of sand particles is computed for particle laden jet impingement on a coupon and compared with experiments conducted at Virginia Tech. Large Eddy Simulations are used to calculate the flow field and heat transfer and particle dynamics is modeled using a Lagrangian approach. The results showed good agreement with the experiments for the range of jet temperatures investigated. Finally the two pass geometry is revisited with the developed particle-wall collision and deposition model. Sand transport and deposition is investigated in a two pass internal cooling geometry at realistic engine conditions. LES calculations are carried out for bulk Reynolds number of 25,000 to calculate flow and temperature field. Three different wall temperature boundary conditions of 950 oC, 1000 oC and 1050 oC are considered. Particle sizes in the range 5-25 microns are considered, with a mean particle diameter of 6 microns. Calculated impingement and deposition patterns are discussed for different exposed surfaces in the two pass geometry. It is evident from this study that at high temperatures, heavy deposition occurs in the bend region and in the region immediately downstream of the bend. The models and tools developed in this study have a wide range of applicability in assessing erosion and deposition in gas turbine components. / Ph. D.

This study performed detailed measurements on and around scaled up conducting and adiabatic airfoils with and without film cooling. The conducting vane was a matched Bi airfoil, which accurately scaled the convective heat transfer and conduction through the solid, in order to produce non-dimensional surface temperatures and thermal boundary layers that were representative of an actual engine. Measurements made on all vane models included surface temperature measurements and thermal profiles above the walls. Separate measurements on non-film cooled and film cooled conducting models allowed for the individual contributions of the internal convective cooling and external film cooling to the overall cooling scheme to be quantified. Surface temperature and thermal field measurements above the wall were also performed on a film cooled adiabatic model. For the conducting model with internal cooling only, strong streamwise temperature variations were seen. The surface temperature variations were highly dependent on the local external and internal heat transfer coefficients. Spanwise temperature variations also existed, but were modest in comparison to streamwise variations. Comparing the thermal fields above the film cooled adiabatic and conducting walls allowed for the assumption that the conducting wall would not significantly affect the thermal field in the film cooling jet to be tested. Near the edge of the film cooling jet the developing thermal boundary layer had a clear effect on the overlying gas temperature, suggesting that the common assumption that the adiabatic wall temperature is the appropriate driving temperature for heat transfer to a film cooled wall was invalid. On the jet centerline thermal boundary layer effects were less influential, due to the development of a new, thin boundary layer. This suggested that the adiabatic wall temperature as driving temperature for heat transfer was a reasonable assumption on the jet centerline for most cases tested. As film cooling momentum flux ratio increase, thermal boundary layer effects became more influential on the jet centerline. Additionally, the high resolution surface temperature measurements and thermal field measurements above the wall presented in the current study represent a significant improvement in the data available for validation of computational simulations of conducting turbine airfoils. / text

The present study considers the numerical simulation of the different flow characteristics involved in the conjugate heat transfer analysis of an internally cooled gas turbine blade. Conjugate simulations require full coupling of convective heat transfer in fluid regions to the heat diffusion in solid regions. Therefore, accurate prediction of heat transfer quantities on both external and internal surfaces has the uppermost importance and highly connected with the performance of the employed turbulence models. The complex flow on both surfaces of the internally cooled turbine blades is caused from the boundary layer laminar-to-turbulence transition, shock wave interaction with boundary layer, high streamline curvature and sequential flow separation. In order to discover the performances of different turbulence models on these flow types, analyses have been conducted on five different experimental studies each concerned with different flow and heat transfer characteristics. Each experimental study has been examined with four different turbulence models available in the commercial software (ANSYS FLUENT13.0) to decide most suitable RANS-based turbulence model. The Realizable k-&epsilon / model, Shear Stress Transport k-&omega / model, Reynolds Stress Model and V2-f model, which became increasingly popular during the last few years, have been used at the numerical simulations. According to conducted analyses, despite a few unreasonable predictions, in the majority of the numerical simulations, V2-f model outperforms other first-order turbulence models (Realizable k-&epsilon / and Shear Stress Transport k-&omega / ) in terms of accuracy and Reynolds Stress Model in terms of convergence.

In the United States, natural gas turbine generators account for approximately 7% of the total primary energy consumed. A one percent increase in gas turbine efficiency could result in savings of approximately 30 million dollars for operators and, subsequently, electricity end-users. The efficiency of a gas turbine engine is tied directly to the temperature at which the products of combustion enter the first stage, high-pressure turbine. The maximum operating temperature of the turbine components’ materials is the major limiting factor in increasing the turbine inlet temperature. In fact, current turbine inlet temperatures regularly exceed the melting temperature of the turbine vanes through advanced vane cooling techniques. These cooling techniques include vane surface film cooling, internal vane cooling, and the addition of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) to the exterior of the turbine vane. Typically, the performance of vane cooling techniques is evaluated using the adiabatic film effectiveness. However, the adiabatic film effectiveness, by definition, does not consider conjugate heat transfer effects. In order to evaluate the performance of internal vane cooling and a TBC it is necessary to consider conjugate heat transfer effects. The goal of this study was to provide insight into the conjugate heat transfer behavior of actual turbine vanes and various vane cooling techniques through experimental and analytical modeling in the pursuit of higher turbine inlet temperatures resulting in higher overall turbine efficiencies. The primary focus of this study was to experimentally characterize the combined effects of a TBC and film cooling. Vane model experiments were performed using a 10x scaled first stage inlet guide vane model that was designed using the Matched Biot Method to properly scale both the geometrical and thermal properties of an actual turbine vane. Two different TBC thicknesses were evaluated in this study. Along with the TBCs, six different film cooling configurations were evaluated which included pressure side round holes with a showerhead, round holes only, craters, a novel trench design called the modified trench, an ideal trench, and a realistic trench that takes manufacturing abilities into account. These film cooling geometries were created within the TBC layer. Each of the vane configurations was evaluated by monitoring a variety of temperatures, including the temperature of the exterior vane wall and the exterior surface of the TBC. This study found that the presence of a TBC decreased the sensitivity of the thermal barrier coating and vane wall interface temperature to changes in film coolant flow rates and changes in film cooling geometry. Therefore, research into improved film cooling geometries may not be valuable when a TBC is incorporated. This study also developed an analytical model which was used to predict the performance of the TBCs as a design tool. The analytical prediction model provided reasonable agreement with experimental data when using baseline data from an experiment with another TBC. However, the analytical prediction model performed poorly when predicting a TBC’s performance using baseline data collected from an experiment without a TBC. / text

Un grand effort a été réalisé ces dernières années dans la compréhension du champ d'écoulement et du transfert de chaleur dans les canaux de refroidissement internes présents dans les pales de turbine. En effet, des systèmes de refroidissement avancés ont non seulement conduit à l'augmentation de l'efficacité de la turbine à gaz en augmentant la température d'entrée de la turbine au-dessus de la température de fusion du matériau, mais également en augmentant la durée de vie de la turbine. Pour permettre de tels progrès, des techniques expérimentales et numériques modernes ont été largement appliquées afin d'interpréter et d'optimiser l'aérodynamique et le transfert de chaleur dans les canaux de refroidissement internes. Cependant, les données disponibles sont limitées dans le cas des canaux de refroidissement internes dans les aubes de rotor de turbine. Les gradients de rotation et de température introduisent des forces de flottabilité de type Coriolis et centripète dans le référentiel rotatif, modifiant de manière significative l'aérothermodynamique par rapport aux passages stationnaires. Dans le cas des pales de rotor de turbine, la plupart des investigations sont soit basées sur des mesures ponctuelles, soit sont contraintes à des régimes de rotation faibles. L'objectif principal de ce travail est d'étudier le débit détaillé et le transfert de chaleur d'un canal de refroidissement interne à des conditions de fonctionnement dimensionnelles sans moteur représentatives. Ce travail introduit une section d'essai en laboratoire qui exploite des canaux à nervures sur un large éventail de nombres de Reynolds, de rotation et de flottabilité. Dans le présent travail, le nombre de Reynolds va de 15,000 à 55,000, le nombre de rotation maximum est égal à 0.77 et le nombre maximal de flottabilité est égal à 0.77. La nouvelle installation expérimentale consiste en une conception polyvalente qui permet l'interchangeabilité de la géométrie testée, de sorte que les canaux de différents rapports d'aspect et les géométries de nervure peut être facilement installé. La particle image velocimetry et la thermographie à cristaux liquides sont effectuées pour fournir des mesures précises de vitesse et de transfert de chaleur dans les mêmes conditions opératoires, ce qui conduit à un ensemble de données expérimentales unique. De plus, des simulations à grands virages sont réalisées pour donner une image de l'ensemble du champ d'écoulement et compléter les observations expérimentales. En outre, l'approche numérique vise à fournir une méthodologie robuste qui est capable de fournir des prédictions haute-fidélité de la performance des canaux de refroidissement internes. / A great effort has been carried out over the recent years in the understanding of the flow field and heat transfer in the internal cooling channels present in turbine blades. Indeed, advanced cooling schemes have not only lead to the increase of the gas turbine efficiency by increasing the Turbine Inlet Temperature above the material melting temperature, but also the increase of the turbine lifespan. To allow such progresses, modern experimental and numerical techniques have been widely applied in order to interpret and optimize the aerodynamics and heat transfer in internal cooling channels. However, the available data is limited in the case of internal cooling channels in turbine rotor blades. Rotation and temperature gradients introduce Coriolis and centripetal buoyancy forces in the rotating frame of reference, modifying significantly the aerothermodynamics from that of the stationary passages. In the case of turbine rotor blades, most of the investigations are either based on point-wise measurements or are constraint to low rotational regimes. The main objective of this work is to study the detailed flow and heat transfer of an internal cooling channel at representative engine dimensionless operating conditions. This work introduces a laboratory test section that operates ribbed channels over a wide range of Reynolds, Rotation and Buoyancy numbers. In the present work, the Reynolds number ranges from 15,000 to 55,000, the maximum Rotation number is equal to 0.77, and the maximum Buoyancy number is equal to 0.77. The new experimental facility consists in a versatile design that allows the interchangeability of the tested geometry, so that channels of different aspect ratios and rib geometries can be easily fitted. Particle Image Velocimetry and Liquid Crystal Thermography are performed to provide accurate velocity and heat transfer measurements under the same operating conditions, which lead to a unique experimental data set. Moreover, Large Eddy Simulations are carried out to give a picture of the entire flow field and complement the experimental observations. Additionally, the numerical approach intends to provide a robust methodology that is able to provide high fidelity predictions of the performance of internal cooling channels.

Developments regarding internal cooling techniques have allowed the operation of modern gas turbine engines at turbine inlet temperatures which exceed the metallurgical capability of the turbine blade. This has allowed the operation of engines at a higher thermal efficiency and lower specific fuel consumption. Modern turbine blade-cooling techniques rely on external film cooling to protect the outer surface of the blade from the hot gas path and internal cooling to remove thermal energy from the blade. Optimization of coolant performance and blade-life estimation require knowledge regarding the influence of cooling application on the blade inner and outer surface heat transfer. The following study describes a combined experimental and computational study of heat transfer augmentation near the entrance to a film-cooling hole. Steady-state heat transfer results were acquired by using a transient measurement technique in an 80 x actual rectangular channel, representing an internal cooling channel of a turbine blade. Platinum thin-film gauges were used to measure the inner surface heat transfer augmentation as a result of thermal boundary layer renewal and impingement near the entrance of a film-cooling hole. Measurements were taken at various suction ratios, extraction angles and wall temperature ratios with a main duct Reynolds number of 25×103. A numerical technique, based on the resolution of the unsteady conduction equation, using a Crank-Nicholson scheme, was used to obtain the surface heat flux from the measured surface temperature history. Computational data was generated with the use of a commercial CFD solver. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

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