"GENTLEMEN, JUNK YOUR ENGINES!" This title of a recent periodical article [1]* catches some of the expectation for the wedding of the Automobile and the Gas Turbine, The nuptials cannot be completed though, unless two problems are overcome: 1) high fuel consumption, and 2) high operating temperature. The first problem is solvable by the use of heat regeneration and much work has been done in this area [2][3] [4]. The solution of the second problem of high operating temperature was the basis for this thesis. The method of solution was by water injection into the combustion gases prior to entrance into the turbine. The injection of water reduces the turbine inlet temperature, which allows the production of gas turbines from less expensive materials. This reduces the production cost of gas turbines and makes them more competitive in automotive applications. Also, water injection increases the mass flow rate through the turbine without a significant decrease in total volume flow, which results in only a very small loss in overall thermal efficiency.

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Ce mémoire de maitrise présente l'étude expérimentale, dans le cadre du projet Tr-Francis, de l'écoulement dans une turbine Francis de moyenne chute. Plus spécifiquement, les conditions d'opération hors design, allant de la charge partielle à la courbe de fonctionnement sans charge, sont étudiées lors d'une campagne d'essai visant à établir une cartographie préliminaire des phénomènes présents dans la turbine. L'identification de ces phénomènes repose sur la visualisation de la cavitation dans l'écoulement et l'analyse de signaux de pression. Un cône d'aspiration en acrylique permet la visualisation de l'écoulement depuis la sortie de la roue, tandis que l'accès optique à l'aval de la roue est assuré par un endoscope inséré dans une directrice spécialement conçue à cet effet. Des caméras haute vitesse sont utilisées pour visualiser l'écoulement dans les régions d'intérêt, dont l'éclairage est optimisé pour chaque configuration. Les images, acquises en synchronisation avec la position de la roue, sont par la suite analysées numériquement pour déterminer la position et l'intensité moyennes des phénomènes. Les signaux de pression, issus de capteurs dans le cône et dans l'entrefer, sont quant à eux traités dans les domaines temporel et fréquentiel pour identifier les structures présentes. Les données obtenues montrent que les phénomènes hydrauliques dépendent essentiellement du coefficient de débit. À charge partielle, la torche est présente dans le cône d'aspiration et engendre des fluctuations de pression à la fréquence de précession du phénomène. Différents types de tourbillons inter-aubes sont observés pour les régimes de fonctionnement à très faible charge, et notamment des tourbillons accrochés à la couronne de la roue au centre du canal inter-aubes et des tourbillons présents proche du bord d'attaque des aubes et qui se prolongent dans la roue proche de la ceinture. Au point de SNL, un refoulement de l'écoulement au bord de fuite des aubes de la roue provoque le blocage partiel du canal inter-aubes. L'intensité de cette zone cavitante dépend des conditions d'opération sur la courbe de fonctionnement sans charge. / This master's thesis presents the experimental investigation of the flow inside a medium head Francis turbine as part of the Tr-Francis project. Focus is put on off design operating conditions, from part load to the no-load curve, with the aim of providing a preliminary mapping of flow phenomena inside the turbine. Identification of these phenomena is based on high-speed flow visualization of cavitation and the analysis of pressure signals. An acrylic draft tube allows to see through and visualize the flow at the exit of the runner, while optical access from upstream of the runner is provided by a borescope inserted inside a custom-made guide vane. LED panels illuminate the region of interest. Flow visualizations, acquired in sync with the runner position, are then numerically analyzed to determine the mean position and intensity of these phenomena. Pressure signals, in the draft tube and the vaneless space, are processed in time and frequency domains to identify the structures in the flow. Data collected shows that flow phenomena are essentially dependent on discharge coefficient. At part load, a vortex rope is present in the draft tube and induces pressure fluctuations at the precession frequency of the phenomenon. Different types of inter-blade vortices are observed at deep part load operating conditions, and more specifically reverse flow vortices and incidence vortices. At SNL operating condition, a backflow at the trailing edge of the runner blades creates a blockage of the upper part of the inter-blade channel. Intensity of this cavitating zone depends on operating conditions along the no-load curve.

Film cooling is investigated on a flat plate both numerically and experimentally. Conical shaped film hole are investigated extensively and contribute to the current literature data, which is extremely rare in the open public domain. Both configuration of the cylindrical film holes, with and without a trench, are investigated in detail. Design of experiment technique was performed to find an optimum combination of both geometrical and fluid parameters to achieve the best film cooling performance. From this part of the study, it shows that film cooling performance can be enhanced up to 250% with the trenched film cooling versus non-trenched case provided the same amount of coolant. Since most of the relevant open literature is about film cooling on flat plate endwall cascade with linear extrusion airfoil, the purpose of the second part of this study is to examine the interaction of the secondary flow inside a 3D cascade and the injected film cooling jets. This is employed on the first stage of the aircraft gas turbine engine to protect the curvilinear (annular) endwall platform. The current study investigates the interaction between injected film jets and the secondary flow both experimentally and numerically at high Mach number (M=0.7). Validation shows good agreement between obtained data with the open literature. In general, it can be concluded that with an appropriate film coolant to mainstream blowing ratio, one can not only achieve the best film cooling effectiveness (FCE or η) on the downstream endwall but also maintain almost the same aerodynamic loss as in the un-cooled baseline case. Film performance acts nonlinearly with respect to blowing ratios as with film iv cooling on flat plate, in the other hand, with a right blowing ratio, film cooling performance is not affect much by secondary flow. In turn, film cooling jets do not increase pressure loss at the downstream wake area of the blades.

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Turbine manufacturers continually seek to gain efficiency by increasing operating temperatures well above the maximum temperature of component alloys. This increase in temperature must be accounted for in the cooling of components by examining the heat transfer from these crucial components. This study specifically examines the effect of a contoured endwall on the heat transfer of a scaled-up stator vane. Understanding the three-dimensional effects of contoured endwalls on vane heat transfer can lead to prolonging blade life. The results of a combined experimental and computational study of heat transfer along the surface of a turbine vane that incorporates a contoured endwall are discussed in detail. A commercially available computational fluid dynamics code was used to design a contoured endwall and simulate an engine representative pressure distribution for a turbine vane cascade placed in a low-speed wind tunnel. A significant flow acceleration caused by the contour increased heat transfer over 40% of the vane span compared to the vane far from the contoured endwall. The effects of freestream turbulence with respect to the contour were examined. Results showed a significant increase in heat transfer at elevated freestream turbulence levels at each span location. The effects of the contour were minimal compared to the effects of increased turbulence. The boundary layer transition location moved further upstream with increasing turbulence. Trip wires were used to model the effect of film-cooling holes on the boundary layer development. The heat transfer increased locally at the trip and either remained elevated if the boundary layer remained turbulent or the heat transfer decreased as the boundary layer relaminarized due to flow acceleration. These results are beneficial to turbine manufacturers interested in effective placement of film-cooling holes. / Master of Science

An experimental facility was designed and benchmarked that could simulate the non-uniformities in the flow and thermal fields exiting real gas-turbine combustors. The design of the combustor simulator required analyses of the flow paths within a real combustor in a gas turbine engine. Modifications were made to an existing wind tunnel facility to allow for the installation of the combustor simulator. The overall performance of the simulator was then benchmarked through measurements of velocity, pressure, temperature, and turbulence using a straight exit test section to provide a baseline set of data. Comparisons of the measured quantities were made between two test cases that included a flow field with and without dilution flow.One of the major findings from this study was that the total pressure profiles exiting the combustor simulator in the near-wall region were different from a turbulent boundary layer. This is significant since many studies consider a turbulent boundary layer as the inlet condition to the turbine. Turbulent integral length scales were found to scale well with the dilution hole diameters and no dominant frequencies were observed in the streamwise velocity energy spectra. Dilution flow resulted in an increase in turbulence levels and mixing causing a reduction in the variation of total pressure and velocity. Adiabatic effectiveness levels were significantly reduced for the case with dilution flow in both the near combustor exit region and along the axial length of the straight exit test section. / Master of Science