Miniature Heat Pipe Devices for Gas Turbine Engine Applications
Abstract
Material temperature limitations impose an upper limit on the amount of work able to be extracted from a turbine. Cooling technologies allow turbine material to remain below upper temperature limitations while allowing for hotter combustor exit temperatures. Increased cooling effectiveness can also decrease cost by decreasing material temperature requirements and allowing for the use of more readily available and manufacturable materials. Miniature heat pipes effectively reduce the maximum and average temperature at the outer rim of a turbine disk. The radial rotating miniature heat pipes employ the centripetal force of the rotating disk to accelerate the condensed cool fluid at the center to the outside and convect the less dense heated fluid from the outside to the inside. The cooling effectiveness of radial rotating heat pipe was investigated through tests and numerical simulations. The test rig and simulation model were simplified models of what is experienced in a rotating turbine disk. Defining parameters were varied. The tests proved that the radial rotating high-temperature heat pipes had a high effective thermal conductance, which is 60 - 100 times eater than the thermal conductivity of copper.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA416715
Entities
People
- Yiding Cao
Organizations
- Florida International University