Research into the Influence of Rotation on the Internal Cooling of Turbine Blades
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the on-going work in the Brite-EuRam Internal Cooling of Turbine Blades' (ICTB) project. The project is a collaborative, pan-European research program that brings together partners from industry and academia. The project aims to build an extensive experimental database concerning the effects of rotation on the internal flow distribution and heat transfer levels of rotor blades. The database will be used to develop correlations for integration into company design codes, thereby improving design methodologies, and for CFD code validation and improvement. Experiments are being conducted on a number of test facilities. Test rigs at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Alstom UK allow static tests on realistic geometries, while testing on idealized geometries with rotation are carried out on facilities at the University of Wales Swansea (UWS) and Technische Universitat Darmstadt (TUD). Finally, an engine representative geometry is to be tested with rotation, matching all major non-dimensional parameters, in the new Rotating Heat Transfer Rig (RHTR) at R-R Bristol. The program concentrates on mass and heat transfer measurements in the bend regions of a multi- pass system, with heat transfer data collected for all passages in the engine representative model. A number of CFD codes are then used to analyze a wide variety of the test cases. The RHTR and the static test facilities provide full surface heat transfer coefficient data through the use of thermochromic liquid crystals. The EPFL rig also uses PIV to produce detailed velocity vector and turbulence measurements. The rotating rig at TUD employs the naphthalene sublimation technique to calculate mass transfer data. The UWS rig investigates the influence of rib angle, blockage ratio, pitch-to-height ratio, Reynolds number, and hub-to-tip ratio on heat transfer levels in square and rectangular passages through the application of a uniform wall heat flux.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA419233
Entities
People
- A. Lees
- D. A. Rowbury
- D. Chanteloup
- S. Parneix