Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Turbulent Flow in a Ribbed Serpentine Passage
Abstract
Modern gas turbine engines operate at high combustor outlet temperatures to achieve higher thermal efficiency and thrust. Turbine blades are exposed to these high-temperature gases and undergo severe thermal stress and fatigue. The design of highly efficient cooling systems for turbine blades has an enormous potential impact on engine development. Cooling devices are based on a secondary flow system built into each blade, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The secondary flow passages are extremely complicated consisting of one or multiple legs with turbulators (rib-roughened serpentines), holes connecting the secondary path to the external surface of the blade (film cooling), tube bundles, slots, etc. The geometrical complexity of these passages, however, is extremely challenging for the use of advanced simulation tools based on state-of-the-art three-dimensional CFD solvers. The generation of a computational grid (even using unstructured mesh technology) requires a considerable amount of time. As a result, the analysis of the cooling performance of the system is largely based on isolated sub-component simulations, simplified one-dimensional models and experimental correlations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADP014819
Entities
People
- Christopher J. Elkins
- Georgi Kalitzin
- Gianluca Iaccarino
Organizations
- Stanford University