Case Study

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Unsteady Flow Visualisation Takes the Heat out of Hot Spots

Improved visualisation of complex unsteady flow results is helping engineers at QinetiQ to use CFD to gain a better understanding of important flow features.

ncreasing the operational performance of gas turbines is driving engineers to look beyond conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) steady flow analysis, and tackle the inherent unsteady flows encountered around turbine blades. Hot spots on these turbine blades create fatigue weaknesses in the blade, potentially causing blade failure. Until now manufacturers have taken the precautionary route of checking and replacing blades more frequently than may be really necessary. However this means taking the turbine out of service and is costly in terms of the reduced blade life, down time and replacement parts, and is a time consuming process. Using FIELDVIEW visualisation software, engineers at QinetiQ, one of Europes leading science and technology research organisations, are, for the first time, able to visualise the development of hot spots and in so doing gain a better understanding of why and where they occur and how to reduce their occurrence. Understanding and preventing hot spots will ultimately allow manufacturers to more accurately predict the life of a blade and thus avoid unnecessarily replacing blades. In modern gas turbine engines the combustor exit flow has a non-uniform temperature profile because of the discrete nature of the injection of fuel and dilution air, and the wall cooling flows. The affect of this non-uniform temperature profile on the aerodynamics and heat transfer rate of nozzle guide vanes (NGV) and turbine blades is difficult to predict. As the general trend of advancing turbine performance continues, the drive to raise combustor temperatures remains, so that power to weight ratio and cycle efficiency may be increased. The maximum sustainable component metal temperature during operation of the engine limits cycle temperatures. Rotating components are further complicated by typically experiencing up to 16,000 revolutions per minute, and centrifugal blade loadings equivalent to 50,000 times gravitational acceleration are

now common. In such high stress environments creep may occur well below the melting point of the metal, and for engines in which extended service is an important issue, metal temperatures must be minimised. Typical turbine blade metal temperatures are around 1100 K, while the combustor exit temperature may be as high as 2100 K. One of the most difficult problems facing the turbine designer is that of predicting the heat transfer rates and hence metal temperatures of the components. As the metal temperature affects the life of a component, and the overall thermodynamic cycle efficiency of the engine, any improvement in cycle efficiency comes not just from allowing an increase in the turbine entry temperature, but from a reduction in [ expensive] cooling flows made possible by more accurate temperature predictions.

Hot Spots
Hot spots are created within the gas due to the discrete positioning of the burners within the combustion chamber combined with the influence of the combustor lining cooling flow. Hot gas hits the blades at a different location every time creating an unsteady flow environment. These hot spots in the flow pass through the turbine and can have a large impact on the efficiency of the turbine as well as component life and temperature distribution.

Figure 1

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Case Study

The temperature profile of the hotspot can be characterised by an Overall Temperature Distortion Factor (OTDF) which indicates the degree of temperature distortion. In detail, the flow around turbine vanes in a gas turbine engine is highly unsteady. This is partly due to the forced periodic oscillations in the pressure field as blade rows move relative to each other, and thus occurs at the blade passing frequency. The boundary layer separation at the trailing edge of a nozzle guide vane can cause localised regions of very high unsteadiness, which are generally rather more persistent in nature than the unsteadiness caused by combustor mixing or potential interaction of blade rows. These wakes slowly mix-out as they move downstream, and, because of the relative motion of succeeding blade rows, are chopped to form pockets of high unsteadiness in the exit flow of the succeeding blade row. The unsteadiness associated with secondary flow vortices may be significant for low aspect ratio blade rows. In the transonic turbine, trailing edge shock formation may cause further unsteadiness, as shocks impinge on the downstream blade row, although this may be a relatively small affect for modest exit Mach numbers. These affects cause unsteadiness in the boundary layer, which can cause quite marked changes in the aerodynamics and heat transfer to a vane surface. A good model is therefore essential for satisfactory prediction of the aero-thermal behaviour of a vane.

The Nusselt number gives the ratio of actual heat transferred between two parallel plates at different temperatures, a moving fluid to the heat transfer that would occur by conduction.

FIELDVIEWs unsteady visualisation capability allowed detailed study of the 3D flowfield, enabling changes in the pressure and temperature distributions to be viewed concurrently. Advanced features such as particle tracking were invaluable in tracing the path of the fluid from different inlet regions through the turbine. The unsteady analysis coupled with new experimental data has given QinetiQ a better understanding of the flowfield in the turbine. QinetiQ also found the post-processor visualisation software useful for producing high quality customer and colleague presentations. The animation feature allowed the viewer to follow the flow through the model using coloured streamlines or to tour through the model watching how the flowfield develops. From its research so far, QinetiQ is closer to better predicting turbine blade life which will ultimately result in the reduction in unnecessary inspections during running hours. In addition, design changes can be recommended to extend blade life by ensuring that the air used for cooling can be more directed, thus reducing wasted air, which in turn can have a real and positive effect on the efficiency of the turbine. Another benefit of modelling the unsteady CFD analysis will be a dramatic reduction in experimentation required prior to final build - a rough estimate might suggest a fifth of the conventional experimentation.

Flow Analysis
Conventional steady state CFD cannot accurately model the true passage of these flow features through the turbine and an unsteady code is needed. QinetiQ has been using their in-house TRANSCode unsteady CFD code to analyse the flow through a research turbine. To conduct 3D predictions of heat transfer at leading edge and regions of high turbulence requires large computational meshes. Using TRANSCode, QinetiQ has achieved good agreement between measurement and prediction. To be successful in this analysis researchers must also be able to display and animate the results of the unsteady analysis. The complexity of the flowfield requires a highly visual, unsteady post-processor to visualise unsteady flows in 3D analyses to show whats happening to the accuracy QinetiQ required in making meaningful hot spot predictions. Success with QinetiQs unsteady analysis has been made possible by using FIELDVIEW to accurately animate the large quantities [several Gigabites of data] resulting from the analysis. FIELDVIEW is a powerful CFD post-processor that enables users to understand results and identify important flow features quickly and easily from both steady and unsteady cases.

Contact
Visit www.acel.co.uk for further information

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