SYSTEM MODELLING TOOLS IN

GAS TURBINES : AN
INTRODUCTION TO FLOWNEX
Reducing turbine and system development cost
using commercial-off-the-shelf network codes
 INTRODUCTION
Todays presentation:

• Flow network modelling (FNM) technique and

comparison with CFD
• Introduction and background to Flowex SE
• Flownex SE libraries and capabilities
• Flownex applied to gas turbines and their systems
– Combustor preliminary design
– Secondary flow path analysis
– Applications to integrated systems
 WHAT IS FLOWNEX® SE?
• System simulation software that solves equations for conservation of mass,
linear momentum, angular momentum and energy in thermal-fluid
networks.
• Applies fundamental approach to thermal-fluid network simulation, using
1D flow and 2D heat transfer modular building blocks.
• Fast steady-state solver based on CFD pressure correction methods as
well as transient solver for dynamic system analysis ranging from plant
load following to pressure surges in pipelines.
• Flow types include:
– Liquids
– Pure Gasses and gas mixtures
– Two-phase with non-condensable
– Settling and non-settling slurries
– Non-Newtonian fluids
• Designed within an NQA1 and ISO9001 environment to ensure the best
standards of quality compliance.
• Nuclear verification and validation standards.
 FLOWNEX VS CFD
• CFD also solves for governing equations.
• CFD applied for detailed flow and heat transfer modelling within small
geometries and/or parts.
• CFD uses CAD drawing as input.
• CFD uses turbulence models for determining pressure losses
• Flownex uses a combination of process-flow diagrams (pfd’s), component
data sheets (example heat-exchanger) and network parameters.
• Flownex uses validated correlations for determining pressure loss, i.e. bend
k-factor vs Reynolds number.
• Flownex and CFD codes compliments each other and is not in competition.
• Flownex can link to CFD codes for localised
results.
FLOWNEX HISTORY
 FLOWNEX INDUSTRIES
• Acadamic
• Aerospace
• Consulting
• HRSG
• HVAC
• Mining
• Oil & Gas
• Power Generation
• Nuclear
• Turbines
GAS TURBINE LICENSE HOLDERS
 FLOWNEX LIBRARIES
• Flownex SE – Simulation environment that allows multiple library types to
solve simultaneously and in an integrated fashion, i.e with information
exchange.
Flow system
Inlets, outlets, losses, valves, turbo machinery, heat exchangers etc.
Control systems
PID controllers and analog and digital control
building blocks
Electrical systems
Motors, Generators and Circuit breakers
integrated with mechanical components
Fluid and material properties database
User Expandable characteristic
User defined or external components
INTEGRATION WITH EXTERNAL SOFTWARE
Excel:
• Workbooks imbedded in simulations
– Executes iteratively with the solver
– Create custom components
– All Microsoft Excel Functionality
• Generate Input and Result reports in Excel
• Network and Project creation from workbooks
• Automate Flownex from Excel

Flownex API (Application Programming

Interface)
• Integrate and automate most existing Windows
applications
 INTEGRATION WITH EXTERNAL SOFTWARE
Addition Existing Connections

• Matlab/Simulink coupling
• ANSYS coupling
• Relap (Thermal-hydraulic safety analysis software)
coupling

• EES (Engineering Equation Solver) coupling

• Mathcad worksheet coupling
• OPC server connection
 DESIGN & OPTIMIZATION
Sensitivity analysis
– Through either a parametric study or a Monte Carlo
analysis
– Response to sequential modification of input
variables
– Randomly vary parameters to determine combined
impact on system responses

Designer
– Calculation of component sizes and capacities for a
number of specified system operating conditions

Optimizer
Easy to set up – Minimize or maximize system parameters
– Optimization methods :
Fast solve time • evolutionary (genetic) algorithm based optimizer
• quadratic approximation search method BOBYQA.
 FLOWNEX IN GAS TURBINES
• Flownex is used for the preliminary and concept
design of combustion chambers and secondary air
flow systems
• The key driver for using Flownex is resultant cost
savings on account of reduced 3D CFD modelling
requirements and rig tests
• Additionally Flownex is used to provide boundary
conditions for localised more detailed models
• A third application of Flownex is the simulation of the
complete integrated gas turbine system with power
source
• In this category Flownex is used for system integration
and determining control strategies
 COMBUSTOR PRELIMINARY DESIGN
• Liner wall melting temperatures are usually lower than the
flame temperature
• Cooling flow on liner walls keep metal temperatures within
acceptable limits
• Preliminary combustor design requires that an extensive
number of geometrical and operational conditions be
evaluated and compared in terms of
– Cooling air mass flow rate distribution through air admission
holes and pressure losses
– Combustion product composition
– Combustion flame temperature
– Gas-surface radiation heat transfer
– Surface-surface radiation heat transfer
– Film convection heat transfer
– Annular convection heat transfer
– Liner wall temperature distribution
 WHY A 1D COMBUSTOR MODEL?
• Although powerful, CFD solutions of combustors are specialized, time consuming processes and
therefore seldom used during initial sizing of a combustor.
• Companies resort to using in-house developed procedures and correlations that are greatly
experience driven, costly to develop and also costly to maintain.
• Applying the Flownex flow network approach to combustor preliminary design enables the
integrated, conjugate flow and heat transfer networks to be modelled in parallel with
stoichiometric calculations.
• Ultimately Flownex offers a commercially-off-the-shelf combustor design tool that is easily set-
up and configured whilst:
– Maintaining full geometric flexibility, i.e. any geometry
– Fast solving times (within seconds)
– Allows optimization and parametric runs
• This results in substantial cost savings to the client since the number of detailed CFD simulations
and rig tests are substantially reduced
• Furthermore, results from the network model can be used for determining boundary conditions to
subsequent localised detailed models
 FLOWNEX EXAMPLE COMBUSTOR
• As example case, consider the double-annular combustor from GE.
• First, develop the cold-flow case by constructing the flow network.
• Elements define actual geometrical features e.g. orifices and duct sections
in the domain of interest
• Overall governing equations are solved within the nodes
• While pressure drop–flow relationship is applied for every element, i.e using
orifice and duct elements.

Restrictor
duct with Cd
 CONJUGATE FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER NETWORK
• Construct the heat transfer network comprising the liner wall as
well as all heat transfer mechanisms using the application
specific Flownex heat transfer library.
• Connect to the flow network where relevant
 CONJUGATE FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER
NETWORK AT A COOLING SLOT EXIT
Main flow path

Q rad,f

Film flow path


Q film

Q cond,z


Q cond,r

Liner wall
Film flow path 
Q

Q cond,z
conv 
Q rad,s

Annular flow path


Q film

Q cond,z


Q cond,r

Annulus wall

Q cond,z
 COMBUSTION PROCESS MODELLING
The combustion process has to be accounted for when a 1-d
analysis is conducted
• Gas temperature effects fluid density, and therefore the flow
distributions and pressure loss
• Accurate gas temperature profile required for wall
temperature predictions

NASA CEA program incorporated into networks allows prediction

of adiabatic flame temperature as a function of local air/fuel ratio
and the chemical equilibrium product concentrations from
reactants
 BENCHMARK TEST CASES
Operating conditions used as boundary condition in the network model were easy to parameterize in Flownex

Inlet Inlet
Test Pressure Temperature Combustor Exit Mass Overall Fuel Pilot/Total Fuel
Point [psi] [K] Flow [pps] Air Ratio Mass Flow
1 174.9 637 57.1 0.0171 0.50
2 240.04 700 66.25 0.0173 0.40
3 240.04 745 68.65 0.0208 0.41
4 240.7 781 68.33 0.0229 0.35
5 241.3 788 67.78 0.0233 0.35
6 241.5 814 67.48 0.0246 0.40

Air flow distribution with 5.5% overall combustor pressure drop achieve with Flownex designer tool
 METAL TEMPERATURE RESULTS

Outer liner temperature profile

Test Point 1 Test Point 2 Test Point 3 Test Point 4 Test Point 5 Test Point 6
1200
Metal temperature [K]

1100

1000

900

800

700

600
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Axial distance from combustor inlet [in]
BENCHMARK TEST CASES
 SECONDARY FLOW PATH DESIGN
• Coolant air continuously extracted in compressor stages to
supply film coolant air to turbine surfaces and internals.
• Flow rate vs pressure drop important.
• Windage temperature rise and heat transfer to surfaces
important.
• Enough cooling air should be supplied to maintain metal
temperatures but no more otherwise loss in efficiency.
 SECONDARY FLOW PATH DESIGN
• Flownex features an application specific rotating
component library for predicting flow rates, pressures
and temperatures in the integrated secondary flow
path:
– Vortices
– Seals
– Cavities
– Nozzles
– Gaps
– Channels
 CAVITIES
• Rotor-Rotor and Rotor-Stator
• Calculates core swirl ratio based on moment balance
• Can be discretised in radial direction to obtain swirl
ratio, temperature and pressure changes with radius
Discretized Cavity Pressure
• Disc surfaces can have any orientation Results

• Bolt heads may be added 260

240
220
Total
pressure

• Any number of inflow/outflow elements 200 [psi]

0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

Radius from Centerline [in]

 LABYRINTH SEALS
• Axial and radial
• Straight and staggered
• Discretized model that treats each tooth individually
• Also lumped model for simplified cases
• Able to model choked flow conditions
• User defined as well as built in correlations options for
discharge coefficient (C_d) and kinetic energy carry-
over (C_ke)
 ROTATING NOZZLES
 Rotating nozzle uses correlations for calculating Cd as a
function of the inlet type for three cases 1 – Sharp Entry, 2
– filleted; 3 - Chamfered
 Also accounts for effects of length – long and short orifices
 When rotating the effect of incidence angle on Cd is
accounted for
 Power transfer on account of radius change
 Flow becomes chocked when pressure ratio exceeds
critical pressure ratio
 ROTATING CHANNELS
• Build in frictional pressure drop
calculation for ribbed walls and
pedestals
• Account for all body forces due to
rotation
• Fully compressible
• Any flow orientation allowed – radial,
axial, combined
• Can be discretised along flow path
• Power transfer calculated and included
based on radius change and change in
flow angles
• Heat transfer may be added
SECONDARY FLOW PATH DESIGN
GAS TURBINE INTEGRATED SYSTEM ANALYSIS
• Perform power matching and determine operating
points on compressor and turbine characteristics.
• Simulate transient events such as start-up or load
change.
• Calculate surge margins for compressors.
• Determine heat-exchanger performance.
• Expansion thrust calculation.
• Multiple shafts speeds modeled through a gearbox
connection.
• Integrate with auxiliary systems.
GAS TURBINE INTEGRATED SYSTEM ANALYSIS
• Use user-specified characteristic curves to predict
overall machine pressure rise and shaft work, for
example compressor characteristics:

N
T0i
c

Surge line
p0 e N
p0 i T0i

m T0i
p0i

m T0i
p0i
GAS TURBINE INTEGRATED SYSTEM ANALYSIS
• All components required to model complete power
stations
• Brayton cycles (gas mixtures)
• Rankine cycles (two-phase)
• Combined cycles
THANK YOU