Effect of Slot Area Ratio and Slot Angle on Swirl Cooling in a Gas Turbine Blade Leading Edge
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper numerically simulated a swirl cooling system to study the influences of the slot area ratio and slot angle on the flow field and heat transfer performance. Numerical simulations were performed for different coolant inlet to outlet slot area ratios (1, 2, 3, and 4) and slot angles (60°, 75°, 90°, and 105°) at different Reynolds numbers. Results indicate that large-scale vortices and small circular or oval vortices are generated in the cooling channel at different slot area ratios and slot angles. At identical Reynolds numbers, the cooling system achieved 30% and 23% increases in global Nusselt number and thermal performance factor, respectively, when the slot area ratio increased from 1 to 4. Although the system obtained only a 7.5% increase in global Nusselt number, it achieved a 29.8% increase in thermal performance factor when the slot angle increased from 60° to 105° at fixed Reynolds number. The applied cooling system is recommended for the internal swirl cooling of a gas turbine blade leading edge at optimum values of design parameters at a slot area ratio of 4 and slot angle 105° at high Reynolds number.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51809065 and 51741901), and the Ph.D. Student Research and Innovation Fund of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 3072019GIP0304).
References
Algifri, A. H., R. K. Bhardwaj, and Y. V. N. Rao. 1987. “Prediction of the decay process in turbulent swirl flow.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part C: J. Mech. Eng. Sci. 201 (4): 279–283. https://doi.org/10.1243/PIME_PROC_1987_201_121_02.
Biegger, C., C. Sotgiu, and B. Weigand. 2015. “Numerical investigation of flow and heat transfer in a swirl tube.” Int. J. Therm. Sci. 96 (Oct): 319–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2014.12.001.
Biegger, C., and B. Weigand. 2015. “Flow and heat transfer measurements in a swirl chamber with different outlet geometries.” Exp. Fluids 56 (4): 78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-015-1937-3.
Chang, F., and V. K. Dhir. 1994. “Turbulent flow field in tangentially injected swirl flows in tubes.” Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 15 (5): 346–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-727X(94)90048-5.
Chang, F., and V. K. Dhir. 1995. “Mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement and slow decay of swirl in tubes using tangential injection.” Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 16 (2): 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-727X(94)00016-6.
Chen, J. J., B. S. Haynes, and D. F. Fletcher. 1999. “A numerical and experimental study of tangentially injected swirling pipe flows.” In Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on CFD in the Minerals and Process Industries. Melbourne, Australia: CSIRO.
Dhir, V. K., and F. Chang. 1992. “Heat transfer enhancement using tangential injection.” ASHRAE Trans. 98 (Mar): 383–390.
Hay, N., and P. D. West. 1975. “Heat transfer in free swirling flow in a pipe.” J. Heat Transfer 97 (3): 411–416. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3450390.
Hedlund, C. R., and P. M. Ligrani. 1999. “Local swirl chamber heat transfer and flow structure at different Reynolds numbers. 122 (2): 375–385. https://doi.org/10.1115/99-GT-164.
Hedlung, C. R., P. M. Ligrani, H. K. Moon, and B. Glezer. 1999. “Heat transfer and flow phenomena in a swirl chamber simulating turbine blade internal cooling.” J. Turbomach. 121 (4): 804–813. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2836734.
Johnson, B. V. 1968. “Exploratory flow and containment experiments in a directed-wall-jet vortex tube with radial outlfow and moderate superimposed axial flows.” Accessed September 21, 2019. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19680007662.
Kreith, F., and D. Margolis. 1959. “Heat transfer and friction in turbulent vortex flow.” Appl. Sci. Res. 8 (1): 457. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00411769.
Kreith, F., and O. K. Sonju. 2006. “The decay of a turbulent swirl in a pipe.” J. Fluid Mech. 22 (2): 257–271. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112065000733.
Kumar, R., and T. Conover. 1993. “Flow visualization studies of a swirling flow in a cylinder.” Exp. Therm Fluid Sci. 7 (3): 254–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/0894-1777(93)90009-8.
Kusterer, K., G. Lin, D. Bohn, T. Sugimoto, R. Tanaka, and M. Kazari. 2013. “Heat transfer enhancement for gas turbine internal cooling by application of double swirl cooling chambers.” In Proc., ASME Turbo Expo 2013: Turbine Technical Conf. and Exposition. New York: ASME.
Kusterer, K., G. Lin, D. Bohn, T. Sugimoto, R. Tanaka, and M. Kazari. 2014. “Leading edge cooling of a gas turbine blade with double swirl chambers.” In Proc., ASME Turbo Expo 2014: Turbine Technical Conf. and Exposition. New York: ASME.
Kusterer, K., G. Lin, T. Sugimoto, D. Bohn, R. Tanaka, and M. Kazari. 2015. “Novel gas turbine blade leading edge cooling configuration using advanced double swirl chambers.” In Proc., ASME Turbo Expo 2015: Turbine Technical Conf. and Exposition. New York: ASME.
Li, H., and Y. Tomita. 1994. “Characteristics of swirling flow in a circular pipe.” J. Fluids Eng. 116 (2): 370–373. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2910283.
Ligrani, P., C. Hedlund, B. Babinchak, R. Thambu, H. K. Moon, and B. Glezer. 1998. “Flow phenomena in swirl chambers.” Exp. Fluids 24 (3): 254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003480050172.
Ling, J. P. C. W., P. T. Ireland, and N. W. Harvey. 2006. “Measurement of heat transfer coefficient distributions and flow field in a model of a turbine blade cooling passage with tangential injection.” In Proc., ASME Turbo Expo 2006: Power for Land, Sea, and Air, 325–340. New York: ASME.
Liu, Z., Z. Feng, and L. Song. 2011. “Numerical study on flow and heat transfer characteristics of swirl cooling on leading edge model of gas turbine blade.” In Proc., ASME 2011 Turbo Expo: Turbine Technical Conf. and Exposition, 1495–1504. New York: ASME.
Liu, Z., J. Li, and Z. Feng. 2013. “Numerical study on the effect of jet slot height on flow and heat transfer of swirl cooling in leading edge model for gas turbine blade.” In Proc., ASME Turbo Expo 2013: Turbine Technical Conf. and Exposition. New York: ASME.
Liu, Z., J. Li, Z. Feng, and T. Simon. 2015. “Numerical study on the effect of jet nozzle aspect ratio and jet angle on swirl cooling in a model of a turbine blade leading edge cooling passage.” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 90 (Nov): 986–1000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.07.050.
Liu, Z., J. Li, Z. Feng, and T. Simon. 2016. “Numerical study on the effect of jet spacing on the Swirl flow and heat transfer in the turbine airfoil leading edge region.” Numer. Heat Transfer, Part A: Appl. 70 (9): 980–994. https://doi.org/10.1080/10407782.2016.1230381.
Luan, Y., C. Du, X. Fan, J. Wang, and L. Li. 2018. “Investigations of flow structures and heat transfer in a swirl chamber with different inlet chambers and various aerodynamic parameters.” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 118 (Mar): 551–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.11.012.
Mousavi, S. M., B. Ghadimi, and F. Kowsary. 2018. “Numerical study on the effects of multiple inlet slot configurations on swirl cooling of a gas turbine blade leading edge.” Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 90 (Jan): 34–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2017.10.012.
Nissan, A. H., and V. P. Bresan. 1961. “Swirling flow in cylinders” AlChE J. 7 (4): 543–547. https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690070404.
Rao, Y., C. Biegger, and B. Weigand. 2017. “Heat transfer and pressure loss in swirl tubes with one and multiple tangential jets pertinent to gas turbine internal cooling.” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 106 (Mar): 1356–1367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.10.119.
Thambu, R., B. Babinchak, P. Ligrani, C. R. Hedlund, H. K. Moon, and B. Glezer. 1999. “Flow in a simple swirl chamber with and without controlled inlet forcing.” Exp. Fluids 26 (4): 347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003480050298.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 5 • September 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 21, 2019
Accepted: Mar 3, 2020
Published online: May 21, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.