Directional solidification casting technology of heavy-duty gas turbine blade with liquid metal cooling(LMC) process

In this work, some important factors such as ceramic shell strength, heat preservation temperature, standing time and withdrawal rate, which influence the formability of directionally solidified large-size blades of heavy-duty gas turbine with the liquid metal cooling(LMC) process, were studied through the method of microstructure analysis combining. The results show that the ceramic shell with medium strength(the high temperature flexural strength is 8 MPa, the flexural strength after thermal shock resistance is 12 MPa and the residual flexural strength is 20 MPa) can prevent the rupture and runout of the blade. The appropriate temperature(1,520 ℃ for upper region and 1,500 ℃ for lower region) of the heating furnace can eliminate the wide-angle grain boundary, the deviation of grain and the run-out caused by the shell crack. The holding time after pouring(3-5 min) can promote the growth of competitive grains and avoid a great deviation of columnar grains along the crystal orientation <001>, resulting in a straight and uniform grain structure. In addition, to avoid the formation of wrinkles and to ensure a smooth blade surface, the withdrawal rate should be no greater than the growth rate of grain. It is also found that the dendritic space of the blade decreases with the rise of solidification rate, and increases with the enlarging distance between the solidification position and the chill plate.

Application of ultrasonic fatigue technology in very-high-cycle fatigue testing of aviation gas turbine engine blade materials:A review

The need for very-high-cycle fatigue(VHCF)testing up to 1010cycles of aviation gas turbine engine blade materials under combined mechanical loads and complex environments has encouraged the development of VHCF testing instrumentation and technology.This article begins with a comprehensive review of the existing available techniques that enable VHCF testing.Recent advances in ultrasonic fatigue testing(UFT)techniques are highlighted,containing their new capabilities and methods for single load,multiaxial load,variable amplitude fatigue,and combined cycle fatigue.New techniques for conducting UFT in high-temperature,humid environments,and corrosive environments are summarized.These developments in mechanical loading and environmental building techniques provide the possibility of laboratory construction for real service conditions of blade materials.New techniques that can be used for in situ monitoring of VHCF damage are summarized.Key issues in the UFT field are presented,and countermeasures are collated.Finally,the existing problems and future trends in the field are briefly described.

A review of recent studies on rotating internal cooling for gas turbine blades

Gas turbines have been used extensively for aircraft and marine propulsions as well as land-based power generation because of their high thermal efficiency and large power to weight ratios.To further increase the thermal efficiency,numerous prior researches on gas turbine blade internal cooling have been intensively carried out,majorly under stationary conditions.However,the stationary studies neglect the effects of Coriolis and buoyancy forces,which should change the velocity,turbulence and temperature distribution under rotating conditions.To elucidate the rotational effects on gas turbine internal cooling,the extensive results collected from recent investigations are discussed,which include the rotation and buoyancy effects on the rib turbulated cooling,pin fin cooling,jet impingement cooling,dimple/protrusion cooling,latticework cooling as well as swirl cooling.The rotational effects on the friction factors and the most employed experimental and numerical methods are also presented.Moreover,recommendations for future research are outlined.Therefore,this review article provides extensive literature information for the design of the next-generation high-efficiency internal cooling for rotating turbine blades.

Effects of Ribbed-Cavity Tip on the Blade Tip Aerothermal Performance in a High Pressure Turbine Stage

For unshrouded blade tip,the high-temperature gas flows through the tip clearance by force of the lateral pressure difference.Thereby,the blade tip endures increasing thermal load.Furthermore,the conventional blade tip treatment cannot continuously provide protection for the deteriorating service environment.In the present study,aerothermal characteristics of the squealer blade tip with staggered ribs,partial squealer rim and different partial squealer rim thickness were investigated to explore the influences of ribbed-cavity tip on the tip heat transfer,leakage flow and turbine stage efficiency.The numerical results indicate that the ribbed-cavity tips are beneficial for the reduction of the blade tip thermal load and leakage flow.Among the present six blade tip designs,the minimal area-averaged heat transfer coefficient is obtained by the case with the staggered ribs and a deeper squealer rim,which is reduced by 31.41%relative to the squealer tip.Plus,the blade tip modification closer to leading edge or tip mid-chord region performs better than trailing edge in reducing the tip leakage flow.

Real-Time Fault Diagnosis for Gas Turbine Blade Based on Output-Hidden Feedback Elman Neural Network

In order to remotely monitor and maintain large-scale complex equipment in real time, China Telecom plans to create a total solution that integrates remote data collection, transmission, storage, analysis and prediction. This solution can provide manufacturers with proactive, systematic, integrated operation and maintenance service, and the data analysis and health forecasting are the most important part. This paper conducts health management for the turbine blades. Elman neural network, and improved Elman neural network, i.e., outputhidden feedback(OHF) Elman neural network are studied as the main research methods. The results verify the applicability of OHF Elman neural network.

Turbine blade temperature calculation and life estimation-a sensitivity analysis

The overall operating cost of the modern gas turbines is greatly influenced by thedurability of hot section components operating at high temperatures.In turbine operatingconditions,some defects may occur which can decrease hot section life.In the present paper,methods used for calculating blade temperature and life are demonstrated and validated.Usingthese methods,a set of sensitivity analyses on the parameters affecting temperature and life ofa high pressure,high temperature turbine first stage blade is carried out.Investigateduncertainties are:(1)blade coating thickness,(2)coolant inlet pressure and temperature(asa result of secondary air system),and(3)gas turbine load variation.Results show thatincreasing thermal bamier coating thickness by 3 times,leads to rise in the blade life by 9times.In addition,considering inlet cooling temperature and pressure,deviation in temperaturehas greater effect on blade life.One of the interesting points that can be realized from theresults is that 300 hours operation at 70%load can be equal to one hour operation atbase load.

A review of cooling technologies for high temperature rotating components in gas turbine

Modern gas turbines work under demanding high temperatures, high pressures, andhigh rotational speeds. In order to ensure durable and reliable operation, effective cooling mea-sures must be applied to the high-temperature rotating components, including turbine bladesand turbine disks. Cooling technology, however, is one of the most challenging problems inthis field. The present work reviews the current state of cooling technology research, at boththe fundamental science and engineering implementation levels, including modeling and simu-lation, experiments and diagnostics, and cooling technologies for blades and disks. In numericalsimulation, the RANS approach remains the most commonly used technique for flow-dynamicsand heat-transfer simulations. Much attention has been given to the development of improvedturbulence modeling for flows under rotation. For measurement and diagnostics, advancedinstrumentation and rotating-flow test facilities have been developed and valuable experimentaldata obtained. Detailed velocity and temperature distributions in rotating boundary layers havebeen obtained at scales sufficient to resolve various underlying mechanisms. Both isothermaland non-isothermal conditions have been considered, and the effects of Coriolis and buoyancyforces on flow evolution and heat transfer quantitatively identified. Cooling technologies havebeen improved by optimizing cooling passage dsigns, especially for curved configurations un-der rotation. Novel methods such as lamellar cooling and micro-scale cooling were proposed,and their effectiveness evaluated. For disk/cavity cooling, efforts were mainly focused on rotor-stator systems, with special attention given to the position of air injection into disks.

Conjugate Heat Transfer Investigation on the Cooling Performance of Air Cooled Turbine Blade with Thermal Barrier Coating

A hot wind tunnel of annular cascade test rig is established for measuring temperature distribution on a real gas turbine blade surface with infrared camera.Besides,conjugate heat transfer numerical simulation is performed to obtain cooling efficiency distribution on both blade substrate surface and coating surface for comparison.The effect of thermal barrier coating on the overall cooling performance for blades is compared under varied mass flow rate of coolant,and spatial difference is also discussed.Results indicate that the cooling efficiency in the leading edge and trailing edge areas of the blade is the lowest.The cooling performance is not only influenced by the internal cooling structures layout inside the blade but also by the flow condition of the mainstream in the external cascade path.Thermal barrier effects of the coating vary at different regions of the blade surface,where higher internal cooling performance exists,more effective the thermal barrier will be,which means the thermal protection effect of coatings is remarkable in these regions.At the designed mass flow ratio condition,the cooling efficiency on the pressure side varies by 0.13 for the coating surface and substrate surface,while this value is 0.09 on the suction side.

A novelapproachforsuppressingleakage flow throughturbinebladetipgaps

Tip clearance leakage flow of the turbine bade is an important factor limiting the augment of the high pressure turbine efficiency,which should be suppressed utilizing certain methods.However,the passive control method with the traditional structure is more and more difficult to satisfy the suppressing ability of the advanced turbine demand.In the present paper,a synergetic suppressing method by combining the approach of blade shape modification and spontaneous injection is adopted,to construct a novel tip structure.The aerodynamic characteristics of the tip leakage flow(TLF)with different blade tip configurations,such as the squealer,squealer-winglet(SW)and squealer-winglet-spontaneous injection holes(SWS)composite configurations,are numerically investigated.The impacts of several key geometric parameters,such as the winglet width and the space ng of spontaneous injection holes,are also discussed.Due to the adjustment of the winglet,the SW tip configuration can get better suppressing effect on TLF than the squealer tip.The SWS synergetic suppression tip decrease the leakage flow rate and the leakage mixing loss on the basis of the SW tip due to the blocking effect of the spontaneous injection flow.The key geometric parameters study shows that the suppressing effect of the TLF can be improved by reasonably increasing the winglet width and reducing the spacing between spontaneous injection holes.

Elimination of cracks in stainless steel casings via 3D printed sand molds with an internal topology structure

The important supporting component in a gas turbine is the casing,which has the characteristics of large size,complex structure,and thin wall.In the context of existing 3DP sand casting processes,casting crack defects are prone to occur.This leads to an increase in the scrap rate of casings,causing significant resource wastage.Additionally,the presence of cracks poses a significant safety hazard after the casings are put into service.The generation of different types of crack defects in stainless steel casings is closely related to casting stress and the high-temperature concession of the sand mold.Therefore,the types and causes of cracks in stainless steel casing products,based on their structural characteristics,were systematically analyzed.Various sand molds with different internal topology designs were printed using the 3DP technology to investigate the impact of sand mold structures on high-temperature concession.The optimal sand mold structure was used to cast casings,and the crack suppression effect was verified by analyzing its eddy current testing results.The experimental results indicate that the skeleton structure has an excellent effect on suppressing cracks in the casing.This research holds important theoretical and engineering significance in improving the quality of casing castings and reducing production costs.

Mechanism of Building-Up Deposited Layer during Electro-Spark Deposition

This paper studies the mechanism of formation of the deposit layer by (ESD) electro-spark deposition process. Inconel 738 substrates are coated with a deposited layer of NI6625 (Inconel 625). Selections of these two alloys have been done because they had wide applications and importance in the industry especially in gas turban blades in inland stations and in aircraft engines. ESD is suggested because it has a low input heat process which eliminates the effect of HAZ in these Ni-superfluous due to their sustainability to micro-cracks. The coating contains many deposited sub-layers coming from evaporated and melted micro-regions as a result of locally high heat generated by discharging a series of capacitors charged and discharged in a controlled manner between electrode and substrate material. The maximum deposition rates at the beginning of the process and decreases until been in a steady state condition due to the nature of the resultant morphology of the created surface.

Preliminary Design, Drive-Cycle Simulation and Energy Analysis of a Hybrid Transit Bus

Modern metropolises are increasingly affected by air quality problems. Transportation is one of the largest sources of several pollutants emissions, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). Today in the EU, vehicles' emissions are strictly limited by Euro 6 norm-Euro VI for heavy-duty vehicles-which is periodically upgraded. To match such limits, manufacturers are forced in developing new technologies to perform new sustainable vehicles design strategies, such as EVs and HEVs. Present work's aim is to provide the design of series-hybrid urban transportation bus, equipped with a novel thermal power unit, namely a small gas turbine, to exploit its cleaner combustion process in comparison with an ICE. The control logic is described, while the main drivetrain components are chosen, and suitable models from suppliers are selected as well. Then, some simulations of the resulting vehicle are performed on opportune drive cycles, using Advisor, a free software based on Matlab-Simulink environment, published by US' National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Two different final configurations are environmentally and economically analysed, with the thermal power unit being respectively fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Both satisfy the Euro VI norms, showing a substantial emission reduction (-89% and -43% in CO and THC releases respectively) in comparison to pollutants' threshold values.

Numerical Investigations on the Steady and Unsteady Leakage Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Rotor Blade Squealer Tip

The steady and unsteady leakage flow and heat transfer characteristics of the rotor blade squealer tip were conducted by solving Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations with k-co turbulence model. The first stage of GE-E3 engine with squealer tip in the rotor was adopted to perform this work. The tip clearance was set to be 1% of the rotor blade height and the groove depth was specified as 2% of the span. The results showed that there were two vortexes in the tip gap which determined the local heat transfer characteristics. In the steady flow field, the high heat transfer coefficient existed at several positions. In the unsteady case, the flow field in the squealer tip was mainly influenced by the upstream wake and the interaction of the blades potential fields. These unsteady effects induced the periodic variation of the leakage flow and the vortexes, which resulted in the fluctuation of the heat transfer coefficient. The largest fluctuation of the heat transfer coefficient on the surface of the groove bottom exceeded 16% of the averaged value on the surface of the squealer tip.

Conjugate calculation of a film-cooled blade for improvement of the leading edge cooling configuration

Great efforts are still put into the design process of advanced film-cooling configurations.In particular,the vanes and blades of turbine front stages have to be cooled extensively for a safe operation.The conjugate calculation technique is used for the three dimensional thermal load prediction of a fim-cooled test blade of a modern gas turbine.Thus,it becomes possible to take into account the interaction of internal flows,external flow,and heat transfer without the prescription of heat transfer ooefficients.The focus of the investigation is laid on the leading edge part of the blade.The numerical model consists of all internal flow passages and cooling hole rows at the leading edge.Furthermore,the radial gap flow is also part of the model.The comparison with thermal pyrometer measurements shows that with respect to regions with high thermal load a qualitatively and quantitatively good agreement of the conjugate results and the measurements can be found.In particular,the region in the vicinity of the mid-span section is exposed to a higher thermal load,which requires further improvement of the cooling arrangement.Altogether the achieved results demonstrate that the conjugate calculation technique is applicable for reasonable prediction of three-dimensional thermal load of complex cooling configurations for blades.

Numerical Analysis of Flow in Ultra Micro Centrifugal Compressor -Influence of Meridional Configuration

A single stage ultra micro centrifugal compressor constituting ultra micro gas turbine is required to operate at high rotational speed in order to achieve the pressure ratio which establishes the gas turbine cycle. As a conse- quence, the aerodynamic losses can be increased by the interaction of a shock wave with the boundary layer on the blade surface. Moreover, the centrifugal force which exceeds the allowable s^ress of the impeller material can act on the root of blades. On the other hand, the restrictions of processing technology for the downsizing of im- peller not only relatively enlarge the size of tip clearance but also make it difficult to shape the impeller with the i three-dimensional blade. Therefore, it is important to establish the design technology for the impeller with the two-dimensional blade which possesses the sufficient aerodynamic performance and enough strength to bear the centrifugal force caused by the high rotational speed. In this study, the flow in two types of impeller with the two-dimensional blade which have different meridional configuration was analyzed numerically, The computed results clarified the influence of the meridional configuration on the loss generations in the impeller passage.