One of the most critical components of gas turbine engines, rotor blade tip and casing, is exposed to high thermal load. It is a significant challenge to the designer to protect the turbine material from this severe situation. Leakage flow over the blade tip is also one of the important issues to improve the turbine performance. To understand the detailed phenomena and natures of the heat transfer on the turbine blade tip and casing in association with the tip leakage flow under actual turbine operating conditions, both steady and unsteady simulations have been conducted. A single stage gas turbine engine was modeled and simulated using commercial CFD solver ANSYS CFX R.11. The modeled turbine stage has 30 vanes and 60 blades with a pressure ratio of 3.2 and a rotational speed of 9500 rpm. The predicted isentropic Mach number and adiabatic wall temperature on the casing showed good agreement with available experimental data under the close operating condition. Through the steady simulations, the typical tip leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distributions were analyzed. The tip leakage flow separates and recirculates just around the pressure side edge of the blade tip. This coverage of the recirculating flow results in low heat transfer rates on the tip surface. The leakage flow then reattaches on the tip surface beyond the flow separation zone. This flow reattachment has shown enhanced heat transfer rates on the tip. The leakage flow interaction with the reverse cross flow, induced by relative casing motion, is found to have significant effect on the casing heat transfer rate distribution. Critical region of high heat transfer rate on the casing exists near the blade tip leading edge and along the pressure side edge. Whereas near the suction side the heat transfer rates are relatively low due to the coverage of the reverse cross flow. The effects of the tip clearance heights and rotor rotating speeds were also investigated. The region of recirculating flow increases with the increase of clearance heights. The flow incidence changes and the casing relative motion is enhanced with higher rotation speeds. As a result, the high heat transfer rate regions have been changed with these two parameters. Unsteady simulations have been performed to investigate time dependent behaviors of the leakage flow structures and heat transfer on the rotor casing and blade tip. The effects of different time steps, number of sub iteration and number of rotor vane passing were firstly examined. The periodicity of the tip leakage flow and heat transfer rate distribution is observed for each vane passing. The relative change in the position of the vane and the vane trailing edge shock alters the inlet flow conditions of the rotor part. It results in the periodic variations of the leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distributions. The higher heat transfer rates were observed at the region where the trailing edge shock reached. The maximum amplitude of the pressure fluctuation in the tip region is about 20% of the averaged rotor inlet pressure. The maximum amplitude of the heat transfer rate fluctuation on the blade tip, caused by the unsteady leakage flow variations, reaches up to about 25% of the mean heat transfer rate. The effects of tip clearance heights and rotor speeds have also been analyzed and compared one with respect to others. Same typical patterns of leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distribution can be obtained in both steady and unsteady simulations. However, steady simulation underpredicted the highest heat transfer rate. Because it couldn't capture the critical local high heat transfer phenomena caused by the unsteady stator-rotor interactions.

This book is a monograph on aerodynamics of aero-engine gas turbines focusing on the new progresses on flow mechanism and design methods in the recent 20 years. Starting with basic principles in aerodynamics and thermodynamics, this book systematically expounds the recent research on mechanisms of flows in axial gas turbines, including high pressure and low pressure turbines, inter-turbine ducts and turbine rear frame ducts, and introduces the classical and innovative numerical evaluation methods in different dimensions. This book also summarizes the latest research achievements in the field of gas turbine aerodynamic design and flow control, and the multidisciplinary conjugate problems involved with gas turbines. This book should be helpful for scientific and technical staffs, college teachers, graduate students, and senior college students, who are involved in research and design of gas turbines.

As modern gas turbines implement more and more complex geometry to increase life and efficiency, attention to unsteady aerodynamic behavior becomes more important. Computational optimization schemes are contributing to advanced geometries in order to reduce aerodynamic losses and increase the life of components. These advanced geometries are less representative of cylinder and backward facing steps which have been used as analogous geometries for most aerodynamic unsteadiness research. One region which contains a high degree of flow unsteadiness and a direct influence on engine performance is that of the MidFrame. The MidFrame (or combustor-diffuser system) is the region encompassing the main gas path from the exit of the compressor to the inlet of the first stage turbine. This region contains myriad flow scenarios including diffusion, bluff bodies, direct impingement, high degree of streamline curvature, separated flow, and recirculation. This represents the most complex and diverse flow field in the entire engine. The role of the MidFrame is to redirect the flow from the compressor into the combustion system with minimal pressure loss while supplying high pressure air to the secondary air system. Various casing geometries, compressor exit diffuser shapes, and flow conditioning equipment have been tested to reduce pressure loss and increase uniformity entering the combustors. Much of the current research in this area focuses on aero propulsion geometries with annular combustors or scaled models of the power generation geometries. Due to the complexity and size of the domain accessibility with physical probe measurements becomes challenging. The current work uses additional measurement techniques to measure flow unsteadiness in the domain. The methodology for identifying and quantifying the sources of unsteadiness are developed herein. Sensitivity of MidFrame unsteadiness to compressor exit conditions is shown for three different velocity profiles. The result is an extensive database of measurements which can serve as a benchmark for radical new designs to ensure that the unsteadiness levels do not supersede previous successful levels.

Gas turbines are found in military and civilian aircraft, ships, and power plants. Because of this widespread use, relatively small improvements in efficiency can have a large cumulative impact on energy use. The most significant source of loss and inefficiency in a gas turbine engine is tip gap leakage. Tip gap leakage occurs when flow travels across the top of the turbine blade through the small clearance space between the blade tips and the turbine casing, instead of along the length of the turbine blades. Tip gap leakage reduces the amount of force on the turbine blades, and the flow that is leaked across the tip gaps is wasted. Additionally, tip gap leakage leads to vortices that result in dissipated rotational kinetic energy and can disrupt the flow in the next stage of the turbine. In this project, experimental methods were used to study the effects of unsetadiness on gas turbine tip gap leakage. A case study with steady flow and top gap was used as a baseline to compare to the results of the other cases. The flow patterns were studied for each of the casesand compared to see the effects of unsteadiness on tip gap vortices and end wall flows. Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV, was used to collect velocity fields upstream of the blades, inside the blade passage and in planes perpendicular to the flow downstream of the blades. These data will be used to help limit the negative effects of tip gap leakage and make gas turbine engines more efficient.