Session: 05-04: Thermal Measurements

Paper Number: 151304

Borescope for Infrared Thermography of Turbine Guide Vanes During Operation 

As turbine inlet temperatures continue to increase for higher cycle efficiency, and load flexibility becomes more important for compensating the volatility of renewable energies, the design of the hot turbine section of modern gas turbine engines becomes more challenging. During the design phase and operational tests of the turbine, the measurement of the spatial temperature distribution during operation is crucial to evaluate the performance of advanced cooling designs of the hot section. Therefore, several measurement principles as thermal history paint (THP), contact thermocouples, pyrometer, and infrared (IR) thermography are available.

This paper introduces the development and commissioning of an infrared thermography-based borescope for spatially resolved surface temperature measurement of the turbine’s first stage guide vane row of Kawasaki’s L30A gas turbine (30 MW_el). It has been developed in a cooperation between B&B-AGEMA GmbH and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI). Main parts of the borescope are a heat-resistant pressure casing with internal cooling, an IR endoscope with remote focus adjustment, and an IR camera. The optic axis runs radially from the outer casing towards the center of the shaft. The opening angle of the vision cone is 60 degrees. The projected image contains the rear part of the pressure side of a guide vane, the inner shroud platform of the flow channel, and a part of the suction side of the neighboring guide vane.

The new borescope has been successfully commissioned in the year 2024. We confirmed the integrity of the borescope for all operating points up to the highest power of the gas turbine. The measured spatial temperature distribution enables the validation of the cooling system of the inner shroud platform. We find a good agreement between the temperature distributions in a qualitative comparison with the color distribution of thermal history paint. In addition, the relative cooling efficiency of advanced film cooling holes at the inner shroud platform could be determined for various power levels of the gas turbine.

Presenting Author: Daniel Kroniger Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Presenting Author Biography: Daniel Kroniger recieved his PhD in 2019 at RWTH Aachen University. He is the team leader of gas turbine R&D in the Corporate Technology Division of Kawasaki. His research interest is Hydrogen combustion, Heat transfer, visualization methods, and CFD.

Authors:

Daniel Kroniger Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Kunio Okada Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Takeshi Horiuchi Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Mizuki Doi Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Hiromitsu Arai Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Atsushi Horikawa Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Tomoki Taniguchi Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Ryozo Tanaka Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Karsten Kusterer B&B-AGEMA GmbH
André Henders B&B-AGEMA GmbH