Session: Student Poster Competition

Submission Number: 187156

Evaluating Blade Platform Overall Effectiveness in a High-Speed Research Turbine With Engine-Representative Cooling Flows 

As turbine inlet temperatures are pushed to record highs to improve engine cycle efficiency, regions such as blade platforms are increasingly at risk for limiting the life of turbine blades. To counteract these effects, rim sealing purge air and other blade cooling flows provide protective cooling to the platform region of the blades. While these cooling methods reduce thermal loads, the injected coolant also introduces aerodynamic losses that decrease the stage efficiency. Therefore, turbine designers require a comprehensive understanding the trade-offs between supplied coolant and platform thermals. In this study, infrared thermal imaging was utilized to capture spatially resolved temperature measurements of blade platforms in a one-stage turbine research facility. The thermal performance of a blade platform design with and without fan shaped hole injection were investigated for a range of cooling flow rates. Cooling to the platform was supplied from engine-representative sources such as leakage from the rim seal egress, mid-passage gap leakage and the discrete holes. The results show that increasing cooling flows changes the secondary flow patterns and enhances the overall effectiveness in centralized regions of the platform. This investigation ultimately provides a deeper understanding of the design trades associated with optimized blade platform cooling strategies to support future turbine engine designs.

Presenting Author: Margaret Nunn The Pennsylvania State University

Presenting Author Biography: Margaret Nunn is currently a PhD candidate at The Pennsylvania State University. In the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab, her doctoral research focuses on the performance of gas turbine blade film cooling technology. She previously earned her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Authors:

Margaret Nunn The Pennsylvania State University
Reid Berdanier The Pennsylvania State University
Matthew Meier The Pennsylvania State University
Aaron Dick Solar Turbines
Yong Kim Solar Turbines