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

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Abstract

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.

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Abbreviations

A :

area

A i :

area of the dividing surface numbered i

c p :

specific heat at constant pressure

d :

depth of the squealer rim

h :

heat transfer coefficient

\(\overline{\overline{h}}\) :

area-averaged heat transfer coefficient

\(\overline{\overline{h_{i}}}\) :

area-averaged heat transfer coefficient of the dividing surface numbered i

M :

torque

m :

mass flow rate

n :

total amount of the dividing surfaces on blade tip

p * :

total pressure

q :

wall heat flux

s :

blade tip clearance height

T :

temperature

T * :

absolute total temperature

T w :

wall temperature

T ∞ :

mainstream temperature

v :

velocity

w :

width of the squealer rim

y + :

dimensionless wall-normal height of first cell at wall

η :

turbine stage efficiency

ρ :

density

ω :

angular velocity

in:

inlet of computational domain

leak:

leakage

nor:

normal

out:

outlet of computational domain

w:

wall condition

∞:

mainstream conditions

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Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52006178, 51936008), National Key R&D Program of China (No. Y2019-VIII-0007-0168) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Innovation Capacity Support Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Grant No. 2023-CX-TD-19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, **’an, 710072, China

    Kun Du, Huarong Li & Cunliang Liu

  2. Yangtze River Delta Research Institute of NPU, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Taicang, 215400, China

    Kun Du

  3. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Thermal Sciences in Aero-Engine System, Northwestern Polytechnical University, **’an, 710129, China

    Kun Du & Cunliang Liu

  4. NPU-KAI International Joint Laboratory of Advanced Aero-Engine Thermal Structure, Northwestern Polytechnical University, **’an, 710129, China

    Kun Du & Cunliang Liu

  5. Division of Heat Transfer, Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Lund, SE-22 100, Sweden

    Bengt Sunden

Authors
  1. Kun Du
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  2. Huarong Li
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  4. Cunliang Liu
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Correspondence to Cunliang Liu.

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Du, K., Li, H., Sunden, B. et al. Effects of Ribbed-Cavity Tip on the Blade Tip Aerothermal Performance in a High Pressure Turbine Stage. J. Therm. Sci. 32, 800–811 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1771-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1771-5

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