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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Conventional Rib Turbulators For SCO 2 Turbine Internal Cooling (Report)

This report documents experimental work in the NETL Heat Exchange and Experimental Testing (HEET) rig. The heat transfer performance of additively manufactured internal cooling features in supercritical CO 2 were characterized. It was demonstrated that the thermal performance factor of conventional angled rib turbulators remains independent of Reynolds number up to 3.1 x 10 5 indicating that these features may be employed to enhance heat transfer in sCO 2 turbine blades and vanes. This augmentation of heat transfer in the internal cooling passages decreases the required turbine coolant and improves the power cycle efficiency.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impact on Cycle Efficiency of Small CHP Plants from Increasing Firing Temperature Enabled by AM of Turbine Blades

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems are gaining popularity because of their potential for high overall thermodynamic efficiency and increased need for distributed power generation. Most CHP systems include a gas turbine for electricity generation and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for steam generation. The steam can be used to power a steam turbine for additional electricity generation or to drive rotating equipment, for space heating, for absorption chillers, etc. A CHP cycle configuration is often driven by the ‘principal’ utility for the facility that it services; steam or electricity. In either case, performance improvements in the gas turbine have the potential to increase the steam and power output from the cycle, which is a direct result of improvements in the gas turbine efficiency and power output. One possible opportunity to improve an existing gas turbine’s performance is to increase the firing temperature with improved turbine cooling and increased compression ratio.<br>In this study, the impact on CHP cycle performance from increasing the turbine firing temperature by 100 °C and improving the turbine blade cooling for a 6-MW scale gas turbine is estimated using an analytical cooled gas turbine model and a steam cycle model. A sensitivity analysis was performed to understand the impact of increasing the internal cooling effectiveness, thermal barrier coating performance and blade material upgrades on gas turbine and CHP cycle efficiency. The impacts of turbine blade cooling improvements were studied for three common CHP cycle configurations identified from the literature. Various definitions for CHP cycle efficiency from the literature are used in the comparisons. The results showed that a 100 °C increase in firing temperature can increase the gas turbine efficiency by 1 percentage point without improving cooling effectiveness and add 2 additional percentage points in efficiency by using advanced turbine blades with higher internal cooling efficiency. Studied engine upgrades showed potential for increasing the CHP cycle efficiency by 3 percentage points while increasing the steam generation rate by 8%.<br>

Uysal, Selcuk Can↗
DOE OSTI2025

Computational and Experimental Investigation of Discrete “W” Turbulators for sCO2 Turbine Internal Cooling

Direct-fired supercritical CO2 (sCO2 ) cycles are of particular interest for power generation due to the potential for higher thermal efficiencies with inherent CO2 capture. Direct fired sCO2 turbines must withstand high temperatures and the density of the working fluid is much higher than conventional Brayton cycles. Based on conventional Brayton cycle applications, internal serpentine cooling channels with ribbed turbulator strips are a common approach to achieve the required cooling, while minimizing coolant utilization. Most of the previous studies of coolant channel heat transfer enhancements have focused on serpentine channels using air as the cooling media at Reynold’s numbers typical of Brayton cycles. This paper investigates the Nusselt number augmentation of coolant channels with no features, ribbed turbulators, and discrete “W” turbulators with surface roughness effects included and CO2 as the coolant. The numerical results are compared to experimental results using CO2 as the cooling media at Reynold’s numbers ranging from 100,000 to 300,000. The results show the Nusselt number augmentation plateaus with increasing Reynolds number, in contrast to the decay observed in prior publications with air as the coolant media. Additionally, the CFD results indicate the discrete “W” geometry provides a 10% increase in Nusselt number augmentation relative to the angled ribbed turbulators.

computational fluid dynamics (CFD)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Turbine nozzle cooling with panel fuel injector

The present disclosure is directed to a combustion system including a panel fuel injector. The panel fuel injector includes a first side wall, a second side wall, and an aft wall. The first side wall and the second side wall are interconnected by the aft wall. The panel fuel injector further includes a cooling air plenum that is defined between the first side wall and the second side wall. The aft wall defines a plurality of cooling holes in fluid communication with the cooling air plenum. One or more of the cooling holes of the plurality of cooling holes is oriented towards at least one of a leading edge, a pressure side wall, or a suction side wall of a stationary nozzle disposed proximate to the aft end wall.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Computational Study of Additively Manufactured Internally Cooled Airfoils for Industrial Gas Turbine Applications

Internal cooling features such as pin-fins, impingement jets, and rib-turbulators are necessary to keep turbine components cool, but if sufficiently advanced can potentially also eliminate the need for film cooling on turbine blades particularly in industrial gas turbines where temperatures are not extreme. Furthermore, by leveraging additive manufacturing, other advanced designs such as lattice and incremental impingement configurations are possible and have recently been experimentally tested. While the performance of such configurations has been quantified through means of overall cooling effectiveness, it is not as clear why certain designs were better than others, or what the mechanisms were behind the observed external cooling patterns. The purpose of this study was to computationally analyze different advanced turbine blade internal cooling designs previously tested by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

CFD↗
DOE OSTI2023

Cooling assembly for a turbine assembly

A cooling assembly includes a coolant chamber disposed inside an airfoil of a turbine assembly that directs coolant inside the airfoil. The airfoil extends between a leading edge and a trailing edge along an axial length of the airfoil. Inlet cooling channels are fluidly coupled with the coolant chamber and direct the coolant in a direction toward a trailing edge chamber of the airfoil. The trailing edge chamber is fluidly coupled with at least one inlet cooling channel. The trailing edge chamber is disposed at the trailing edge of the airfoil and includes an inner surface. The inlet cooling channels direct at least a portion of the coolant in a direction toward the inner surface of the trailing edge chamber. One or more outlet cooling channels direct at least a portion of the coolant in one or more directions away from the trailing edge chamber.

Rathay, Nicholas William↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experimental Validation of a High-Temperature Test Facility for Future Additive Manufactured Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Turbine Testing

For next-generation power plants to achieve high cycle efficiencies consistent with the Department of Energy's 65% efficiency target, turbomachinery capable of operating within high-temperature power cycles must be demonstrated. Pairing additively manufactured superalloy turbines with the supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) power cycle could enable turbine inlet temperatures approaching 1300 °C while providing flexibility in turbine cooling strategies. Development of test facilities to characterize and validate such systems is crucial. In this study, a turbine test facility capable of achieving inlet conditions of 800 °C, 11 MPa, and 0.43 kg/s while accommodating complex auxiliary cooling flow requirements has been designed and constructed to support future testing of a Haynes 282 additively manufactured 30 kW turbine-generator system with advanced cooling channels. This facility enables characterization of aerodynamic performance, leakage, and windage losses. Details of the facility's construction and operation are presented, along with experimental validation tests using an orifice as an expansion device in place of the turbine. These tests confirm that the facility can reach the required conditions, distinguish regions of achievable steady and pseudo-steady conditions, and identify the heater power required for each point in the upcoming turbine campaign. The campaign confirmed that ISO 5167-2 can reliably predict orifice mass flow rates in extreme supercritical carbon dioxide conditions with deviations of 0.5–7.5%.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Predictive Modeling of Local Film-Cooling Flow on a Turbine Rotor Blade

Abstract In the turbine section of a modern gas turbine engine, components exposed to the main gas path flow rely on cooling air to maintain hardware durability targets. Therefore, monitoring turbine cooling flow is essential to the diagnostic and prognostic efficacy of a condition-based operation and maintenance (CBOM) approach. This study supports CBOM goals by leveraging supervised machine learning to estimate relative changes to local film-cooling flowrate using surface temperature measured on the pressure side of a rotating turbine blade operating at engine-relevant aerothermal conditions. Throughout the lifetime of a film-cooled turbine component, characteristics of the film-cooling flow—such as film trajectory and cooling effectiveness—vary as degradation-driven geometry distortions occur, which ultimately affects the relationship between the model input and the model output—film-cooling flowrate predictions. The present study addresses this complication by testing a data-driven model on multiple turbine blades of the same nominal design, but with each blade exhibiting different localized film-cooling flow characteristics. By testing the model in this manner, strategies for mitigating the detrimental effects of film-cooling flow characteristic variations on model performance were investigated, and the corresponding flowrate prediction accuracy was quantified.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2022

Integrated Optimization and Control of a Hybrid Gas Turbine/sCO 2 Power System

During phase-I, the project team led by Echogen Power Systems (EPS) had two primary objectives based on investigating the application of gas turbines with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) power cycles. The first objective was to improve the overall efficiency and performance of a hybrid gas turbine/sCO 2 power system through a joint optimization of the two subsystems (gas turbine and sCO 2 power cycle) using non-linear optimization techniques that simultaneously evaluate thermal performance of the combined cycle. The hybrid power system included several points of interaction, including (but not limited to) gas turbine exhaust, fuel heating, inlet chilling and turbine cooling. The second objective was to establish a baseline transient response model of the hybrid power system and a notional microgrid and begin steps to integrate the control systems of the three major elements (gas turbine, sCO 2 cycle and grid controller). The project team established a baseline performance for a combined cycle power plant using a production gas turbine and scaled sCO 2 power cycle only utilizing exhaust heat recovery. Echogen’s non-linear techno-economic optimization code was extended by adding gas turbine component models derived from a in-house developed gas turbine design code. With the two cycles coupled by the gas turbine exhaust, design parameters of both cycles were allowed to vary simultaneously to determine performance opportunity versus isolated designs. Returning to the baseline gas turbine/sCO 2 power cycle transient models: Echogen had in-house developed sCO 2 cycle transient model in GT-Suite system simulation software, and had partnered with Siemens Finspång for gas turbine transient model, and Siemens PTI group to provide micro-grid load profile as well as hybrid power cycle generated load (power and frequency) analysis. The transient model for the SGT-750 Siemens gas turbine was a “black-box” functional mock-up interface (FMI) model developed by Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery in Finspång, Sweden. The SGT-750 is a twin-shaft gas turbine that produces 40 MW electricity with an efficiency of about 40% at ISO conditions. At 100% gas turbine throttle (load), the SGT-750 has average exhaust conditions of 114.6 kg/s and 469.8°C. The transient model for sCO 2 power cycle was developed by Echogen in GT-SUITE 1D system simulation software platform. The basic CO 2 flow circuit has single-shaft turbomachinery with net 11.5 MW electrical power output at design conditions. The power turbine has a double-ended shaft with one end connected to synchronous generator through a fixed-ratio gearbox. The other end of power turbine is connected to the compressor through a continuously variable transmission. The major components of the sCO 2 power cycle modeled include air cooled condenser/cooler, CO 2 compressor, recuperator, two waste heat exchanger coils, power turbine, continuous variable transmission, gearbox and generator. Integration of SGT-750 transient model and sCO 2 power cycle transient model was done in Matlab Simulink. In the integrated model, the gas turbine and sCO 2 power cycle interacted at two points, first one being the gas turbine exhaust gas flow rate and temperature, which were inputs to sCO 2 power cycle model. The second point was the distribution of micro-grid load demand signal between the SGT-750 generator and sCO 2 cycle generator. For a given combined-cycle load demand, the gas turbine load demand was equal to the total demand minus the sCO 2 cycle power generated. In the present study the integrated model was simulated for two cases of grid load demand: (i) for a step change, both positive-step and negative-step, in grid load demand (ii) for a micro-grid load demand curve provided by Siemens PTI group. Finally, the time series plots representing load demand versus integrated system response were presented including the sCO 2 power cycle control system performance plots. The actual generated power and frequency of both the generators, gas turbine and sCO 2 power cycle, was supplied to Siemens PTI group for dynamic grid assessment, results of which are provided in appendices.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Experimental Study on Flow Behavior and Heat Transfer Enhancement With Distinct Dimpled Gas Turbine Blade Internal Cooling Channel

Abstract The study presents the investigation on heat transfer distribution along a gas turbine blade internal cooling channel. Six different cases were considered in this study, using the smooth surface channel as a baseline. Three different dimples depth-to-diameter ratios with 0.1, 0.25, and 0.50 were considered. Different combinations of partial spherical and leaf dimples were also studied with the Reynolds numbers of 6,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000. In addition to the experimental investigation, the numerical study was conducted using a large eddy simulation (LES) to validate the data. It was found that the highest depth-to-diameter ratio showed the highest heat transfer rate. However, the deepest dimpled channel shows the highest pressure drop, which affects the overall thermal performance of the cooling channel. The results showed that the leaf dimpled surface is the best cooling channel based on the highest Reynolds number's heat transfer enhancement and friction factor. However, at the lowest Reynolds number, partial spherical dimples with a 0.25 depth-to-diameter ratio showed the highest thermal performance.

Energy & Fuels↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Heat Transfer Enhancement on Rotational Gas Turbine Blade Internal Cooling Channel With Dimpled Surface

Abstract The present investigation represents the rotational effect on gas turbine blade internal cooling with a uniform heat flux of 2000 W/m2 at the bottom wall. The experiment was conducted with three different rpms, such as 300 rpm, 600 rpm, and 900 rpm, with Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 6000 to 50,000 with a two-pass cooling channel. The numerical investigation was conducted with the large eddy simulation (LES) technique to understand the rotational flow behavior of the cooling channel. Four distinct arrangements of dimpled cooling channel surfaces were considered with two different dimple shapes, i.e., partial spherical and leaf. It is found that the rotation effect, dimple arrangement, and design have significant influences on heat transfer. Results indicated that the partial spherical 1-row dimpled surface experienced the highest heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. In contrast, the leaf-shaped dimpled cooling channel experienced the highest thermal efficiency.

Energy & Fuels↗
DOE OSTI2023

Radial turbine rotor with complex cooling channels and method of making same

A turbine rotor includes a base and a plurality of blades. The base and the blades curve such that radially outward portions of the base and the blades extend in a direction with a greater component in a radial direction than in an axial direction. Radially central portions of the base and the blade extend in a direction with the two components being closer. Radially inner sections of the base and the blades extend in a direction with a greater component in the axial direction than in a radial direction. There is a cooling channel arrangement in the turbine rotor. The cooling channel arrangement includes impingement cooling for a nose and serpentine passages for cooling sections of the platform circumferentially intermediate the blades, and distinct serpentine passages for cooling the plurality of blades. A turbomachine and method are also disclosed.

Dai, Zhongtao↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design and Flow Considerations of Additively Manufactured, Internal Cooling Geometries for Small Industrial Gas Turbines

Additive manufacturing is now a mainstream technology and can be utilized to rapidly develop and test turbine airfoil cooling networks. This paper reports on an ongoing effort to integrate advanced internal cooling architectures in a realistic blade profile for test in a high-speed cascade. Airfoil cooling schemes were developed using reduced order modeling and computer aided design. However, the additive manufacturing impacts on cooling channel flow performance were unknown. Test articles consisting of typical cooling features and networks were derived from the designs and flow proved to identify additive manufacturing impacts on performance and develop guidelines to mitigate these impacts.

additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2021

Experimental and Large Eddy Simulation Study for Visualizing Complex Flow Phenomena of Gas Turbine Internal Blade Cooling Channel With No Bend

Abstract In this study, the internal cooling channel was investigated without any bend. Smooth surfaces and dimpled surfaces were investigated using the different combinations of connecting circular and rectangular holes. The computations were performed using the large eddy simulation (LES) model for Reynolds (Re) numbers from 10,000 to 50,000. A total of six different connecting holes were investigated with a smooth and dimpled surface. A partial spherical dimple with two circular holes showed the highest heat transfer, but it has a higher pressure loss penalty. Even though the leaf dimpled surface with the rectangluar holes indicated a little low heat transfer, it represents the highest efficiency at higher Reynolds numbers because of the low-pressure drops.

Energy & Fuels↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental Investigation of Sweeping Jet Film Cooling in a Transonic Turbine Cascade

Abstract The sweeping jet (SJ) film cooling hole has shown promising cooling performance compared to the standard shaped hole in low-speed conditions. The present work demonstrates the first attempt of SJ film cooling at an engine relevant Mach number. An experimental investigation was conducted to study the SJ film cooling on a nozzle guide vane suction surface. A well-established additive manufacturing technique commonly known as stereolithography (SLA) was utilized to design a transonic, engine representative vane geometry in which a row of SJ holes was used on the vane suction surface. Experiments were performed in a linear transonic cascade at an exit Mach number of 0.8 and blowing ratios of BR = 0.25–2.23. The measurement of heat transfer was conducted with the transient IR method, and the convective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and adiabatic film cooling effectiveness were estimated using a dual linear regression technique (DLRT). Aerodynamic loss measurements were also performed with a total pressure Kiel probe at 0.25Cax downstream of the exit plane of the vane cascade. Experiments were also conducted for a baseline-shaped hole (777-hole) for a direct comparison. Results showed that the SJ hole has a wider coolant spreading in the lateral direction near the hole exit due to its sweeping motion that improves the overall cooling performance particularly at high blowing ratios (BR > 1). Aerodynamic loss measurement suggested that the SJ hole has a comparable total pressure loss to the 777-shaped hole.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2023

Turbine airfoil with leading edge cooling passage(s) coupled via plenum to film cooling holes, and related method

A turbine airfoil includes a body including a wall defining pressure and suction sides, and a leading edge extending between the pressure and suction sides. A cooling circuit inside the wall of the body includes at least one of: a) a suction side to pressure side cooling sub-circuit including a first cooling passage(s) extending from the suction side to the pressure side around the leading edge to a first plenum, and a plurality of first film cooling holes communicating with the first plenum and extending through the wall on the pressure side; and b) a pressure side to suction side cooling sub-circuit including second cooling passage(s) extending from the pressure side to the suction side around the leading edge to a second plenum, and a plurality of second film cooling holes communicating with the second plenum and extending through the wall on the suction side.

Lacy, Benjamin Paul↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hybrid Ceramic-CMC Vane with EBC for Future Coal Derived Syngas Fired 65% Efficient Turbine Combined Cycle

The efficiency of both simple cycle and combined cycle power generation systems scale with the peak temperature at which the gas exits the combustor to drive the turbine. In conventional systems, a substantial fraction of the total turbine core flow exiting the compressor is diverted downstream to cool metallic turbine hardware rather than power the turbine, much of which is used to cool the first-stage turbine vane. The use of coal derived syngas fuels provides an additional challenge to the lifetime of materials utilized in the turbine, as particulate byproducts created in the coal gasification process melt in the combustion gas, and can subsequently deposit and interact with the turbine hardware. The development of durable hot-section materials capable of operating at temperature well above that of single crystal superalloy airfoil/zirconia based thermal barrier coatings is critical to realizing 65% efficient coal derived syngas fired gas turbine based power systems. To enable higher turbine inlet temperatures while lowering cooling air requirements, United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), the central R&D laboratory supporting UT Pratt & Whitney, led the conceptual design of a new type of ceramic composite turbine hot section materials system. The design focused on a novel hybrid monolithic ceramic-fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composite (CMC) first stage turbine vane having an environmental barrier coating. By utilizing ceramic construction in the turbine hot-section, the core flow normally used to cool metallic components will be substantially reduced, increasing efficiency and reducing emissions. To provide the framework for future demonstration testing, UTRC partnered with University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center (UNDEERC) to provide a conceptual design for a gasified coal fed high-pressure turbine combustor system designed to mimic the conditions expected in a future 65% fuel to busbar efficient syngas fueled gas turbine based combined cycle. The UNDEERC and UTRC collaborated on characterizing dusts from coal gasifier filtration systems.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗