Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Effusion Cooling Performance Over Combustor Liner Flat Plate Model

ABSTRACT

This article presents a study of cooling performance of combustor liner of a gas turbine, using a flat plate model. The combustion process in gas turbine engines liberates very high temperature gases, which impacts the properties of the combustor liner. Hence, cooling of liner is important and is carried out by effusion cooling method. Experiments are carried out over a flat plate with staggered effusion holes. The hot mainstream air flows at a Reynolds number of 2.325 × 10⁵, which indicates a turbulent flow. The coolant to mainstream density ratios of 1.3 and 1.5 is maintained by varying the blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 2.5. Test plate surface temperature measurements are recorded by an infrared camera and the overall cooling effectiveness in the flow direction is calculated. Numerical validation for conjugate heat transfer analysis is performed using ANSYS workbench and the temperature contours obtained are compared with infrared camera images. MATLAB program is used to obtain the effectiveness contours for experimental and computational fluid dynamics results. The effectiveness contours are found to be similar, showing the increase in effectiveness with the increase in blowing ratios. Density ratios comparison shows that with the increase in density ratio, the overall cooling effectiveness marginally decreases.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support for this work provided by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. The authors wish to thank Director, CSIR-NAL and Head, Propulsion Division for permitting this work to be done at CSIR-NAL. The authors also thank Mr. Maria Arockiam, Mr. Sanmuganantham, and Mr. Pradeep for their help in fabricating and assembling the experimental setup and test models and for their assistance during the experiments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jesuraj Felix

Jesuraj Felix is a Senior Scientist at Propulsion Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India. His research interests mainly focused on experimental heat transfer in gas turbine engines. He completed his B.E., Mechanical Engineering at P.S.N.A College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India and M.E., Thermal Engineering at Karunya Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India.

Raghavan Rajendran

Raghavan Rajendran worked as a Principal Scientist at Propulsion Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India. He received his Ph.D. in the field of Turbomachinery at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. His research interests include heat transfer and centrifugal compressors in gas turbine engines.

Gottekre Narayanappa Kumar

Gottekre Narayanappa Kumar is working as an Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. He received his Ph.D. at IIT-Delhi at 2011. He completed his B.E., Mechanical Engineering at Bangalore University and M.Tech., Heat Power Engineering at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal. His area of research includes alternative fuels for IC engines, simulation of IC engines and heat transfer. He has published many journal papers, and presented papers in national and international conferences.

Yepuri Giridhara Babu

Yepuri Giridhara Babu is working as a Senior Scientist at Propulsion Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. His research interests mainly focused on experimental heat transfer and secondary flow analysis in gas turbine engines. He completed both his B.E., Mechanical Engineering and M.E., Thermal Engineering at MS University of Baroda, India.

Malkari Katika Karthik

Malkari Katika Karthik is a CFD analyst at HCL Technologies Ltd, Bangalore. He completed his internship at Mann and Hummel Filters Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India prior to joining HCL. He studied at University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore, where he obtained his B.E. degree in 2009 and M.E. degree in 2015. He has also worked at Cognizant Technologies prior to joining M.E. degree course. He has worked on thermal analysis of cooling the combustor liner inside a gas turbine combustion chamber at National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore for his master's thesis.

Devarahalli Kempegowda Ramesha

Devarahalli Kempegowda Ramesha received B.E. from Mysore University, M.Tech from Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC), Surathkal and did his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal. He worked as a lecturer, Assistant Professor in affiliated colleges of Mysore University, Mysore, Mangalore University, Mangalore, and Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum. He is presently working as an Associate Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering in University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore University, Bangalore, India. He presented 45 technical papers in international/national seminars and published 20 papers in international journals.