Adaptive Cooling Liner Deflection for Gas Turbine Hot Spots
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine engines face inefficiencies due to excessive cooling air usage, which reduces Brayton cycle efficiency, as designers must account for unpredictable local hot spots by providing surplus cooling, even where it's not needed.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive cooling structure with a mounting support and liner where the liner deflects to form a chamber at hot spots, allowing coolant to impinge on the cold surface, optimizing cooling air usage and improving efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If surplus cooling air is provided to mitigate local hot spots, then cooling reliability is improved, but Brayton cycle efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The liner is designed with flexible material that can dynamically deflect to form chambers in response to detected hot spots, transitioning from a static structure to an adaptive one that adjusts cooling air distribution in real-time based on thermal conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible liner autonomously responds to hot spot formation by deflecting and forming chambers, enabling the system to self-regulate cooling air distribution without external control systems or sensors, directing cooling air precisely where needed
2Ease of manufacture
If uniform cooling air distribution is used, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but cooling effectiveness deteriorates due to unpredictable hot spots
Solution Approach 1:
The liner is constructed from flexible material that can deflect and deform to form chambers, utilizing flexible shell principles to create adaptive cooling structures that respond to thermal conditions while maintaining manufacturing simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the physical state and geometry of the liner from flat to deflected chamber-forming configuration in response to hot spots, dynamically altering structural parameters to optimize cooling effectiveness
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution ensures optimal cooling air usage, enhancing Brayton cycle efficiency by directing coolant only where needed, mitigating hot spots effectively without unnecessary cooling air.
Implementation Method 1
a coolant is introduced into a coolant aperture in a support and is directed into a channel between the support and a liner without impinging the coolant against the liner
Implementation Method 2
The liner wall deflects away from the support in a hot spot location, forming a chamber between the cold surface and the support
Implementation Method 3
The deflection allows the coolant to impinge on the cold surface of the liner to mitigate the effects of the hot spot
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are exemplary structures with adaptive cooling and methods of adaptively cooling structures. A liner is affixed to a support and the liner deflects away from the support when exposed to a localized hot spot in a hot fluid stream. The liner deflection creates a chamber between the liner and support, allowing cooling air to impinge against the liner, thus mitigating the effects of the hot spot. By providing impingement cooling only where needed, the amount of air needed for cooling is reduced.