Gas Turbine Blade Top Plate Cooling Flow Passage Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing blade designs for gas turbines face inefficiencies in cooling the thinning and top plate, as the cooling medium's temperature increases before reaching these areas, potentially leading to inadequate cooling and reduced turbine efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The blade design incorporates a top plate flow passage with an inlet flow passage closer to the suction side, a main flow passage intersecting the camber line, and an outlet flow passage on the pressure side, allowing the cooling medium to effectively cool the thinning and top plate through convection and film cooling, thereby efficiently utilizing the cooling medium.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the cooling medium flows through the main flow passage first before reaching the thinning, then the cooling medium can cool the top surface, but the temperature of the cooling medium increases and the thinning cannot be sufficiently cooled
Solution Approach 1:
The top plate flow passage is divided into three distinct segments: an inlet flow passage that supplies cooling medium to the thinning, a main flow passage that cools the top surface, and an outlet flow passage that discharges the cooling medium. This segmentation allows the cooling medium to cool the thinning first with lower temperature, then continue to cool the top surface, maximizing the cooling effectiveness of each region.
Solution Approach 2:
The inlet flow passage is positioned closer to the suction side than the camber line, enabling the cooling medium to reach and cool the thinning before it flows through the main flow passage. This preliminary cooling action ensures that the thinning, which is a critical heat-prone area, receives the coldest cooling medium first.
2Temperature
If more compressed air is used for cooling the thinning and top plate, then the cooling effectiveness improves, but the overall efficiency of the gas turbine decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling medium flows continuously through the inlet flow passage, main flow passage, and outlet flow passage in sequence, performing useful cooling action at multiple locations. The cooling medium cools the thinning first, then continues to cool the top surface through the main flow passage, ensuring continuous and efficient heat removal without requiring additional cooling air.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes the parameters of the top plate flow passage, including the positioning of the inlet flow passage closer to the suction side than the camber line and the outlet flow passage closer to the pressure side, to enhance cooling efficiency and reduce the quantity of cooling air required.
3Ease of operation
If the cooling medium is discharged from the pressure side, then film cooling can be performed along the top surface, but the cooling medium must have sufficient cooling capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The top plate flow passage is segmented into three parts, with the outlet flow passage positioned closer to the pressure side than the camber line. This segmentation allows the cooling medium to discharge from the pressure side, forming a protective film that flows along the top surface toward the suction side, providing effective film cooling.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling medium undergoes preliminary cooling of the thinning and top surface through the inlet and main flow passages before reaching the outlet flow passage. This preliminary action ensures that even after traveling through the entire passage, the cooling medium retains sufficient cooling capacity to perform effective film cooling when discharged from the pressure side.
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 configuration enables effective cooling of the thinning and top plate, reducing the amount of compressed air needed for cooling and improving the overall efficiency of the gas turbine by optimizing the use of the cooling medium.
Implementation Method 1
cool the thinning by using the cooling medium which has just flowed in from the cooling flow passage
Implementation Method 2
cool the top surface by convection cooling
Implementation Method 3
film cooling can be performed
Data Source
AI summary
A blade includes a blade body with a cooling flow passage through which a cooling medium is configured to flow. The blade body includes a top plate, and a thinning which is defined on a top surface of the top plate, closer to a suction side than a camber line, and which protrudes and extends along the camber line. A top plate flow passage is defined inside the top plate and includes an inlet flow passage which is closer to the suction side than the camber line and into which the cooling medium is configured to flow, a main flow passage which extends in a direction intersecting the camber line along the top surface, and an outlet flow passage through which the cooling medium is configured to be discharged to an outside of the blade body from a position closer to a pressure side than the camber line.