Combustor Panel Cooling via Segmented Annular Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Combustor panels in gas turbine engines face challenges in cooling, particularly with bosses and webbing areas that experience high temperatures due to excess material thickness, leading to oxidation, cracking, and thermal stresses, which traditional cooling methods struggle to address effectively.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a combustor panel with a peripheral rail, bosses, and webbing that form annular channels and web pockets, providing enhanced fluid connections through rail holes, recesses, and panel holes to facilitate improved cooling, along with heat transfer augmentation features like pins, fins, or ribs to manage high temperatures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If traditional cooling methods are used on combustor panels, then the overall panel structure is maintained, but the boss and webbing areas experience high temperatures leading to oxidation, cracking, and thermal stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The panel is segmented into distinct cooling zones with separate cooling channels: annular channels surrounding the bosses and rectangular channels in the webbing areas. This segmentation allows targeted cooling of specific high-temperature regions rather than uniform cooling, effectively addressing the thermal issues in boss and webbing areas while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different cooling configurations are applied to different parts of the panel based on their specific thermal requirements. The annular channels provide cooling for the boss regions, while rectangular channels address the webbing areas. This local differentiation of cooling quality ensures that each area receives appropriate thermal management, preventing oxidation and cracking in these critical zones.
2Strength
If excess material thickness is used in bosses and webbing, then structural strength is improved, but high temperature areas are created that are difficult to cool
Solution Approach 1:
The excess material regions (bosses and webbing) are equipped with dedicated cooling channels segmented from the rest of the panel. The annular channels are specifically positioned around the bosses, and rectangular channels are placed in the webbing areas, allowing these thick sections to be actively cooled despite their inherent heat retention due to excess material thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
Fluid cooling channels are integrated directly into the boss and webbing structures. The annular channels surrounding the bosses and the rectangular channels in the webbing areas create internal fluid pathways that actively remove heat from these excess material regions, converting the thermal problem of thick sections into a manageable heat transfer system.
3Temperature
If cooling channels are added to reduce high temperature areas, then thermal stresses are reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is segmented into distinct channel types (annular channels for bosses, rectangular channels for webbing) that are strategically placed in high-temperature regions. This segmentation allows for targeted thermal management without requiring a complete cooling system throughout the entire panel, thus reducing overall complexity while effectively addressing temperature uniformity issues.
Solution Approach 2:
Cooling channels are implemented only in the specific locations where thermal problems occur (boss and webbing areas) rather than uniformly across the entire panel. This localized approach to cooling reduces the total volume of cooling channels required, simplifying the overall device complexity while maintaining effective temperature control in critical regions.
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 design effectively reduces high temperature areas on combustor panels by ensuring better airflow and heat rejection, leading to reduced thermal stresses and extended part life.
Implementation Method 1
Impingement cooling may be a process of directing relatively cool air from a location exterior to the combustor toward a back or underside of the panels. Convective cooling may be achieved by air that is trapped between the panels and a shell of the combustor.
Implementation Method 2
The combustor panels include a panel body having a peripheral rail around a periphery of the panel body, a first boss formed on the panel body and surrounding a first aperture that passes through the panel body, and a first webbing that extends from the peripheral rail toward the first boss.
Implementation Method 3
along with heat transfer augmentation features like pins, fins, or ribs to manage high temperatures
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B~3A
AI summary
Combustor panels (500; 600; 700; 800; 900) for use in gas turbine engine combustors having a panel body (501; 601; 701; 801; 901) having a peripheral rail (512; 612; 712; 812; 912) around a periphery of the panel body, a first boss (506; 606; 706; 806; 906) formed on the panel body and surrounding a first aperture (502; 602; 702; 802; 902) that passes through the panel body, and a first webbing (510a; 610a; 710a; 810a; 910a) that extends from the peripheral rail toward the first boss. A first annular channel (514; 614; 714; 814; 914) is formed between the first webbing (510a; 610a; 710a; 810a; 910a) and the first boss (506; 606; 706; 806; 906) and surrounds the first boss and a first web pocket (516; 616; 716; 816; 916) is formed within the first webbing between the peripheral rail (512; 612; 712; 812; 912) and the first boss and defines a local extension of the first annular channel (514; 614; 714; 814; 914) extending from the first boss to the peripheral rail.