Gas Turbine Component Cooling Features for Turbulent Heat Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooling techniques for gas turbine engine components, such as blade outer air seals and vanes, are limited in their ability to enhance cooling efficiency due to restrictions in the size and detail of trip strips and other cooling features.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of advanced manufacturing techniques, including tomographic layering and lithographic etching, allows for the creation of complex three-dimensional cooling features such as airfoil-shaped, wedge-shaped, and chevron-shaped trip strips, which enhance airflow turbulence and improve heat transfer within internal cavities of components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional cooling techniques are used with simple trip strip geometries, then manufacturing is easier, but cooling efficiency is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling features are segmented into multiple distinct geometric types (airfoil-shaped, wedge-shaped, chevron-shaped trip strips) that can be selectively applied to different regions of the internal cavity. This segmentation allows optimization of cooling efficiency in specific high-heat zones while maintaining manufacturability through standardized feature libraries.
Solution Approach 2:
Different cooling feature geometries are applied locally to different regions within the internal cavity based on thermal loading requirements. High-heat areas receive complex three-dimensional features for maximum cooling efficiency, while other regions use simpler geometries, optimizing the balance between cooling performance and manufacturing complexity.
2Temperature
If complex three-dimensional cooling features are implemented, then heat transfer is improved, but manufacturing difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling features transition from traditional two-dimensional flat trip strips to three-dimensional geometries with varying heights, curves, and volumetric shapes. This dimensional enhancement creates stronger vortices and turbulence in the cooling air flow, significantly improving heat transfer efficiency while advanced manufacturing techniques handle the increased geometric complexity.
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
These features increase cooling efficiency by creating vortices and turbulences, leading to enhanced convection and surface film cooling, thereby improving the thermal management of high-temperature components in gas turbine engines.
Implementation Method 1
These features increase cooling efficiency by creating vortices and turbulences, leading to enhanced convection and surface film cooling
Implementation Method 2
These features increase cooling efficiency by creating vortices and turbulences, leading to enhanced convection and surface film cooling
Implementation Method 3
cooling air that passes through an interior cavity of the component
Data Source
AI summary
A component for a gas turbine engine, including: at least one internal cavity extending through the component, the internal cavity having at least one inlet opening and at least one outlet opening each being in fluid communication with the at least one internal cavity; a plurality of cooling features extending from a surface of the at least one internal cavity, the plurality of cooling features are formed in accordance with at least one of the following groups: i) a plurality of airfoil shaped features that extend upwardly from the surface of the at least one internal cavity and a plurality of wedge shaped features each having a triangular base that has an upstream portion and a downstream portion, the upstream portion extending further from the surface than the downstream portion; ii) a plurality features having a curved or “J” shaped base that extends upwardly from the surface, a plurality features having a double curved or symmetrically “J” shaped base that extends upwardly from the surface, and a plurality features having a base that extends upwardly from the surface with a curved portion that defines an opening therethrough; iii) a first plurality of pins with a plurality of grooves that are formed into a peripheral surface of each of the first plurality of pins and a second plurality of pins with a plurality of grooves that are formed into a peripheral surface of each of the second plurality of pins the plurality of grooves formed in the peripheral surface of each of the second plurality of pins are configured such that “V” shapes or inverted “V” shapes are formed in the peripheral surface of each of the second plurality of pins; and iv) a plurality of chevron shaped trip strips that are located in a channel, the plurality of chevron shaped trip strips are spaced from each other such that a “U” shaped passage is formed therebetween and each chevron shaped trip strip has a top portion that curls inwardly towards the channel and a plurality of pairs of features that each extend from a surface of another channel towards each other where a gap is located between distal ends of the plurality of pairs of features.