Interlaced Mesh Cooling Channels for Gas Turbine Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cooling principles for gas turbine components, such as serpentine and film cooling, are inefficient in distributing cooling fluid effectively, leading to adverse temperature gradients and reduced cooling efficacy towards the tip of the component, where thermal loads are highest.
Innovation Solution
A mesh of interlaced cooling channels extending between opposing sides of the component, with fluid inlets on both sides allowing fluid to enter from opposing directions, tapering into smaller channels, and arranged in a fractal pattern to facilitate homogeneous cooling and mechanical stability, optimized through additive manufacturing techniques like selective laser melting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional cooling channels (serpentine, effusion, or film cooling) are used, then the component can be cooled during operation, but the cooling fluid distribution is inefficient leading to adverse temperature gradients and reduced cooling efficacy towards the tip of the component
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is divided into multiple independent cooling channels arranged in a mesh pattern, where each channel provides localized cooling. This segmentation allows the cooling fluid to be distributed more effectively across the component surface, eliminating the temperature gradients that occur in conventional serpentine channels while maintaining manageable complexity through modular channel design.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling channels are arranged in a two-dimensional mesh pattern across the component surface, transitioning from conventional one-dimensional serpentine paths to a multi-dimensional distribution network. This dimensional change enables simultaneous cooling of multiple regions including the component tip, improving overall cooling efficacy without significantly increasing system complexity.
2Temperature
If cooling air is branched off the standard working fluid flow, then the component can be cooled, but the cooling portion of the fluid flow does not contribute to energy conversion reducing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh cooling channel configuration provides localized cooling precisely where thermal loads are highest (hotspots), rather than uniformly cooling the entire component. This allows cooling air to be applied economically only to critical regions, minimizing the portion of fluid flow diverted for cooling while maintaining energy conversion efficiency in non-critical areas.
3Temperature
If the mesh of interior channels is densely arranged, then homogeneous cooling is achieved, but the mechanical stability of the component may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh channel density is varied locally across the component, with higher channel density in regions experiencing higher thermal loads and lower density in regions with moderate thermal loads. This non-uniform distribution achieves homogeneous cooling where needed while preserving mechanical stability in less thermally stressed areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The component structure combines cooling channels with the structural material in a composite arrangement, where the mesh pattern creates a synergistic structure that provides both thermal management and mechanical strength. The interlaced channel configuration acts as a reinforcement pattern that maintains structural integrity while enabling effective heat dissipation.
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 achieves efficient and homogeneous cooling, maintaining mechanical stability by ensuring consistent cooling efficacy across the component, reducing thermal influences, and allowing for adaptive density based on temperature loads, thereby enhancing the component's operational performance.
Implementation Method 1
a mesh or web of interior channels for guiding a fluid, such as a cooling fluid, through the component
Implementation Method 2
Flow path hardware of gas turbines is currently, e.g. required to resist temperatures of up to 1500° C. during its intended operation in order to increase energy efficiency of the respective engine
Implementation Method 3
Conventional apparatuses or setups for such methods usually comprise a manufacturing or build platform on which the component is built layer-by-layer after the feeding of a layer of base material or powder which may then be melted, e.g. by the energy of a laser beam and subsequently solidified
Implementation Method 4
The mentioned component is manufactured by means of powder bed methods, such as selective laser melting and/or electron beam melting
Data Source
AI summary
A component for a fluid flow engine, such as a gas turbine, includes a first side, e.g. a top side and a second side, e.g. a bottom side, wherein the component further includes a mesh of interior channels for guiding a fluid through the component, wherein a fluid inlet being in fluid communication with channels of the mesh is provided at the first side and at the second side, respectively, and wherein the mesh is further arranged and configured such that channels originating from the fluid inlet of the first side and channels originating from the fluid inlet of the second side are interlaced such that a fluid entering the component is at least partly guided according to opposing directions in the mesh.