Recent Advances of Internal Cooling Techniques for Gas Turbine Airfoils

Abstract

The performance goal of modern gas turbine engines, both landbase and airbreathing engines, can be achieved by increasing the turbine inlet temperature (TIT). The level of TIT in the near future can reach as high as 1700 آ°C for utility turbines and over 1900 آ°C for advanced military engines. Advanced and innovative cooling techniques become one of the crucial major elements supporting the development of modern gas turbines, both landbased and airbreathing engines with continual increment of turbine inlet temperature (TIT) in order to meet higher energy demand and efficiency. This paper discusses stateoftheart airfoil cooling techniques that are mainly applicable in the mainbody and trailing edge section of turbine airfoil. Potential internal cooling designs for nearterm applications based on current manufacturing capabilities are identified. A literature survey focusing primarily on the past four to five years has also been performed.