Application of a Ranque–Hilsch Vortex Flow in an Internal Cooling of a Gas Turbine Engine Blade

Abstract

The efficiency of a gas turbine engine is directly impacted by the turbine inlet temperature and the corresponding pressure ratio. A major strategy, aside from the use of costly high-temperature blade materials, is increasing the turbine inlet temperature by internally cooling the blades using pressurized air from the engine compressor. Understanding the fluid mechanics and heat transfer of internal blade cooling is, therefore, of paramount importance for increasing the temperature threshold, hence increasing engine efficiency. This article presents modeling and test results of a novel cooling approach, one in which the Ranque–Hilsch vortex flow is adopted for the first-row gas turbine blade cooling. Simulation and test results demonstrate the successful formation of continuous Ranque–Hilsch vortex flow by injecting compressed air into a cylindrical chamber equipped with seven air inlets. At an inlet pressure of 100 kPa, the outlet temperature from the vortex tube dropped 255 °C, which allowed the blade temperature to cool by 47 °C. When a total inlet pressure of 300 kPa was admitted, the drop-in temperature reached 65 °C. The device has the potential to drop the cooling air temperature below the freezing point with increased inlet pressure. The thermal efficiency of the gas turbine blade increased by about 3% when vortex cooling with 10% mass of partially compressed air was extracted at about 910 kPa. For the tested scenario of a 17 MW power output, the partial extraction had a better efficiency increment than extraction at full compression, which was 1200 kPa.