Patent Application
20140178207
The present invention relates to an aerofoil structure, typically of a turbine blade for a gas turbine engine, and in particular a structure of the tip of the aerofoil.
For turbine rotor blades and particularly high pressure (HP) turbine blades, there is an industry wide and an ever-important object to minimise over-tip leakage of hot working gases between a tip of the blades and a casing. In general, there are three types of tip geometry configurations which attempt to minimise over tip leakage: un-shrouded, partially shrouded and fully shrouded.
As shown in
A further example is shown in
In either the squealer or winglet blade configurations, the function of the cavity 122 or channel 134 is to trap working gas that leaks over the peripheral wall on the pressure side of the blade. The trapped gas forms one or more vortices within the cavity or channel and/or over the outward surface of the tip fins 118, 120 or wings 126, 128. These vortices inhibit the over-tip leakage flow continuing to the suction side. These configurations serve to avoid losses in efficiency caused by working gas leakage over the turbine blade tips and also to avoid losses caused by flow disturbances set up by the leakage flow. However, a disadvantage of these configurations is that they are complex and as a result are difficult to manufacture. Furthermore, the increased surface area associated with these configurations leads to an increased heat load in the tip of the blade and it is difficult to achieve effective cooling of these blade configurations. Thus both designs are prone to degradation and short in-service life caused by high temperatures and severe thermal gradients.
A further disadvantage of the winglet configuration is the additional weight of the blade tip; this is a particular issue considering the very high centrifugal forces present in a modern gas turbine engine.
The squealer configuration particularly suffers from relatively high heat transfer into the blade and has limited cooling; therefore in-service life of the blade is compromised.
Thus the current squealer configuration leads to conflicting performance characteristics between the aerodynamics and heat transfer.
The present invention seeks to address the issues of minimizing over tip leakage and cooling the tips of blades.
In a first aspect of the invention there is provided a rotor stage of a turbine comprising a rotational axis, a shroud and radially inward thereof a turbine blade defined partly by a pressure side wall, a suction side wall and a tip portion, the tip portion has a pressure side tip rib and a tip cavity floor defining a tip cavity, the pressure side tip rib has a width Wps, a height Hps above the tip cavity and defines a tip gap Gps with the shroud, the pressure side tip rib has a sloping side joining the tip cavity floor and having an angle αps to a radial line ZZ, the width Wps is in the range Gps to 5Gps, the height Hps is in the range 5Gps to 15Gps and the angle αps is in the range 20° to 70°.
The sloping side provides more flexibility for the positioning of cooling chambers within the blade so as to achieve improved cooling of the blade tip.
An angle in the range of 20° to 70° is selected because this provides a balance between providing an increased space for cooling chambers within the blade tip and the need to ensure good aerodynamic performance. It has been found that with this angle range open type flow separation occurs over the rib, leading to a large vortical flow structure in the tip cavity, the above selected angle ensuring that there is a sufficiently large cavity volume to ensure such a vortical flow structure.
Aerodynamic performance has been found to be improved with a smaller width Wps. However, a problem with squealer tips of the prior art is that a smaller width Wps results in a higher specific heat load per unit volume, and hence increased problems of internal cooling. The present inventors have found that providing a sloping side enables the space within which a cooling cavity can be located to be increased compared to the prior art, so that cooling of the tip can be improved whilst having an aerodynamically beneficial width Wps. In some cases it may be possible to reduce the width Wps to a width narrower than the prior art.
The width Wps may be in the range 2Gps to 3Gps, the height Hps may be in the range 7Gps to 8Gps and the angle αps may be in the range 40° to 60°. An angle between 40 to 60° increases the flexibility for the provision of cooling chambers, whilst maintaining a large tip cavity.
The width Wps may be approximately 2.5Gps, the height Hps may be approximately 7Gps and the angle αps may be approximately 45°.
The sloping side may extend to a maximum radial extent of the turbine blade. That is, the pressure side tip rib may have a radially outer surface and the sloping side may extend directly between the radially outer surface and the tip cavity floor. For example, the pressure side tip rib could be considered to be trapezoidal in shape with the side of the trapezium on the pressure side of the turbine blade forming a right angle with what could be considered the base of the trapezium. Such an arrangement of the sloping side increases the volume of the pressure side tip rib which increases the flexibility for positioning and sizing of cooling chambers within the turbine blade.
The tip portion may have a suction side tip rib, the suction side tip rib may have a width Wss and may define a tip gap Gss with the shroud, the suction side tip rib may have a sloping side joining the tip cavity floor and having an angle αss to a radial line ZZ, the width Wss may be in the range Gss to 5Gss, the height Hss may be in the range 5Gss to 15Gss and the angle αss may be in the range 20° to 70°. Such a construction and dimensions of the suction side tip rib has similar advantages to the pressure side tip rib, but on the suction side of the turbine blade.
The width Wss may be in the range 2Gss to 3Gss, the height Hss may be in the range 7Gss to 8Gss and the angle αss may be in the range 40° to 60°.
The width Wss may be approximately 2.5Gss, the height Hss may be approximately 7Gss and the angle αss may be approximately 45°.
The sloping side may extend to a maximum radial extent of the turbine blade. That is, the suction side tip rib may have a radially outer surface and the sloping side may extend directly between the radially outer surface and the tip cavity floor. For example, the suction side tip rib could be considered to be trapezoidal in shape with the side of the trapezium on the suction side of the turbine blade forming a right angle with what could be considered the base of the trapezium. Such an arrangement of the sloping side increases the volume of the suction side tip rib which increases the flexibility for positioning and sizing of cooling chambers within the turbine blade.
The turbine blade may comprise a rib that extends around the tip of the turbine blade, wherein the rib comprises the pressure side tip rib and the suction side tip rib.
The width of the tip rib, and/or the width Wps of the pressure side tip rib and/or the width Wss of the suction side tip rib may vary around the turbine blade. Such an arrangement permits the width of the rib(s) to be varied so that the width of the rib(s) can be reduced where the cooling requirements are less. For example, the width Wss may be made thinner than the width Wps because there are less cooling requirements on the suction side. Reducing the width Wss advantageously reduces the weight of the turbine blade.
The rib that extends around the tip of the turbine blade may have a sloping side joining the tip cavity floor. The angle of the sloping side of the rib, and/or the angle αps of the pressure side tip rib and/or the angle αss of the suction side tip rib may vary around the turbine blade. For example, the angle αps of the pressure side tip rib may be approximately 40° and the angle αss of the pressure side tip rib may be approximately 60°. The angle may be selected to suit the local heat load at the respective position of the rib.
A cooling gallery may be defined at least partly within the tip rib (e.g. the pressure side tip rib, the suction side tip rib, and/or the entire tip rib that extends around the tip of the turbine blade and comprises the pressure side tip rib and the suction side tip rib). Extending the cooling gallery into the tip rib improves cooling of the blade tip. Improved cooling can contribute to extended blade life span. Furthermore, improving the cooling of the blade tip means that it is possible to further reduce the width Wps so as to improve aerodynamic performance.
At least 30% of the cooling gallery may be defined in the tip rib. For example, at least 40% or at least 50% of the cooling gallery may be defined in the tip rib.
The blade may comprise an internal cooling passage. The blade may comprise a cooling hole extending from the internal cooling passage to the cooling gallery. Alternatively, the cooling gallery may be an extension of the internal cooling passage.
A cooling gallery may be defined wholly within the tip rib (e.g. the pressure side tip rib, the suction side tip rib, and/or the entire tip rib).
A cooling gallery may be located at least partly above the tip cavity floor. For example, the cooling gallery may extend into the tip rib in a radial direction by approximately a distance of at least one third of Hps radially outward from (or above) the floor of the tip cavity, alternatively by a distance of at least one half of Hps. The further the cooling gallery extends into the tip rib the greater the cooling of the tip rib.
At least a major portion of the cooling gallery may be situated radially outward of the floor of the cavity.
A cooling gallery may be located above or radially outwardly of the floor of the tip cavity, e.g. entirely above (or radially outward from) the tip cavity floor.
At least one cooling hole may extend from the cooling gallery to an external surface of the tip rib, an inlet of the cooling hole may be located radially outwardly of the floor of the tip cavity.
A first cooling hole may extend from the cooling gallery to the pressure side of the pressure side tip rib and a second cooling hole may extend to a position at or near a junction between an outer radial surface of the pressure side tip rib and the sloping side. In such an embodiment, the first and second cooling holes provide the function of film cooling, and the second cooling hole additionally contributes to controlling flow separation, which can further improve aerodynamic performance.
The cooling gallery may extend from the pressure side to the suction side.
The cooling gallery may be formed of an array of cooling sub-galleries.
The tip cavity may be defined by curved surfaces forming the outer surface of a wall of generally constant thickness.
With reference to
The gas turbine engine 10 works in a conventional manner so that air entering the intake 11 is accelerated by the fan 12 to produce two air flows: a first air flow A into the intermediate pressure compressor 13 and a second air flow B which passes through the bypass duct 22 to provide propulsive thrust. The intermediate pressure compressor 13 compresses the air flow A directed into it before delivering that air to the high pressure compressor 14 where further compression takes place.
The compressed air exhausted from the high-pressure compressor 14 is directed into the combustion equipment 15 where it is mixed with fuel and the mixture combusted. The resultant hot combustion products then expand through, and thereby drive the high, intermediate and low-pressure turbines 16, 17, 18 before being exhausted through the nozzle 19 to provide additional propulsive thrust. The high, intermediate and low-pressure turbines respectively drive the high and intermediate pressure compressors 14, 13 and the fan 12 by suitable interconnecting shafts.
The performance of gas turbine engines, whether measured in terms of efficiency or specific output, is improved by increasing the turbine gas temperature. It is therefore desirable to operate the turbines at the highest possible temperatures. For any engine cycle compression ratio or bypass ratio, increasing the turbine entry gas temperature produces more specific thrust (e.g. engine thrust per unit of air mass flow). However as turbine entry temperatures increase, the life of an un-cooled turbine falls, necessitating the development of better materials and the introduction of internal air cooling.
In modern engines, the high-pressure turbine gas temperatures are hotter than the melting point of the material of the blades and vanes, necessitating internal air-cooling of these airfoil components. During its passage through the engine, the mean temperature of the gas stream decreases as power is extracted. Therefore, the need to cool the static and rotary parts of the engine structure decreases as the gas moves from the high-pressure stage(s), through the intermediate-pressure and low-pressure stages, and towards the exit nozzle.
Internal convection and external coolant films are the prime methods of cooling the gas path components such as aerofoils 36, platforms 34, shrouds 33 and casing shroud segments 35 etc. High-pressure turbine nozzle guide vanes 31 (NGV) consume the greatest amount of cooling air on high temperature engines. High-pressure blades 32 typically use about half of the NGV coolant flow. The intermediate-pressure and low-pressure stages downstream of the HP turbine use progressively less cooling air.
The high-pressure turbine airfoils are cooled by using high-pressure air from one of the compressors that has by-passed the combustor and is therefore relatively cool compared to the gas temperature. Typical cooling air temperatures are between 800 and 1000 K, while gas temperatures can be in excess of 2100 K.
The cooling air from the compressor that is used to cool the hot turbine components is not used fully to extract work from the turbine. Therefore, as extracting coolant flow has an adverse effect on the engine operating efficiency, it is important to use the cooling air as effectively as possible.
Ever increasing gas temperature levels combined with a drive towards flatter combustion radial temperature profiles, in the interests of reduced combustor emissions, have resulted in an increase in local gas temperature experienced by the extremities of the blades and vanes, and the working gas annulus end-walls.
Referring to
In this exemplary embodiment, a multi-pass cooling passage 38 is fed cooling air 42 by a feed passage 40 formed in the root portion 44 of the blade. A second cooling air feed 60 can supply additional coolant for the trailing edge 50 of the blade that can be particularly prone to thermal erosion. Cooling air leaves the multi-pass cooling passage through effusion holes 62, 64 in the aerofoil surfaces and particularly in the leading and trailing edges 48, 50 of the blade to create a film of cooling air over the aerofoil surfaces 37, 38. The block arrows in
Radially outwardly of the turbine blade is the casing shroud segment 35 and partially shown a tip clearance control arrangement 66 capable of cooling or heating the shroud segment 35 to dilate or contract the shroud segments to maintain a desired position relative to the blade tip. As is well known in the tip clearance control field cooling or heating fluid can be fed via holes 68 to impinge onto the shroud segment. Other mechanical tip clearance control systems, whether active or scheduled, can be used and are well known in the art.
Referring now to
The problems of known blade tip configurations as described in the background section, are greatly resolved by the present tip configuration by a tip rib having the width Wps in the range Gps to 5Gps, the height Hps is in the range 5Gps to 10Gps and the angle αps is in the range 20° to 60°.
A particularly effective envelope of the pressure side tip rib dimensions is considered to be that the width Wps is in the range 2Gps to 5Gps, the height is in the range 7Gps to 15Gps and the angle αps is in the range 40° to 60°. One example of a tip rib has its dimensions where the width Wps is approximately 2.5Gps, the height is approximately 7Gps and the angle αps is approximately 45°.
The gap Gps is a nominal gap size at an engine or a rotor stage design point. This design point is can be at a number of engine or rotor operational conditions such as at cruise or take-off. During a normal flight cycle the engine and rotor stage are usually at the cruise condition for the longest period of time and therefore the design point is chosen here to provide the greatest efficiency. The design point can also be at take-off where the engine is producing its greatest thrust and therefore the working gas is at its hottest and greatest flow. Thus at take-off conditions it can be advantageous to design the gap Gps to occur. As is well known, tip clearance control systems can be used in an attempt to maintain the gap Gps to its design point.
Of primary importance is the above defined pressure side tip rib; however, the suction side tip rib is also instrumental in reducing over tip leakage and heat loading in to the blade. Thus the presently described blade comprises the tip portion 46 having a suction side tip rib 72. The suction side tip rib has a width Wss and defines a tip gap Gss with the shroud 35. The suction side tip rib 72 has a sloping side 80 joining the tip cavity floor 74 with its radially outer surface 73. The sloping side 80 has an angle αss to a radial line ZZ. In general, the width Wss is in the range Gss to 5Gss, the height Hss is in the range 5Gss to 10Gss and the angle αss is in the range 20° to 70°.
A particularly effective envelope of the suction side tip rib dimensions is considered to be that the width Wss is in the range 2Gss to 3Gss, the height Hss is in the range 7Gss to 15Gss and the angle αss is in the range 40° to 60°. One example of a tip rib has its dimensions where the width Wss is approximately 2.5Gss, the height Hss is approximately 7Gss and the angle αss is approximately 45°.
The pressure side tip rib 70 described above can be used in conjunction with a conventional rectangular tip rib on the suction side or the above described suction side tip rib 72. The suction side tip rib 72 described above can also be used in conjunction with a conventional rectangular tip rib on the pressure side.
The sloping side of the suction side rib may be angled at a different angle αss to the angle αps of the sloping side of the pressure side rib. For example, the angle αps may be 40° and the angle αss may be 60°, or any other angle within the range specified, the angle being selected to suit local heat loading. The angle of the sloping side may continuously vary around the aerofoil to further tune the sloping sides to local heat loading. In alternative embodiments the angle αps of the sloping side of the pressure side rib may be equal to the angle αss of the sloping side of the suction side rib.
The dimensions of the tip ribs 70, 72 may be constant along the chord of the blade from the leading to the trailing edge. Alternatively, the dimensions of the tip ribs 70, 72 may vary in any one of more of their dimensions for the best possible aerodynamic shape to minimise over tip leakage. Any variation in the dimensions can be because of the curvature of the blade between leading and trailing edges and/or the direction of the working gases and/or the mass flow of the over tip leakage flow. Further, varying the dimensions of the tip rib can reduce the weight of the blade.
A further and important aspect of the above described dimensions of the tip ribs is that their cross-sectional profile lends itself to improved cooling or coolability over conventional tip ribs. As can be seen in
Coolant 84 is fed from one of the main multipass cooling passages 38 through a supply passage 86 and into the tip rib cooling gallery 82. The gallery 82 can supply any one or more cooling holes 87, 88, 89 that can be provided which in turn then supply any one or more of the external surfaces of the tip rib with coolant. Not only can the coolant in the gallery 82 remove heat by convection from the bulk mass of the blade tip rib, but also the coolant passing through the supply passage 86 can impinge on a surface of the gallery to reduce heat load. The cooling holes 87, 88, 89 can form a film of coolant over the surrounding surface to help prevent hot gases directly impinging on the surface and can also locally add to and cool the hot working gases which spill over the tip.
The gallery 82 can extend part of or all the chord length of the blade between leading edge to the trailing edge. The gallery can extend around the leading edge and/or trailing edge so that it forms a single gallery. Alternatively, the blade can include a number of galleries 82′, 82″, 82′″ aligned in the tip rib and supplied with different sources of coolant as can be seen in
The gallery 82 is shown having a cross-sectional profile generally corresponding to the profile of the tip rib so that the walls have an approximately similar thickness; however, other cross-sectional profiles can be used such as circular or elliptical.
This alternative blade also has a tip cavity 76 defined by curved surfaces 78, 74 and 80 that can help prevent localised recirculation of hot gases that spill over the tip ribs. The curved surface also helps to reduce stress at otherwise sharp geometric changes between sloping surfaces 78, 80 and the tip cavity floor.
The wall forming the tip cavity floor 74 and the surfaces 78, 80 can be formed having a generally constant thickness T. Advantageously, the aerofoil can be lighter, less complex to manufacture and can result in lower pressure loss for the coolant and supply of coolant through cooling holes 87, 88, 89.
Referring to
Referring to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1223193.2 | Dec 2012 | GB | national |
