Turbine blade cooling

Turbine blade cooling:

Recent transport turbine engines such as PW 4000 and GE
90 have turbine inlet temperature of the order of 1380 deg
C
This tem is high enough to soften the blade material
High gas temperature accelerates oxidation and creep
deformation of components
Only air cooling is found practical in aircraft gas turbines.
Air is bled from the compressor, carried aft and passed
through the passages in turbine blades through their roots
Air also cools the turbine disc
The first stage turbine nozzles (guide vanes) and casing are
also cooled.
Cooling of turbine blades can be through
i) Jet of air impinging on inside of leading edge
ii) Convection cooling due to flow of air through blade
internal passages
iii) Film cooling due to film of air directed chordwise over the
blade surface

Typical magnitude of cooling air required for a turbine

stage:
Designed to operate at 1500 deg K
fraction of entry gas mass flow
annular wall = 0.016
nozzle blades= 0.025
rotor blades=
0.019
rotor disc=
0.005
total=
0.065

Turbine blade cooling

HP turbine may work at temperatures of about 2000 K,
greater than the melting point of the leading nickel-based
alloys from which they are cast. Therefore, the HP blades,
non rotating guide vanes, and seal segments are cooled
internally and externally using cooling air from the exit of
the HP compressor at a temperature of about 1000 K
(achieved through compression) at a pressure which is only
about 2 bar greater than the inlet turbine pressure.

Turbine blade cooling air passages

Cooling performance parameter:

It is called blade relative temperature = (Tb Tcr ) /
(Tg Tcr )
where Tb = mean blade temperature
Tcr = coolant temperature at inlet
= compressor delivery temperature
Tg = mean effective gas temperature
= static temperature + 0.85xstagnation
temperature

Turbine blade cooling: technology

development

Internal and film cooling

of HP turbine blades

HP turbine cooling air flow

Cooling of HP turbine blades

Rolls-Royce Spey turbine blade

Nozzle guide vane and

turbine blade cooling
arrangement
Rolls Royce system

Trent 500 hp
turbine blade

Coolant feeding in Rolls Royce turbines:

Although multi-passes is widely applied in
current advanced turbine blade cooling, the
main difference between Rolls-Royce and
other gas turbine providers is the way of
coolant feeding. Traditionally, Rolls-Royce
prefers to apply both HP air and LP air to
cool the same blade, which is seldom
adopted by the other companies. The HP air
is used as main cooling circuit and provides
film cooling for the leading edge and
pressure side, while LP air is used to cool
the leading edge in convection cooling and
discharged from the tip.

Turbine blade cooling technology [Pratt & Whitney]