Properties of hybrid fibre reinforced shell for investment casting

In order to improve the properties of silicon sol shell for investment casting process, a varying content of hybrid fibres (aluminium silicate and polypropylene) was introduced into slurry for preparation of fibre-reinforced shell in the present work. The bending strength, self-load deformation at elevated temperature, and the permeability of fibre-reinforced shell specimens were investigated and the fracture surfaces of shell specimens were observed by SEM. The results show that the bending strength of green shell increases with content of fibres in it. The maximum bending strength of 4.96 MPa was obtained in the fired shell with 0.6 wt% hybrid fibres addition. The high temperature self-loaded deformation of specimens of shell reinforced with a hybrid fibre addition above 0.6 wt% is higher than that of the unreinforced. However, the shell with a hybrid fibre addition up to 0.4 wt% exhibits the lower self-loaded deformation at high temperature compared to the unreinforced. It is also found that the permeability of shell specimens can be improved by hybrid fibres addition. Based on the fracture surfaces observation using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), the failure mode of the green shell reinforced with hybrid fibres is identified as fibre rupturing from the substrate of shell specimens, and/ or debonding from adhesive film surrounding it in shell. Even though the specimens of shell being fired at 900 °C for 2 h, the same failure features also exist in the fracture surfaces of specimens. This indicates that the specimens of shell can still be reinforced with aluminium silica fibres (residue of hybrid fibres) for their interpenetrating fibres network structure although go through firing.     

Flexible distributed heterogeneous computing in traffic noise mapping

In China, fast city rebuilding poses the challenge of frequent refresh cycle of urban traffic noise mapping. Computational complexity and lack of resources are the primary bottleneck in traffic noise mapping. In this paper, we present a flexible distributed heterogeneous computing method based on GPU-CPU cooperation, which reduces the overhead, improves the efficiency of parallel computing and consistently generates good quality results for traffic noise mapping. A genetic algorithm based large-scale task partition algorithm is employed to solve load balancing problem in distributed noise mapping calculation. The methodology is evaluated by an example, whose results show that the proposed task partition method can significantly improve running efficiency. Parallel efficiency increases from 54% to 78%. In addition, test speed is further improved by 21% with the GPU-CPU collaborative computing, even with only low-end type GPUs.     

Effects of crystallographic orientations and dwell types on low cycle fatigue and life modeling of a SC superalloy

Effects of temperature (760 °C and 980 °C), crystallographic orientation ([0 0 1], [0 1 1] and [1 1 1]) and dwell types (tensile, compressive and balanced dwell type) on low cycle fatigue (LCF) of a Ni-based single crystal (SC) superalloy are experimentally investigated and modeled. Since the LCF behavior shows strong crystallographic orientation and dwell type dependences, corresponding accurate life models are needed for safe application in gas turbine components. The feasibility of stress-based, strain-based and energy based models on anisotropic fatigue behavior was evaluated. A modified Cyclic damage accumulation (CDA) method combined with critical slip plane concept is developed to correlate the influence of orientation and dwell type on LCF data.     

A study on thermo mechanical fatigue life prediction of Ni-base superalloy

Gas turbine blades are exposed to high-temperature degradation environments due to flames and mechanical loads as a results of high-speed rotation during operation. In addition, blades are exposed to thermo-mechanical fatigue due to frequent start and shutdown. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the lifetime of blade materials.In this study, the TMF life of a Ni-base superalloy applied to gas turbine blade was predicted based on LCF and TMF test results. The LCF tests were conducted under various strain ranges based on gas turbine operating conditions. In addition, IP (in-phase) and OP (out of-phase) TMF tests were conducted under various strain ranges.Finally, a fatigue life prediction model was drawn from the LCF and TMF test results. The correlation between the LCF and TMF test results was also evaluated with respect to fatigue life.     

Influence of channel aspect ratio on heat transfer in rotating rectangular ducts with skewed ribs at high rotation numbers

Centerline heat transfer measurements along two opposite ribbed walls in three rotating rectangular ducts roughened by 45° staggered ribs with channel aspect ratios (AR) of 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1 are performed at Reynolds (Re), rotation (Ro) and buoyancy (Bu) numbers in the ranges of 5000–30,000, 0–2, and 0.005–8.879, respectively. These channel geometries are in common use as the internal cooling passages of a gas turbine rotor blade and the tested Ro and Bu ranges are considerably extended from the previous experiences. This study focuses on the heat transfer characteristics in response to the change of AR under the parameter ranges examined. With zero-rotation (Ro = 0), the local Nusselt numbers (Nu₀) along the centerlines of two opposite ribbed walls increase as AR increases due to the increased rib-height to channel-height ratio. The Bu impact on heat transfer appears to be AR dependent, i.e. the increase of Bu elevates Nusselt number ratios Nu/Nu₀ in the square channel but impairs heat transfer in the rectangular channels of AR = 2 and 4. Acting by the Coriolis effect alone, all the leading edge Nu values in the present Ro range are lower than the zero-rotation references but started to recover as Ro increases from 0.1 in the channels of AR = 1, 2 and from 0.3 in the channel of AR = 4. The trailing edge Nu/Nu₀ ratios increase consistently from unity as Ro increases but their responses toward the increase of AR are less systematic than those found along the leading edge. The above findings, with the aids of extended Ro and Bu ranges achieved by this study, serve as the original contributions for this technical community. The Nu/Nu₀ ratios in the rotating channels of AR = 1, 2, and 4 fall in the ranges of 0.6–2.2, 0.5–2.7, and 0.5–2.1, respectively. A set of heat transfer correlations is derived to represent all the heat transfer data in the periodically developed flow regions of three rotating ducts.     

Conjugated heat transfer on leading edge of a wedge-shaped concave wall internally impinged by hot jets from corrugated orifice plate

An experimental and numerical investigation is conducted to study the conjugated heat transfer performance on the leading edge of a wedge-shaped concave wall subjected to external cold flow and internal hot jets impingement. A corrugated impinging plate with an extended front-extended port inside the concave cavity is proposed for the purpose of heat transfer enhancement. The effects of corrugation length-to-diameter ratio (H_j/d) ranging from 5 to 11 and width-to-diameter ratio (W_j/d) ranging from 2.5 to 6 on the conjugated heat transfer performance are examined under some representative jet Reynolds numbers (Re_j) in the range of 7900–31,700. The results show that the corrugated impinging plate has a significant impact on improving the conjugated heat transfer performance in the vicinity of concave wall leading edge. The presence of corrugation plays two roles by reducing the jet impinging distance on one hand and aggravating the jet confinement on the other hand. Therefore, it produces more complicated jet impinging flow and convective heat transfer behaviors than the baseline case without corrugation. According to the tested results, the specified area-averaged heating effectiveness is increased approximately 6.3%–18.8% under Re_j = 7900 and 2.5%–9.4% Under Re_j = 31,700 respectively by increasing the corrugation length when W_j/d is fixed as 2.5. The specified area-averaged heating effectiveness is increased approximately 16.1%–22.1% under Re_j = 7900 and 7.7%–12.7% under Re_j = 31,700 respectively by increasing the corrugation width when H_j/d is fixed as 9. In general, the corrugation with larger length and width seems to perform the better heating effectiveness over the entire concave surface. The enhancement of heating effectiveness related to the baseline case behaves more significantly under a smaller jet Reynolds number.     

Computational study of a new scheme for a film-cooling hole on convex surface of turbine blades

An investigation on a heart-shaped film cooling hole is performed for one row, two staggered rows, and three staggered rows on a convex surface. The results are compared with those obtained from a simple cylinder hole as a baseline. Three-dimensional computational study for two heart-shaped holes of two crown angles, φ = 60° and φ = 90°, is conducted to ascertain adiabatic film cooling effectiveness to validate whether a heart-shaped cooling hole mitigates the vortexes responsible for the lift-off phenomenon in conventional simple cylinder hole. This paper also attempts to show that the staggered arrangement of a heart-shaped hole provides higher cooling performance. The result reveals that a heart-shaped hole highly mitigates the vortexes, thereby providing more coolant-surface attachment. The results reflect the tremendous increment in centerline and lateral adiabatic film cooling effectiveness for both crown angles, φ = 60° and φ = 90°. The heart-shaped hole of crown angle φ = 60° shows higher centerline effectiveness compared with that of the heart-shaped hole crown angle of φ = 90°. The latter provides higher lateral effectiveness. The relatively small volume and high effectiveness of the heart-shaped cooling hole is important and promising for the aero engine industry.     

Flow structures and heat transfer of swirling jet impinging on a flat surface with micro-vibrations

This study focuses on the changes in the flow characteristics of a round jet issuing from a straight tube inserted with longitudinal swirling strips and impinging on a constant-heat-flux flat surface undergoing forced vibrations in the vertical plane. Smoke flow visualization is used to investigate the nature of the complicated flow phenomena under the swirling-flow jet for this impingement cooling. Effects of flow Reynolds number (440 ⩽ Re ⩽ 27 000), the geometries of the nozzle (BR, LSS and CSS), jet-to-test plate placement (3 ⩽ H/d ⩽ 16), and surface vibration frequencies, f [0.3–10.19 Hz (the relative amplitude of the flat surface ranged from 0.5 to 8.1 mm)] are examined. In addition, correlations were developed to predict the Nusselt number for the vibration using the results of Wen and Jang [An impingement cooling on a flat surface by using circular jet with longitudinal swirling strips, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 46 (2003) 4657–4667] for the no-vibration case of the present study.     

A comparative study on showerhead cooling performance

In modern gas turbines, the turbine airfoil leading edge is currently protected from the hot gas by specific film cooling schemes, so called showerhead cooling. The present paper shows a numerical study of different showerhead cooling geometries. The 3D finite element program ABAQUS as well as a 2D finite element program have been employed to predict the showerhead cooling performance. In the numerical calculations, the different cooling effects and their contribution to the total showerhead cooling performance have been investigated separately. From the numerical calculations a simple method has been derived which enables the prediction of the performance of a 3D showerhead cooling scheme by simple 2D computations. Experimental investigations on showerhead cooling have been presented in a companion paper [C. Falcoz, B. Weigand, P. Ott, Experimental investigations on showerhead cooling on a blunt body. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, in press].     

Performance analysis on various system layouts for the combination of an ambient pressure molten carbonate fuel cell and a gas turbine

This study analyses hybrid systems combining a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) operating at ambient pressure and a gas turbine. Various possible system layouts, with the major difference among these layouts being the heating method of the turbine inlet gas, are proposed and their design performances are simulated and comparatively analyzed. Power of the MCFC in the hybrid system is explained in terms of the cathode inlet air temperature. Power of the gas turbine differs among various layouts because of large difference in the turbine inlet temperature. The direct firing in front of the turbine allows far higher turbine inlet temperature, and thus greater gas turbine power than the indirect heating of the inlet gas. The optimum pressure ratio of the directly fired system is higher than that of the indirectly fired system. The directly fired system allows not only much larger system power and higher optimum efficiency but also greater flexibility in the selection of the design pressure ratio of the gas turbine. In addition, the directly fired system can better accommodate the specifications of both current micro gas turbines and advanced gas turbines than the indirectly fired system.