Turbine Temperature Effects Test Rig

University of Arizona Senior Design Project

Sponsored by Honeywell

                

 

                 Honeywell is a leader in the research and development of gas turbines for APU’s in the development of these engines there is a lot of thermal analysis done in order to verify that these engines will work properly. Heat transfer properties currently used in the analysis of turbine design were established in 1969 by Raymond E. Chupp, Harold E. Helms, and company. They ran an experiment to determine the heat transfer properties of air jetted onto a heated, curved surface simulating the interior leading edge of a turbine blade. In this experiment the temperature difference  between the surface and the cooling fluid was only 40°Fahrenheit.

 

            

            

             In modern turbines, the temperature difference is approximately 1000°F between the cooling air and the heated surface. The data from the previously mentioned Chupp and Helms experiment is interpolated out to this operating temperature difference and used in turbine design. Turbine engineers recognize that there may be some inaccuracy in this interpolation, so excess cooling air is employed to maintain a factor of safety. However, as operating temperatures increase and efficiency is continually improved the safety cushion is getting smaller and small therefore it becomes more desirable to have concrete information characterizing the cooling air used in these turbines.

             Honeywell would like a rig developed that would replicate the experiment done by Chupp and Helms. In this experiment there primary request was that the temperature difference be greater than 400^o F.