Evolution of Turbine Cooled Vanes and Blades Applied for Large Industrial Gas Turbines and Its Trend toward Carbon Neutrality

Abstract

Photovoltaics and wind power are expected to account for a large share of power generation in the carbon-neutral era. A gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) with an industrial gas turbine as the main engine has the ability to rapidly start up and can follow up to load fluctuations to smooth out fluctuations in power generation from renewable energy sources. Simultaneously, the system must be more efficient than today’s state-of-the-art GTCCs because it will use either Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) when burning natural gas or hydrogen/ammonia as fuel, which is more expensive than natural gas. This paper describes the trend of cooled turbine rotor blades used in large industrial gas turbines that are carbon neutral. First, the evolution of cooled turbine stationary vanes and rotor blades is traced. Then, the current status of heat transfer technology, blade material technology, and thermal barrier coating technology that will lead to the realization of future ultra-high-temperature industrial gas turbines is surveyed. Based on these technologies, this paper introduces turbine vane and blade cooling technologies applicable to ultra-high-temperature industrial gas turbines for GTCC in the carbon-neutral era.

Advanced Gas Turbine Cooling for the Carbon-Neutral Era

“…The history of the development of cooling structures for turbine airfoils used in large industrial gas turbines, described in this section, is described in detail in Ref. [31].…”

“…In other words, the air used to cool the blades is cooled to approximately 150 • C. According to Figure 4, this cold cooling air is discharged directly to the outer surface of the blade as film cooling through a short internal cooling channel. In the F-type turbine first-stage blades designed by MHI, the cooling air is used internally as much as possible, and once the temperature has been increased as much as possible, it is discharged from the blade surface as film cooling-a concept unique to industrial gas turbines [31]. All of the blades of the 1500 • C class G-type gas turbine designed by WH were modified by MHI to achieve the optimal cooling geometry for an industrial gas turbine based on the above concept.…”

“…However, the number of cavities in the first stage of a 1200 • C class DA-type gas turbine modified by MHI was increased to three. The number of cavities in the first-stage vanes of the 1350 • C class F-type and 1500 • C class G-type turbines is also three, but the number of impingement cavities in the 1600 • C class J-type turbine is five [31]. The increase in the number of cavities is founded in the need to optimize the cooling air supply pressure and the film-cooling outflow velocity on the surface of the vane.…”

A novel method for the natural frequency estimation of the jet engine turbine blades based on its dimensions

“…Therefore big engine manufacturers such as Rolls Royce, GE Aviation, etc. have included in their manufacturing process an experimental test for the turbine blade natural frequency estimation [ 21 , 22 ]. When the experimental test is performed for the single disassembled blade for the manufacturing process, as already mentioned each blade has to be attached into the clamp, excited by a hammer and the frequency is measured using a sensor, the final step of the process is the result evaluation.…”

Study on Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics and Anti-Clogging Performance of Tree-Like Branching Microchannels

“…Virtually all modern gas turbine engines adopt high-pressure turbine components that need to be cooled with various approaches. As the cooling effectiveness rises, the temperature of the hot gas also increases, resulting in an overall increases in engine efficiency [1]. Due to the high pursuit of engine thermal efficiency and power output, the hot gas temperature has now exceeded 1800 • C, making the efficient and reliable cooling of turbine blades a severe challenge that requires an optimal cooling solution.…”