MMAE Seminar - Dr. Minking Chyu - Thermal Protection of Gas Turbine Airfoils with Additive Manufactured Near Surface Cooling Channels
Armour College of Engineering's Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering Department will welcome Dr. Minking K. Chyu, Leighton and Mary Orr Chair Professor, Associate Dean for International Initiatives at Swanson School of Engineering of the University of Pittsburgh and Dean of Sichuan University – Pittsburgh Institute, on Friday, October 28th, to present his lecture, Thermal Protection of Gas Turbine Airfoils with Additive Manufactured Near Surface Cooling Channels.
Abstract
Current and future designs for advanced turbine systems are targeting turbine inlet temperatures well beyond the substrate melting temperature, typically ranging from 1400C-1800C. Meanwhile, targeted cycle efficiency calls for a reduction of the amount of coolant air significantly below the current level. Hence the development of novel internal airfoil designs that provide a satisfactory level of component durability with affordable coolant management is critical to the further advances of today's turbine technology. Current internal cooling techniques, such as rib turbulators, pin-fins, dimples, and jet impingement, generally provide a cooling enhancement about 2 to 3 times higher than baseline configurations with coolant flowing in a straight and smooth channel. These techniques would become more effective in lowering the airfoil substrate temperature, if the internal cooling channel is located closer to the airfoil external surface, so-called the "near surface embedded channel" (NSEC). By moving the internal gas passage channels closer to the airfoil surface, NSEC can increase the heat removal capability on the order of 50-70% over that of conventional current cooling technologies. In addition, these highly distributed channels can be strategically positioned to ultimately contribute to more uniform cooling to the entire turbine airfoil accompanied with lower in-plane thermal gradients. Furthermore, NSEC, instead of being embedded in the airfoil substrate, can be housed in a protective coating layer external to the airfoil surface. Proper selection of the coating layer material with strong anti-oxidation and thermomechanical properties can further benefit the component durability and service life. This talk illustrates a design of NSEC and its realization using the state-of-the-art additive manufacturing technologies. The flow and heat transfer characteristics in the NSEC cooling channels will be discussed.
Biography
Dr. Minking K. Chyu is presently the Leighton and Mary Orr Chair Professor, Associate Dean for International Initiatives, Swanson School of Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh, and Dean of Sichuan University – Pittsburgh Institute. Dr. Chyu received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1986. He was a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University for 13 years before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. Dr. Chyu’s primary research area lies in thermal and material issues relating to energy, power and aero-propulsion systems.