Impact of Turbine-Strut Clocking and Turbine Outlet Swirl on the Heat Transfer and Film Cooling in an Aggressive Turbine Center Frame

Abstract This study focuses on the thermal impact of the clocking position of the high-pressure turbine (HPT) vanes with respect to the turbine center frame (TCF) struts and the thermal impact of the HPT outlet swirl. The TCF is a stationary duct equipped with nonturning airfoils (struts), and it connects the HPT to the low-pressure turbine (LPT). The heat transfer coefficient and the purge film cooling effectiveness are measured in an aggressive TCF for two turbine-strut clocking positions and two HPT outlet swirl levels. The measurements are carried out in a product-representative 1.5-stage HPT-TCF-LPT vane configuration under Mach similarity. The unshrouded HPT is fully purged with four individually adjustable purge flows, and the film cooling effectiveness of these purge flows in the downstream TCF is investigated. The biggest influence of turbine-strut clocking was found for the heat transfer coefficient on the struts. By clocking the HPT vanes by half a vane pitch from the thermally least to the most favorable position, a significant heat transfer reduction was achieved for both the nominal and the increased HPT outlet swirl. Increasing the HPT outlet swirl increased the flow incidence of the TCF struts and affected the heat transfer along the struts significantly. On the TCF hub, the averaged heat transfer coefficient and the averaged purge film cooling effectiveness responded relatively robustly to all imposed operating point deviations with differences of less than 2%. However, the effects on the local heat transfer and film cooling distributions on the hub were more significant.