Effects of baffles and vortex generators on cooling performance of a gas turbine combustion chamber: Numerical assessment

Abstract

In this work, the effect of using baffles and vortex generators on the cooling performance of a gas turbine combustion chamber is numerically investigated. The RNG k-ɛ model is utilized in order to simulate the flow turbulence. The effects of baffles and vortex generator pitch, hydraulic diameter and bypass ratio on the Nusselt number and friction coefficient at different Reynolds number are studied. The cooling performance of applying baffles and vortex generators are also evaluated and compared based on the Performance Evaluation Criterion (PEC). The numerical results are verified with available experimental data. The results show that the pitch increment results in the decrement of the Nusselt number and the wall friction coefficient due to the lower vortices generation and the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation. Also, the Nusselt number is increased by increasing both the bypass ratio and the hydraulic diameter. It is also found that vortex generators and baffles improve the cooling performance of the gas turbine combustion chamber by 18.8% and 26% respectively through decreasing the external wall temperature.

Keywords

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Baffles and vortex generators
• Gas turbine cooling methods
• Turbulence
• Performance evaluation criteria