© 2022 IJRAR April 2022, Volume 9, Issue 2 www.ijrar.

org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

Turbine Blade cooling Analysis Using Liquid

Coolants
A comparative study between air coolant and liquid coolant
1
Gampa Yashwanth Krishna, 2Shyam Sundar Kushana, 3Rathod Roshan Nayak, 4Muraharikar Praveen, 5Gampala Sai
Phanindra, 6Ujjal Kalita
1
Student at Lovely Professional University, 2Student at Lovely Professional University, 3Student at Lovely Professional
University, 4Student at Lovely Professional University, 5Student at Lovely Professional University, 6 Assistant Professor.
School Of Mechanical Engineering,
Lovely Professional University, City, Country.

Abstract: An analysis has been undertaken to know the performance of liquid coolant over traditional air coolant. The analysis has
been performed using different liquid coolants. The results are compared with the air coolant. The k-ε turbulence model is used in
order to generate the results in ANSYS CFX. The data has been taken from websites and other research papers.

Index Terms - Turbine Blade cooling, Liquid Cooling, Turbine, Dynalene HC-30

I.INTRODUCTION
These days every airplane flying in the air is equipped with a sophisticated cooling system and this system plays a major role in
airplane flight. One of the main roles of this cooling system is to keep the temperature of the engine body parts in a safe and operable
range and to avoid the failure of engine parts especially the turbine blade due to the very high working temperature of the engine.
Right from the beginning era of the evolution of the jet engines, melt down of the turbine blade due to high working temperature
was always an issue. The cooling systems made it possible to operate the engines by tackling the above problem. The cooling
systems are playing an important role by maintaining the safe operational temperature range but at the same time these cooling
systems are imposing a limitation on maximum turbine inlet temperature. But the efficiency of the engine will also depend on the
turbine inlet temperature, So higher the performance of the coolant, higher the turbine inlet temperature and thus higher efficiency.
We believe that higher cooling performance can be obtained by using liquid coolants and this paper consists of the research work
to evaluate the performance of liquid coolant. This study was done by using liquid coolant, which can be used as a substitute to the
air.

Literature Survey:

Coolant

Most of the gas turbine engines are using air as a coolant. Researchers are working on alternatives for air as a coolant, liquids may
emerge as a substitute coolant to air. Which will enhance and optimize the cooling efficiency. There are many liquid coolants
available to cool the blade such as water, ammonium chloride, liquid metals and Dynalene HC-30 etc. for our design model analysis
we selected the liquid coolants as Dynalene HC 30, Water, 50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol mixture.[1]
Dynalene HC 30 is a potassium format heat transfer fluid, it is prepared based on water, also it is non- toxic, eco-friendly, non
flammable and non hazardous fluids and has a good capacity of heat transfer. The heat transfer performance of the Dynalene HC
30, Water, 50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol are better than other liquid coolants such as Calcium Chloride etc. which have excellent
thermo-physical properties and these work as efficient coolants at various temperature ranges. And one of the best advantages is
that these coolants have the property of corrosion protection with most of the metals and at very high temperatures these have very
good thermal stabilities. Boiling and freezing points of the Dynalene HC-30 are 385K and less than 233.15K and Water/Ethylene
glycol are 380K and 236K respectively [2]

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Table 1: Coolant Properties

Coolant Thermal Specific Viscosity(cP) Density Boiling Freezing

Conductivity Heat(J/KgK) (Kg/m3) Point(°K) Point(°K)
(W/mK)

Dynalene HC-30 0.519 3100 3.70 1275 385 233.15

Water 0.58 4181 1 1000 373 273

50-50 0.402 3283 2.51 1082 380 236

Water/Ethylene
Glycol

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Designing

A turbine blade has been designed in CATIA V5, the blade parameters and specifications have been obtained from [3][4],
furthermore modifications have been made to the blade to design the coolant path, the coolant path consists of a total of 18 passages
with a radius of 0.75mm. These modifications are made by researching other paper which are similar to the blade designing and
simulation.[5]

Figure 2: A depiction of turbine blade

Figure 1: Blade Side view

Table 2: Blade design specifications [3]

Chord Length 4.59cm

Max Thickness 1.13cm

Leading Edge Thickness 0.86cm

Mid-Section Thickness 1.11cm

Trailing Edge Thickness 0.14cm

Blade Height 8cm

Hole Diameter 0.150cm

Camber Length 5.48cm

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Table 3: Turbine Blade coordinates [3]

X Y Z

48.5 0.5 0

45 3.95 0

38.2 8.77 0

26 13.6 0

21.1 14.9 0

16.18 15.5 0

11.2 14.5 0

6.18 12.4 0

3.2 13.5 0

2.6 17.3 0

5.85 21.5 0

10 25 0

14.8 26.6 0

22.9 25.3 0

24.5 24.7223 0

28 23 0

33.4 19.5 0

38 15.3 0

42 10.9 0

45.5 6 0

48.5 0.5 0

Simulation

The model which was created in CATIA V5 was later imported to Ansys and an analysis has been performed in ANSYS CFX to
know the heat transfer properties, the simulation was conducted using K epsilon model [6]. The outer environment of the blade is
created by creating an enclosure around the blade in ANSYS Design Modeler [7]. Contacts are given between blade and
environment and between blade and the coolant passages in ANSYS Meshing. This simulation was done using three different liquid
coolants and results were generated using CFX.
Blade environment:
Temperature: 1100K
Velocity: 170m/s
Hot Fluid is considered as: CO2
Blade Material: titanium.
Coolant materials: Dynalene HC-30, water, 50-50 ethylene glycol/water mixture.

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Table 4: Data for Analysis

Type of flow Turbulent

Model K - epsilon

Coolants Dynalene HC 30, Water, 50-50

Water/Ethylene glycol.

Turbine temperature 1100K

Coolant temperature 263K(Dynalene HC-30), 283K(Water),

263K (50-50 Ethylene Glycol /water
mixture ) Respectively

Velocity of the coolant 70m/s

Results and Discussions:

Dynalene HC-30

Figure 3: Blade cross section using Dynalene HC-30 as coolant

Here Fig. 3 describes the temperature variations across the cross section of the turbine blade which uses Dynalene HC 30 as coolant.
The average temperature of the blade is reduced to the range of 750K by using this coolant.

Figure 4: Coolant passages consisting Dynalene HC-30

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Above Fig. 4 is about the Arrangement of the Passages inside the turbine blade and the flow path of the coolant inside the blade.
The above picture represents the temperature variations of the Dynalene hc-30 coolant inside the cooling passages. The outlet
temperature of the coolant is about 690K.

Water

Figure 5: Blade cross section using Water as coolant

This Fig.5 shows the same arrangement which has been mentioned above but the difference is the liquid coolant we used here is
water. Here in this Figure, we can clearly see the temperature variations and get that the heat transfer of the blade is considerably
low as compared to the Dynalene HC 30. The mean temperature of the blade is reduced up to 920K using water as coolant.

Figure 6: Coolant passages consisting Water

This Fig.6 shows the temperature differences in the passages arranged in the turbine blade where water is used as coolant. The
outlet temperature of the water coolant from the passages is up to 1058K.

50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol

Figure 7: Blade cross section using 50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol

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This Fig.7 shows the arrangement of the turbine blade including the Coolant passages using the 50-50 Water/Ethylene Glycol
mixture as coolant. Here the temperature variations are shown at the cross-sectional region of the blade. The mean temperature of
the blade is reduced up to 820K by using this coolant.

Figure 8: Coolant passages consisting 50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol

In this Fig.8 the Temperature variations are shown inside the coolant passages, where the coolant used in the cooling passages is
50-50 Water/Ethylene Glycol mixture. The temperature at the pressure side is more as compared to the upper side of the blade.
Outlet temperature of the coolant flown out from the coolant path is up to 1008K.

Comparative study

Figure 10: Blade cross section using Air as coolant [3] Figure 9: Coolant passages consisting air [3]
[3]Srivatsan, R., Pranav, S., Rohith, P., & Dr.Manivannan, P. (2020, May) performed the analysis of the blade using 18 passages
using air as coolant and according to the observations drawn by the authors the mean temperature of the blade is reduced to the
range of 1014K and also the outlet coolant temperature has reached up to 1050K. Comparing our results to the above observation
[3] we can conclude that Dynalene HC-30 has superior cooling effects than air, which reduced the mean blade temperature to the
range of 750K

CONCLUSION:

It has been observed that liquid coolants Dynalene HC 30, Water, 50-50 Water/Ethylene glycol are having better cooling effect
than air, as the thermal conductivity of the air is far inferior than that of Dynalene HC-30, water and water/ethylene glycol mixture.
Out of the 3 liquid coolants Dynalene HC-30 has shown better results and also at the same time the temperature of the coolant at
the outlet is in the order of 750K which is very less when compared to other coolant scenarios, also at this temperature one can
condense the coolant and reuse it if required.
It has been observed that the cooling in the leading-edge region and at sides is much higher when compared to the middle section
or to the tip.

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Table 5: Blade temperature reduction

Coolant Operational/original AVG Reduced temperature Reduced Percentage

temperature

Dynalene HC-30 750K 31.2

1100K
Water 900 18.2

50-50 Water/Ethylene Glycol 820K 24.4

mixture

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express our thanks to our supervisor Ujjal Kalita for giving us a great opportunity to excel in our learning
through this project. We gained a lot of knowledge through the research.

REFERENCES
[1]Anand, A., Kumar, R., & Pandey, M. (2022). Design and Simulation of a Compact Miniature Parallel
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Chennai-600036, Tamil Nadu, India. https://doi.org/10.1615/ihmtc-2021.3940

[2] CommonCoolant Types and their Uses in Liquid Cooling Systems | The World Leader in Thermal
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Notes/Common-Coolant-Types-and-Their-Uses-Liquid-Cooling-Systems.

[3]Srivatsan, R., Pranav, S., Rohith, P., & Dr.Manivannan, P. (2020, May). Computational Analysis of
Turbine Blade Cooling using Cylindrical Coolant Channels. International Research Journal of Engineering
and Technology(IRJET). https://www.irjet.net/archives/V7/i5/IRJET-V7I5513.pdf

[4]Andrei, L., Innocenti, L., Andreini, A., Facchini, B., & Winchler, L. (2016). Film Cooling Modeling for
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[5]Hari Brahmaiah, K., & Lava Kumar, M. (2014). Heat Transfer Analysis of Gas Turbine Blade Through
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[6]Aqeel Jomma Athab, & Dr. Naga Sarada, S. (2015). CFD Analysis of a Gas Turbine Blade Cooling in
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[7]Vinay Kumar, N., Raju, P., & Srinivasulu, P. (2016). THERMAL ANALYSIS OF A GAS TURBINE
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