Heat Transfer and Flow on the First Stage Blade Tip of a Power Generation Gas Turbine: Part 2 — Simulation Results

A combined experimental and computational study has been performed to investigate the detailed distribution of convective heat transfer coefficients on the first stage blade tip surface for a geometry typical of large power generation turbines (>100MW). This paper is concerned with the numerical prediction of the tip surface heat transfer. Good comparison with the experimental measured distribution was achieved through accurate modeling of the most important features of the blade passage and heating arrangement as well as the details of experimental rig likely to affect the tip heat transfer. A sharp edge and a radiused edge tip was considered. The results using the radiused edge tip agreed better with the experimental data. This improved agreement was attributed to the absence of edge separation on the tip of the radiused edge blade.