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Carbondioxide at supercritical state shows particularly favorable thermodynamic properties for closed-loop Brayton and Rankine cycles. High density, close to a liquid, and low viscosity, close to a gas, drive to achieve higher energy conversion efficiency with smaller size turbines and components. Since minimizing the sCO2 leakage flows drives to a further increasing of overall efficiency, dry gas seals (DGS) are considered as a key enabling technology for achieving this purpose and for achieving a carbon footprint in line with the increasingly stringent targets. DGSs are gas-lubricated, mechanical, noncontacting, end-face seals, consisting of a mating (rotating) ring and a primary (stationary) ring. The operating equilibrium clearance of the seal is determined by the balance of opening dynamic forces, mainly depending on angular velocity and grooves shape, and closing forces caused by pressure gradients and spring force. Due to high rotational speeds, typical small size sealing gaps (order of magnitude of Micron), high fluid pressure and density, the heat generated by friction through the seal has a large impact on the temperature distribution, therefore a thermal design is needed to stay below the seal allowable temperature; this requirement has been even amplified in the last years with the DGS application to hot turbomachinery. Nowadays, numerical conjugate heat transfer (CHT) analysis is a good industrial practice to quantify the thermal distribution in turbomachinery components. On the other hand, due to different order of magnitude of secondary flows cavity sizes and DGS seal gaps, simulating the whole fluid domain with three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) calculation could drive to prohibitive computational costs. In this regard, this paper presents a fast numerical iterative procedure based on a commercial one-dimensional flow network modeler (altair flow simulator), with real gas effects included, coupled with a commercial finite element solver (ansys mechanical). Additional 3D CFD simulations are carried out to enhance the predictability of the fluid solver in specific critical areas. The proposed procedure is applied and validated in a DGS specific test bench designed, owned and operated by Flowserve. The validation dataset has been generated operating the DGS in the test bench at 15 different conditions in terms of angular velocity and housing temperature with sCO2 as working fluid aligned with those expected on the unit. Test rig consists of a rotor and housing where the turbomachine operating condition (pressure, speed, temperature and sealing fluid) are mirrored to verify the seal performance. The rig is equipped with test seal and a plug seal mounted in a back-to-back configuration. Data set used for this comparison is composed by thermocouples on the statoric rings, retainers and housing of each seal, operating at five different angular speeds and three minimum levels of housing temperature (100 °C, 210 °C, and 250 °C). These temperatures are designed to mirror turbomachinery conditions around the seal, and, if friction heat is not enough to guarantee them, a series of 18x1 kW heating elements circumferentially distributed in the test bench housing, are activated. The nominal operating condition has been considered as the starting point of the model predictions and, there, several sensitivity analyses have been carried out to align the model to test bench measurements; then, the selected configuration has been frozen and used to assess the model performance on other operating conditions. The numerical results have shown a good agreement with experimental data at each operating condition in terms of punctual temperatures previously described and with extremely low computational times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimization of the igniter position is a critical issue in modern aviation gas turbines since it can help to minimize the amount of energy required for ignition and to guarantee a fast relight in case of flameout. From a numerical perspective, several spark discharges should be simulated for each spark position, to account for different realizations due to time-dependent turbulent motions. Unfortunately, standard simulations are impractical to use for this purpose, due to the need of carrying out several unsteady simulations, leading to a huge associated computational effort. This is why low-order models have been developed, providing an affordable estimation of the local ignition probability, by sacrificing the accuracy and the physical consistency of the prediction. In the present work, a previously developed low-order design model has been implemented in ANSYS Fluent 2019R1® and used to investigate the ignition performance of a single-sector, confined spray flame, where data from laser ignition experiments are available. A non-reactive Large Eddy Simulation, which is validated against experimental data, provides the base flow needed to feed the model. If the tuning parameters of the ignition model are well calibrated, it provides quite good results. In the test case here investigated, it is shown that ignition is possible in the outer recirculation zone and very unlikely elsewhere. Later, a discussion about the effect of the most relevant tuning parameters is carried out. It is shown that the model mostly succeed to identify the area of possible ignition, even if the lack of calibration could lead to a poorer agreement with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraordinary complexity of real Rotating Detonation Combustors (RDC) demands a deep knowledge of each phenomenon involved in the wave development and propagation. Since the reactants are typically injected separately, a key element for the combustor design optimization is understanding the refilling process and the reactants mixing. However, due to the harsh environment and high working frequencies of RDCs, the experimental diagnostics is usually limited, so high-fidelity simulations represent an essential tool to complement the measurements with detailed insights into the flow. In the present work, the non-premixed RDC installed at TU Berlin is simulated with the AVBP code by solving the fully-compressible, spatially-filtered reactive Navier-Stokes equations. The complete hydrogen and air injection system is included in the numerical model to accurately describe both the reactants mixing and the complex turbulent flow field in the resulting refill region. This study shows how both the injection system configuration and its transient interaction with the wave are fundamental for the reactants mixing, as they directly influence the refilled gas properties. Limiting the imbalances between the blockage dynamics of the fuel and oxidizer ducts and optimizing the fuel injectors can improve considerably the homogeneity of the fresh mixture, and consequently the leading shock strength and reasonably the pressure gain. In fact, the detailed analysis of the detonation front speed shown a higher instability near the chamber base for the periodic presence of unmixed reactants. Nevertheless, the unstable root of the front does not affect the whole wave speed, and remaining part propagates steadily thanks to the tangential mixture uniformity. Moreover, the local speed distribution does not appear directly related to the small-scale mixture properties, indicating a higher sensibility to the annulus curvature rather than to the local gas state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate prediction of the fluid dynamic conditions at the exit of gas turbine combustors are of paramount importance in the aero-thermal design of the aero-engine. In fact, both the heat loads and the aerodynamic performance of the high pressure turbine (HPT) are substantially affected by the entry conditions, such as velocity components, temperature and turbulence intensity. The problem is particularly serious in new generation devices based on a lean burn concept. Compared to standard Rich–Quench–Lean (RQL) scheme, the absence of dilution jets and the use of highly swirled flows for flame stabilization make the control of combustor exit temperature distribution a complex task. Therefore, the high-fidelity prediction of the hot streak formation within the combustor, as well as its propagation through the HPT, are becoming key aspects. In this work, different strategies for turbulence modelling are tested, mainly focusing on scale-resolving approaches such as Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) and Scale Adaptive Simulations (SAS), which are becoming increasingly popular with the availability of more powerful computational resources. At the same time, classical eddy-viscosity models based on RANS approach are considered, as they still represent the standard simulation strategy in the industrial framework, when a fast response is required in a preliminary design phase. The different methodologies are benchmarked on an experimental test article representative of an aeronautical lean burn combustor cooled by means of effusion. The benchmark performed at engine-relevant conditions allowed to draw interesting conclusions for the purposes of the aero-thermal simulation. SAS proved to be a valid alternative to LES, returning on the whole the same level of accuracy. As expected, the disagreement obtained with RANS was significant. The sensitivity to the turbulent Prandtl number was investigated to provide an insight on its reliability in compensating the underestimation in turbulence mixing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incoming standards on NOx emissions are motivating many aero-engine manufacturers to adopt the lean burn combustion concept. One of the most critical issues affecting this kind of technology is the occurrence of thermo-acoustic instabilities that may compromise combustor life and integrity. Therefore the prediction of the thermo-acoustic behaviour of the system becomes of primary importance. In this paper, the complex interaction between the system acoustics and a turbulent spray flame for aero-engine applications is numerically studied. The dynamic flame response is computed exploiting reactive URANS simulations and system identification techniques. Great attention has been devoted to the impact of liquid fuel evolution and droplet dynamics. For this purpose, the GE Avio PERM (partially evaporating and rapid mixing) lean injection system has been analysed, focussing attention on the effect of several modelling parameters on the combustion and on the predicted flame response. A frequency analysis has also been set up and exploited to obtain even more insight on the dynamic flame response of the spray flame. The application is one of the few in the literature where the dynamic flame response of spray flames is numerically investigated, providing a description in terms of flame transfer function and detailed information on the physical phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of Lean Burn concept as basic Low- N O x scheme for future aero-engines is heavily affecting the aero-thermal design of combustors. A great amount of air is admitted through the injection system with relevant swirl components, producing very complex flow structures (recirculations, vortex breakdown) for flame stabilization. As a consequence a reduced quantity of air is available for liner cooling, pushing the adoption of high effectiveness cooling schemes. Effusion cooling represents one of the first choices due to its low weight and a relatively easy manufacturability. Liner metal temperature is kept low by the combined protective effect of coolant film, heat removal inside holes and an improved cold-side convection. In lean burn systems the evolution of film protection can be heavily influenced by the swirl flow interaction with combustor walls. The subject of this work is to investigate the effects of the realistic flow field of a lean burn injector on the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness on an effusion cooled combustor liner. A dedicated three-sector rig was designed with the aim of measuring film effectiveness with Pressure Sensitive Paint technique. Three effusion cooling geometries with different inclination angles were tested at various levels of pressure drops across the perforation, resulting in different blowing ratio values. It was also taken into consideration several flow rate levels of starter film realized by spent dome cooling air, injected through a dedicated plain slot. The analysis of film effectiveness measurements were supported by flow field investigation in the near wall region carried out by means of Particle Image Velocimetry. Results pointed out the relevant impact of combustor flow field on the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness as well as a significant role of the inclination angle, recommending a careful revision of standard design practices based on one dimensional flow assumption and suggesting possible holes arrangement optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the main findings of a numerical investigation aimed at characterizing the flow field and the wall heat transfer resulting from the interaction of a swirling flow provided by lean-burn injectors and a slot cooling system, which generates film cooling in the first part of the combustor liner. In order to overcome some well-known limitations of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach, e.g., the underestimation of mixing, the simulations were performed with hybrid RANS-large eddy simulation (LES) models, namely, scale-adaptive simulation (SAS)-shear stress transport (SST) and detached eddy simulation (DES)-SST, which are proving to be a viable approach to resolve the main structures of the flow field. The numerical results were compared to experimental data obtained on a nonreactive three-sector planar rig developed in the context of the EU project LEMCOTEC. The analysis of the flow field has highlighted a generally good agreement against particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements, especially for the SAS-SST model, whereas DES-SST returns some discrepancies in the opening angle of the swirling flow, altering the location of the corner vortex. Also the assessment in terms of Nu/Nu0 distribution confirms the overall accuracy of SAS-SST, where a constant overprediction in the magnitude of the heat transfer is shown by DES-SST, even though potential improvements with mesh refinement are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work introduces a multiphase Eulerian solver, developed in the framework of the CFD suite OpenFOAM, aimed at including all the major physical phenomena that characterize liquid fuel atomization. The study begins with the Eulerian solver derived from the Eulerian Lagrangian Spray Atomization (ELSA) model [Borghi, R., Vallet, A., Sep. 1999. Modelisation eulerienne de l'atomisation d'un jet liquide. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences - Series IIB - Mechanics-Physics-Astronomy 327 (10), 1015–1020, Vallet, A., Burluka, A. A., Borghi, R., 2001. Development of a eulerian model for the atomization of a liquid jet. Atomization and Sprays 11 (6), 619–642.]. This approach is suitable to describe the liquid-gas flow for all liquid volume fraction from bubbly, dense to spray flows without any assumption on the topology of the phase (droplets, bubbles, ligaments or any continuous structures). However, due to its single phase flow formalism, the slip velocity between phases is hidden in the turbulent liquid flux term inside the liquid volume fraction equation. An innovative second order closure for this variable is here proposed and implemented. A detailed analysis of the resulting Quasi-Multiphase Eulerian (QME) solver capabilities is performed in RANS context exploiting a jet in crossflow test case with available experimental and computational data. The test is extremely challenging as it involves a high density ratio (R) (i.e. two cases at R = 10 and R = 1000 were simulated) and it explores the entire range of liquid phase concentration from purely liquid to dispersed phase. The comparison with the experimental results shows that the proposed approach leads to a comprehensive and physically consistent description of the phenomena related to liquid injection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International standards regarding polluting emissions from civil aircraft engines are becoming gradually even more stringent. Nowadays, the most prominent way to meet the target of reducing NOx emissions in modern aero-engine combustors is represented by lean-burn technology. Swirl injectors are usually employed to provide the dominant flame stabilization mechanism coupled to high-efficiency fuel atomization solutions. These systems generate very complex flow structures, such as recirculations, vortex breakdown, and processing vortex core, which affect the distribution and therefore the estimation of heat loads on the gas side of the liner as well as the interaction with the cooling system flows. The main purpose of the present work is to provide detailed measurements of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) on the gas side of a scaled combustor liner highlighting the impact of the cooling flows injected through a slot system and an effusion array. Furthermore, for a deeper understanding of the interaction phenomena between gas and cooling flows, a standard two-dimensional (2D) particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique has been employed to characterize the combustor flow field. The experimental arrangement has been developed within EU project LEMCOTEC and consists of a nonreactive three sectors planar rig installed in an open-loop wind tunnel. Three swirlers, replicating the real geometry of a GE Avio partially evaporated and rapid mixing (PERM) injector technology, are used to achieve representative swirled flow conditions in the test section. The effusion geometry is composed by a staggered array of 1236 circular holes with an inclination of 30 deg, while the slot exit has a constant height of 5 mm. The experimental campaign has been carried out using a thermochromic liquid crystals (TLCs) steady-state technique with a thin Inconel heating foil and imposing several cooling flow conditions in terms of slot coolant consumption and effusion pressure drop. A data reduction procedure has been developed to take into account the nonuniform heat generation and the heat loss across the liner plate. Results in terms of 2D maps and averaged distributions of HTC have been supported by flow field measurements with 2D PIV technique focussed on the corner recirculation region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last ten years, there have been significant technological advances toward the reduction of NOx emissions from civil aircraft engines, strongly aimed at meeting stricter and stricter legislation requirements. Nowadays, the most prominent way to meet the target of reducing NOx emissions in modern combustors is represented by lean burn swirl stabilized technology. The high amount of air admitted through a lean burn injection system is characterized by very complex flow structures such as recirculations, vortex breakdown, and precessing vortex core (PVC) that may deeply interact in the near wall region of the combustor liner. This interaction makes challenging the estimation of film cooling distribution, commonly generated by slot and effusion systems. The main purpose of the present work is the characterization of the flow field and the adiabatic effectiveness due to the interaction of swirling flow, generated by real geometry injectors, and a liner cooling scheme made up of a slot injection and an effusion array. The experimental apparatus has been developed within EU project LEMCOTEC (low emissions core-engine technologies) and consists of a nonreactive three-sectors planar rig; the test model is characterized by a complete cooling system and three swirlers, replicating the geometry of a GE Avio PERM (partially evaporated and rapid mixing) injector technology. Flow field measurements have been performed by means of a standard 2D PIV (particle image velocimetry) technique, while adiabatic effectiveness maps have been obtained using PSP (pressure sensitive paint) technique. PIV results show the effect of coolant injection in the corner vortex region, while the PSP measurements highlight the impact of swirled flow on the liner film protection separating the contribution of slot and effusion flows. Furthermore, an additional analysis, exploiting experimental results in terms of heat transfer coefficient, has been performed to estimate the net heat flux reduction (NHFR) on the cooled test plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical investigation of a low NOx partially premixed fuel nozzle for heavy-duty gas turbine applications is presented in this paper. Availability of results from a recent test campaign on the same fuel nozzle architecture allowed the exhaustive comparison study presented in this work. At first, an assessment of the turbulent combustion model was carried out, with a critical investigation of the expected turbulent combustion regimes in the system and taking into account the partially premixed nature of the flame due to the presence of diffusion type pilot flames. In particular, the fluent partially premixed combustion model and a flamelet approach are used to simulate the flame. The laminar flamelet database is generated using the flamelet generated manifold (FGM) chemistry reduction technique. Species and temperature are parameterized by mixture fraction and progress variable. Comparisons with calculations with partially premixed model and the steady diffusion flamelet (SDF) database are made for the baseline configuration in order to discuss possible gains associated with the introduced dimension in the FGM database (reaction progress), which makes it possible to account for nonequilibrium effects. Numerical characterization of the baseline nozzle has been carried out in terms of NOx. Computed values for both the baseline and some alternative premixer designs have been then compared with experimental measurements on the reactive test rig at different operating conditions and different split ratios between main and pilot fuel. Numerical results allowed pointing out the fundamental NOx formation processes, both in terms of spatial distribution within the flame and in terms of different formation mechanisms. The obtained knowledge would allow further improvement of fuel nozzle design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Geared Turbofan technology is one of the most promising engine configurations to significantly reduce the specific fuel consumption. In this architecture, a power epicyclical gearbox is interposed between the fan and the low pressure spool. Thanks to the gearbox, fan and low pressure spool can turn at different speed, leading to higher engine bypass ratio. Therefore the gearbox efficiency becomes a key parameter for such technology. Further improvement of efficiency can be achieved developing a physical understanding of fluid dynamic losses within the transmission system. These losses are mainly related to viscous effects and they are directly connected to the lubrication method. In this work, the oil injection losses have been studied by means of CFD simulations. A numerical study of a single oil jet impinging on a single high speed gear has been carried out using the VOF method. The aim of this analysis is to evaluate the resistant torque due to the oil jet lubrication, correlating the torque data with the oil-gear interaction phases. URANS calculations have been performed using an adaptive meshing approach, as a way of significantly reducing the simulation costs. A global sensitivity analysis of adopted models has been carried out and a numerical setup has been defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effusion cooling represents one of the most innovative techniques to limit and control the metal temperature of combustors liner, and recently, attention has been paid by the scientific community on the characterization and the definition of design practices of such devices. Most of these studies were focused on the heat transfer on the hot side of effusion cooling plates, while just few contributions deal with the effusion plates cold side convective cooling. This paper reports a numerical survey aimed at the characterization of the convective cooling at the effusion plates cold side. Several effusion holes spacing is accounted for in conjunction with representative operating conditions. The study led to the development of an empirical correlation for the prediction of the cold side heat transfer coefficient enhancement factor, EF: it expresses the EF related to each extraction hole as a function of the pressure ratio β and the effusion plate porosity factor σ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effusion cooling represents the state of the art of liner cooling technology for modern combustors. This technique consists of an array of closely spaced discrete film cooling holes and contributes to lower the metal temperature by the combined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. Despite many efforts reported in literature to characterize the cooling performance of these devices, detailed analyses of the mixing process between coolant and hot gas are difficult to perform, especially when superposition and density ratio effects as well as the interaction with complex gas side flow field become significant. Furthermore, recent investigations on the acoustic properties of these perforations pointed out the challenge to maintain optimal cooling performance also with orthogonal holes, which showed higher sound absorption. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of a realistic flow field on the adiabatic effectiveness performance of effusion cooling liners to verify the findings available in literature, which are mostly based on effusion flat plates with aligned cross flow, in case of swirled hot gas flow. The geometry consists of a tubular combustion chamber, equipped with a double swirler injection system and characterized by 22 rows of cooling holes on the liner. The liner cooling system employs slot cooling as well: its interactions with the cold gas injected through the effusion plate are investigated too. Taking advantage of the rotational periodicity of the effusion geometry and assuming axisymmetric conditions at the combustor inlet, steady state RANS calculations have been performed with the commercial code ansys® CFX simulating a single circumferential pitch. Obtained results show how the effusion perforation angle deeply affects the flowfield around the corner of the combustor, in particular, with a strong reduction of slot effectiveness in case of 90deg angle value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate prediction of heat fluxes and, thus, metal wall temperatures of gas turbine (GT) combustor liners is a complicated and numerically expensive task. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) support for the design of cooling systems is essential to ensure safe and proper operation of the entire gas turbine engine. Indeed, it is well known how complicated, and, at the same time, expensive it is to carry out experimental campaigns inside combustors operating under working conditions, and, therefore, pressurized and having high temperatures. The correct prediction of thermal fluxes in a CFD simulation depends on the proper modeling of all the involved phenomena and their interactions with each other. For this reason, Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations are mandatory in gas turbine cooling system applications. Multiphysics and multiscale simulations, based on loosely-coupled approaches, have emerged as extremely effective numerical tools, providing enormous computational time savings, as compared with standard CHT simulations. The fundamental advantage of such approaches is based on the fact that each heat transfer mechanism is solved with the most suitable numerical setup, which leads to the use of spatial and temporal resolutions following the characteristic time scales of each phenomenon to be solved. For industrial applications, where the availability of numerical resources is limited and, at the same time, the timelines with which to obtain results are rather tight, having robust and easy-to-use loosely-coupled solutions available for the design of combustion chamber cooling systems would be extremely valuable. In this context, the objective of this work was to perform an initial optimization step for the multiphysics and multiscale tool, U-THERM3D, developed at the University of Florence to revise the coupling strategy workflow with a view to making the numerical tool faster and easier to use. The revised methodology was applied to the RSM gas turbine combustor model test case developed with cooperation between the Universities of Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, and the DLR. In particular, all experimental tests were conducted by the Institute of Reactive Flows and Diagnostics (Reaktive Strömungen und Messtechnik) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at TU Darmstadt, from which the gas turbine combustor model takes its name. The newly obtained results were compared and analyzed, both qualitatively and in terms of computational time savings, with those previously achieved with the current version of the U-THERM3D tool already studied by the authors and available in the literature. Moreover, an analysis of computing times was carried out relative to the super-computing center used for the different adopted methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-of-the-art liner cooling technology for modern combustion chambers is represented by effusion cooling (or full-coverage film cooling). Effusion is a very efficient cooling strategy typically based on the use of several inclined small diameter cylindrical holes, where liner temperature is controlled by the combined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. A CFD-based thermal analysis of such components implies a significant computational cost if the cooling holes are included in the simulations; therefore many efforts have been made to develop lower order approaches aiming at reducing the number of mesh elements. The simplest approach models the set of holes as a uniform coolant injection, but it does not allow an accurate assessment of the interaction between hot gas and coolant. Therefore higher order models have been developed, such as those based on localized mass sources in the region of hole discharge. The model presented in this paper replaces the effusion hole with a mass sink on the cold side of the plate, a mass source on the hot side, whereas convective cooling within the perforation is accounted for with a heat sink. The innovative aspect of the work is represented by the automatic calculation of the mass flow through each hole, obtained by a run time estimation of isentropic mass flow with probe points, while the discharge coefficients are calculated at run time through an inhouse developed correlation. In the same manner, the heat sink is calculated from a Nusselt number correlation available in literature for short length holes. The methodology has been applied to experimental test cases of effusion cooling plates and compared to numerical results obtained through a CFD analysis including the cooling holes, showing a good agreement. A comparison between numerical results and experimental data was performed on an actual combustor as well, in order to prove the feasibility of the procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen introduction in existing combustion systems can heavily alter the flame morphology and stability limit of the system itself. This makes the numerical prediction of such changes crucial for the development of effective design modifications. In the industrial framework, often it is required to have combustion models capable of handling both the premixed and the diffusive combustion regimes and this represents a real modelling challenge. In this work, a multi-regime CH4–H2 Jet In Crossflow (JICF) flame, at gas turbine relevant conditions, has been investigated with a Flame Index controlled Artificially Thickened Flame Model (ATFM). The numerical prediction shows good agreement with the detailed experimental data from DLR laboratory, and the model has been found to correctly predict the change in the flame anchoring topology due to an increase of H2 content. • A novel skeletal chemical kinetic scheme for the H2–CH4 combustion has been derived. • A H2–CH4 jet flame in crossflow has been numerically investigated. • Validation of the artificially thickened flame model with the flame index correction. • The change in the flame anchoring induced by the H2 addition has been captured. • The role of the thickening on the multi regime flame front has been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical investigation of pollutant emissions of a novel dry low-emissions burner for heavy-duty gas turbine applications is presented. The objective of this work is to develop and assess a robust and cost-efficient numerical setup for the prediction of NOx and CO emissions in industrial gas turbines and to investigate the pollutant formation mechanisms, thus supporting the design process of a novel low-emission burner. To this end, a comparison against experimental data, from a recent experimental campaign performed by BHGE in cooperation with University of Florence, has been exploited. In the first part of this work, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach on both a simplified geometry and the complete domain is adopted to characterize the global flame behavior and validate the numerical setup. Then, unsteady simulations exploiting the scale adaptive simulation (SAS) approach have been performed to assess the prediction improvements that can be obtained with the unsteady modeling of the flame. For all simulations, the flamelet generated manifold (FGM) model has been used, allowing the reliable and cost-efficient application of detailed chemistry mechanisms in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. However, FGM typically faces issues predicting flame emissions, such as NOx and CO, due to the wide range of time scales involved, from turbulent mixing to pollutant species oxidation. Specific models are typically used to predict NOx emissions, starting from the converged flow-field and introducing additional transport equations. Also CO prediction, especially at part-load operating conditions could be an issue for flamelet-based model: in fact, as the load decreases and the extinction limit approaches, a superequilibrium CO concentration, which cannot be accurately predicted by FGM, appears in the exhaust gases. To overcome this issue, a specific CO-burn-out model, following the original idea proposed by Klarmann, has been implemented in ANSYS fluent. The model allows to decouple the effective CO oxidation term from the one computed by FGM, defining a postflame zone where the source term of CO is treated following the Arrhenius formulation. In order to support the design process, an indepth CFD investigation has been carried out, evaluating the impact of an alternative burner geometrical configuration on stability and emissions and providing detailed information about the main regions and mechanisms of pollutants production. The outcomes support the analysis of experimental results, allowing an indepth investigation of the complex flow-field and the flame-related quantities, which have not been measured during the tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combustion–turbine interaction phenomena are attracting ever-growing interest in recent years. As a matter of fact, the strong unsteady and three-dimensional flow field that characterizes the combustor is usually conserved up to the first-stage nozzle, possibly affecting its design and performance in terms of aerodynamics and the effectiveness of the cooling system as well. Such conditions are also exacerbated by the employment of lean-burn combustors, where high turbulence levels are required for the flame stabilization, resulting in even greater temperature and velocity distortions at the inlet of the first-stage nozzle. Even if it has been proven by several past studies that the best way of studying the combustor–turbine interaction is simulating the two components together, performing coupled simulations is still challenging from a numerical point of view, especially in an industrial context. For this reason, the application and generation of the most representative and reliable boundary conditions possible at the inlet of the S1N have assumed an increased importance in order to study the two components separately by performing decoupled simulations. In this context, the purpose of the present work is to compare fully integrated combustor–stator SBES simulations to isolated stator ones. To perform the stator-only calculations, the fully unsteady inlet conditions of the stator have been recorded at the interface plane between the two components in the integrated SBES simulation and then they have been reconstructed by applying the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique. The SBES simulations of the isolated stator have been so performed with the aim of determining whether the flow field obtained is comparable with the one of the integrated simulation, thus allowing more realistic results to be obtained rather than imposing time-averaged 2D maps, as per standard design practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel dry low-NOx gas turbine technology requires well-balanced assessments since the early development phases. The weak knowledge of often conflicting aspects, such as operability and manufacturability, make any roadmap difficult to be drawn. Introduction of innovative manufacturing technologies such as the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process allows rapid manufacturing of components and test them in dedicated facilities to support real-time development of new products. The use of such a manufacturing process allows the adoption of designed experiment-based development strategies, which are still uncommon at industrial level, due to the reduced time from drawings to test. The paper describes a reactive test campaign performed by BHGE in cooperation with University of Florence, aimed at the exploration of capabilities of different innovative burners in terms of pollutant emissions containment and blow-out margin. In particular, the test campaign has been conceived to provide a robust estimate of the effects of key geometrical parameters on principal burner performances. The flame stabilization mechanism of the investigated burners is based on the swirling flow generated by different setup of two internal channels: corotating and counter-rotating radial and axial swirlers. The effect of both the shape and the size of the internal air passages, as well as of the swirler characteristics, has been matter of investigation. Burners were tested in a single-cup test rig operated at moderate pressure conditions (up to 6 bar), with two levels of preheated air temperature (300 °C and 400 °C). Each burner was equipped with two natural gas feeding lines representing the diffusion (pilot) and premixed (main) fuel supplies: both lines were regulated during tests to assess the effect of fuel split on emissions and to identify a stable low-NOx operating window, within which a lean blow-out test was performed. Dynamic pressure probes were used to evaluate the onset of combustion instabilities. The burner development was supported by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigations with the purpose to have a detailed understating of the flow-field and flame structure and to perform a preliminary screening to select the most promising solutions for the testing phase. The post process of the experimental results has allowed to correlate the main design parameters to burner performance variables discovering possible twofold optimizations in terms of emissions and operability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the efficiency of gearing systems is an important topic for the development of future aero-engines with low specific fuel consumption. An evaluation of its structure and performance is mandatory in order to optimize the design as well as maximize its efficiency. Mechanical power losses are usually distinguished into two main categories: load-dependent and load-independent losses. The former are all those associated with the transmission of torque, while the latter are tied to the fluid dynamics of the environment, which surrounds the gears. The relative magnitude of these phenomena is dependent on the operative conditions of the transmission: load-dependent losses are predominant at slow speeds and high torque conditions, load-independent mechanisms become prevailing in high speed applications, like in turbomachinery. A new test rig was designed for investigating windage power losses resulting by a single spur gear rotating in a free oil environment. The test rig allows the gear to rotate at high speed within a box where pressure and temperature conditions can be set and monitored. An electric spindle, which drives the system, is connected to the gear through a high accuracy torque meter, equipped with a speedometer providing the rotating velocity. The test box is fitted with optical accesses in order to perform particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements for investigating the flow field surrounding the rotating gear. The experiment has been computationally replicated, performing Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations in the context of conventional eddy viscosity models, achieving good agreement for all of the speed of rotations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the continuous computational power increase, the use of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations is nowadays customary, especially in the gas turbines design process. The extraordinary temporal and spatial detail of such analyses generate large datasets, which must be carefully studied to correlate different quantities and gain information to characterize the behavior of combustor designs. Several advanced post-processing tools have been proposed; however, the Extended-POD (E-POD) holds the greatest potential for turbulent combustion applications when the mutual influence of different quantities is the main goal of the investigation. The present work investigates the application of the E-POD to an LES model of a perfectly-premixed, swirl-stabilized, methane-air flame approaching Lean-Blow-Out. Leveraging the validation against the experimental data at two different operating conditions on a laboratory test case, the numerical model has been used to collect several quantities of interest for shedding light on the flow-flame interaction near the blow-out. The post-processing algorithm has been used to highlight the differences between two conditions approaching the extinction at distinct air-flow velocities. It has been found that, when the burner is operated with a higher velocity, the flame is subjected to a cyclic low-frequency breakdown around the internal recirculation zone, leading to an ingestion of cold products from the external parts of the combustor toward the center. Although other local effects acting on the flame brush have been found in both conditions, they are related mainly to higher order coherent structures with a lower energy content. As a result, their impact onto flame stability is found to be of secondary importance since their limited interaction with flame stabilization. The work shows that E-POD represents a powerful tool for investigating the key features of flame dynamics even at near-blow-out conditions, constituting a valid algorithm for interpreting the results of CFD analyses on gas turbines combustors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combustor liner of present gas turbine engines is subjected to high thermal loads as it surrounds high temperature combustion reactants and is hence facing the related radiative load. This generally produces high thermal stress levels on the liner, strongly limiting its life expectations and making it one of the most critical components of the entire engine. The reliable prediction of such thermal loads is hence a crucial aspect to increase the flame tube life span and to ensure safe operations. The present study aims at investigating the aerothermal behavior of a GE Dry Low NOx (DLN1) class flame tube and in particular at evaluating working metal temperatures of the liner in relation to the flow and heat transfer state inside and outside the combustion chamber. Three different operating conditions have been accounted for (i.e., lean-lean partial load, premixed full load, and primary load) to determine the amount of heat transfer from the gas to the liner by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The numerical predictions have been compared to experimental measurements of metal temperature showing a good agreement between CFD and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jet array is an arrangement typically used to cool several gas turbine parts. Some examples of such applications can be found in the impingement cooled region of gas turbine airfoils or in the turbine blade tip clearances control of large aero-engines. In the open literature, several contributions focus on the impingement jets formation and deal with the heat transfer phenomena that take place on the impingement target surface. However, deficiencies of general studies emerge when the internal convective cooling of the impinging system feeding channels is concerned. In this work, an aerothermal analysis of jet arrays for active clearance control (ACC) was peiformed; the aim was the definition of a correlation for the internal (i.e., within the feeding channel) convective heat transfer coefficient augmentation due to the coolant extraction operated by the bleeding holes. The data were taken from a set of computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations, in which the behavior of the cooling system was investigated over a wide range of fluid-dynamics conditions. More in detail, several different holes arrangements were investigated with the aim of evaluating the influence of the hole spacing on the heat transfer coefficient distribution. Tests were conducted by varying the feeding channel Reynolds number in a wide range of real engine operative conditions. An in depth analysis of the numerical data set has underlined the opportunity of an efficient reduction through the local suction ratio (SR) of hole and feeding pipe, local Reynolds number, and manifold porosity: the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient enhancement factor (EF) from these parameter is roughly exponential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition-piece of a gas turbine engine is subjected to high thermal loads as it collects high temperature combustion products from the gas generator to a turbine. This generally produces high thermal stress levels in the casing of the transition piece, strongly limiting its life expectations and making it one of the most critical components of the entire engine. The reliable prediction of such thermal loads is hence a crucial aspect to increase the transition-piece life span and to assure safe operations. The present study aims to investigate the aerothermal behavior of a gas turbine engine transition-piece and in particular to evaluate working temperatures of the casing in relation to the flow and heat transfer situation inside and outside the transition-piece. Typical operating conditions are considered to determine the amount of heat transfer from the gas to the casing by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Both conjugate approach and wall fixed temperature have been considered to compute the heat transfer coefficient (HTC), and more in general, the transition-piece thermal loads. Finally a discussion on the most convenient HTC expression is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of lifted flames presents some very promising advantages in terms of pollutant emissions and flame stability. The focus here is on a specific low-swirl injection system operated with methane and derived from an air-blast atomizer for aero-engine applications, which is responsible for flame lift-off. The key feature of this concept is the interaction between the swirling jet and the confinement walls, leading to a strong outer recirculation zone and thus to an upstream transport of combustion products from the main reaction region to the flame base. Here, the representation of the physics involved is challenging, since finite-rate effects govern the lift-off occurrence, and only a few numerical studies have been carried out on this test case so far. The aim of the present work is therefore to understand the limits of some state-of-the-art combustion models within the context of LES. Considering this context, two different strategies are adopted: the Flamelet-Generated Manifold (FGM) approach and the Thickened Flame (TF) model. A modified version of the FGM model including stretch and heat loss effects is also applied as an improvement of the standard model. Numerical results are compared with the available experimental data in terms of temperature and chemical species concentration maps, showing that the TF model can better reproduce the lift-off than the FGM approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational Fluid Dynamics is a fundamental tool to simulate the flow field and the multi-physics nature of the phenomena involved in gas turbine combustors, supporting their design since the very preliminary phases. Standard steady state RANS turbulence models provide a reasonable prediction, despite some well-known limitations in reproducing the turbulent mixing in highly unsteady flows. Their affordable cost is ideal in the preliminary design steps, whereas, in the detailed phase of the design process, turbulence scale-resolving methods (such as LES or similar approaches) can be preferred to significantly improve the accuracy. Despite that, in dealing with multi-physics and multi-scale problems, as for Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) in presence of radiation, transient approaches are not always affordable and appropriate numerical treatments are necessary to properly account for the huge range of characteristics scales in space and time that occur when turbulence is resolved and heat conduction is simulated contextually. The present work describes an innovative methodology to perform CHT simulations accounting for multi-physics and multi-scale problems. Such methodology, named U-THERM3D, is applied for the metal temperature prediction of an annular aeroengine lean burn combustor. The theoretical formulations of the tool are described, together with its numerical implementation in the commercial CFD code ANSYS Fluent. The proposed approach is based on a time de-synchronization of the involved time dependent physics permitting to significantly speed up the calculation with respect to fully coupled strategy, preserving at the same time the effect of unsteady heat transfer on the final time averaged predicted metal temperature. The results of some preliminary assessment tests of its consistency and accuracy are reported before showing its exploitation on the real combustor. The results are compared against steady-state calculations and experimental data obtained by full annular tests at real scale conditions. The work confirms the importance of high-fidelity CFD approaches for the aerothermal prediction of liner metal temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental milestone in the development of a low NOx burner technology is the demonstration of its capabilities in realistic environment. This is especially true for the novel burner subject of this paper, which has been extensively characterized throughout single burner scale experiments. An exhaustive description of the early development phases of the novel burner has been provided by authors in recently published works. The most promising geometry was selected for the assessment in real combustor arrangement, consisting of a full-scale annular combustor test rig. This paper reports the main results of such an assessment. Pollutant emissions and pressure pulsations have been measured at gas turbine relevant operating conditions. Moreover, dedicated blow-out tests have been performed to obtain the extinction equivalence ratio at both ambient and pressurized conditions, as done during the past single burner rig campaign. Basically, an adequate set of data has been gathered, allowing a direct comparison between full-annular and reduced-scale tests. A general alignment of behavior has been observed, as both low NOx capability and blow-out characteristics of full-annular arrangement turned out to be substantially unchanged with respect to the single burner. Nevertheless, some discrepancies in magnitude have been highlighted and discussed. Details have been given involving deeper numerical analysis by means of a dedicated model developed by the authors in previous works. Indeed, improvement to the model has been introduced in the context of this paper to overcome some limitations arisen in predicting emissions. Finally, a preliminary stability analysis has been carried out, with the aim to describe the onset of thermoacoustic instability tendency as observed in the full-annular tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the impact of natural gas composition on both the operability and emissions of lean premixed gas turbine combustion system. This is an issue of growing interest due to the challenge for gas turbine manufacturers in developing fuel-flexible combustors capable of operating with variable fuel gases while producing very low emissions at the same time. Natural gas contains primarily methane (CH4) but also notable quantities of higher order hydrocarbons such as ethane (C2H6) can also be present. A deep understanding of natural gas combustion is important to obtain the highest combustion efficiency with minimal environmental impact. For this purpose, Large Eddy Simulations of an annular combustor sector equipped with a partially premixed burner are carried out for two different natural gas compositions with and without including the effect of flame strain rate and heat loss resulting in a more adequate description of flame shape, thermal field, and extinction phenomena. Promising results, in terms of NOx, compared against available experimental data, are obtained including these effects on the flame brush modeling, enhancing the fuel-dependency under nonadiabatic condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the rising interest in using renewable energy for thermal power generation has led to radical changes in steam turbine design practice and operability. Modern steam turbines are required to operate with greater flexibility due to rapid load changes, fast start-up, and frequent shutdowns. This has given rise to great challenges to the exhaust hood system design, which has a great influence on the overall turbine performance converting the kinetic energy leaving the last stage of low-pressure turbine into static pressure. The radial hoods are characterized by a complex aerodynamic behavior since the flow turns by 90?deg in a very short distance and this generates a highly rotational flow structure within the diffuser and exhaust hood outer casing, moreover, the adverse pressure gradient can promote the flow separation drastically reducing the hood recovery performance. For these reasons, it is fundamental to design the exhaust system in order to ensure a good pressure recovery under all the machine operating conditions. This paper presents a design of experiment (DOE) analysis on a low-pressure steam turbine exhaust hood through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A parametric model of an axial-radial exhaust hood was developed, and a sensitivity of exhaust hood performance as a function of key geometrical parameters was carried out, with the aim of optimizing the pressure recovery coefficient and minimizing the overall dimensions of the exhaust casing. Since hood performance strongly depends on a proper coupling with the turbine rear stage, such a stage was modeled using the so-called mixing-plane approach to couple both stator-rotor and rotor-diffuser interfaces. A detailed analysis of the flow field in the exhaust hood in the different configurations was performed, detecting the swirling structures responsible for the energy dissipation in each simulation, as well as correlating the flow field with the pressure recovery coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of lean-premixed combustion technology with low emissions and stable operation in an increasingly wide range of operating conditions requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms that affect the combustion performance or even the operability of the entire gas turbine. Due to the relative wide range of natural gas composition supplies and the increased demand from Oil&Gas customers to burn unprocessed gas as well as liquified natural gas (LNG) with notable higher hydrocarbons (C2+) content, the impact on gas turbine operability and combustion related aspects has been matter of several studies. In this paper, results of experimental test campaign of an annular combustor for heavy-duty gas turbine are presented with focus on the effect of fuel composition on both emissions and flame stability. Test campaign involved two different facilities, a full annular combustor rig and a full-scale prototype engine fed with different fuel mixtures of natural gas with small to moderate C2H6 content. Emission trends and blowout for several operating conditions and burner configurations have been analyzed. Modifications to the burner geometry and fuel injection optimization have shown to be able to reach a good tradeoff while keeping low NOx emissions in stable operating conditions for varying fuel composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incoming standards on NOx emissions are motivating many aero-engines manufacturers to adopt the lean burn combustion concept. However, several technological issues have to be faced in this transition, among which limited availability of air for cooling purpose and thermoacoustics phenomena. In this scenario, standard numerical design tools are not often capable of characterizing such devices. Thus, considering also the difficulties of experimental investigations in a highly pressurized and reactive environment, unsteady scale-resolved CFD methods are required to correctly understand the combustor performances. In this work, a set of scale-resolved simulations have been carried out on the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) generic single-sector combustor spray flame for which measurements both in nonreactive and reactive test conditions are available. Exploiting a two-phase Eulerian-Lagrangian approach combined with a flamelet generated manifold (FGM) combustion model, LES simulations have been performed in order to assess the potential improvements with respect to steady-state solutions. Additional comparisons have also been accomplished with scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) calculations based on eddy dissipation combustion model (EDM). The comparison with experimental results shows that the chosen unsteady strategies lead to a more physical description of reactive processes with respect to Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. FGM model showed some limitations in reproducing the partially premixed nature of the flame, whereas SAS-EDM proved to be a robust modeling strategy within an industrial perspective. A new set of spray boundary conditions for liquid injection is also proposed whose reliability is proved through a detailed comparison against experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer and pressure drop for a representative part of a turbine active cooling system were numerically investigated by means of an in-house code. This code has been developed in the framework of an internal research program and has been validated by experiments and CFD. The analysed system represents the classical open bird cage arrangement that consists of an air supply pipe with a control valve and the present system with a collector box and pipes, which distribute cooling air in circumferential direction of the casing. The cooling air leaves the ACC system through small holes at the bottom of the tubes. These tubes extend at about 180? around the casing and may involve a huge number of impinging holes; as a consequence, the impinging jets mass flow rate may vary considerably along the feeding manifold with a direct impact on the achievable heat transfer levels. This study focuses on the performance, in terms of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, of several impinging tube geometries. As a result of this analysis, several design solutions have been compared and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of lean premixed flames to control combustion temperature and limit nitric oxides (NO x) formation is a common practice in all the applications of land-based gas turbines irrespective of their size and power production capacity. Despite the capability of lean premixed combustion to nominally reduce NO x emissions well below the most strict international regulations, such technology still requires improvements to overcome the impact on whole engine operability due to possible onset of combustion instabilities and flame lean blow-out (LBO). Both phenomena involve highly unsteady processes resulting in challenging numerical modeling. Particularly critical is the prediction of lean blow-out mechanisms where the role of finite rate chemistry and turbulence cannot be easily simplified. The current study aims at proving the capability of a CFD methodology based on Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and on an extended version of the Turbulent Flame Closure (TFC), to describe and properly catching the dynamics of flame extinction at the leanest operating conditions in typical turbulent lean premixed flames adopted in gas turbine combustors. The methodology is first validated on a laboratory test case where detailed experimental results are available. The extended TFC model well describes the LBO process observed in an atmospheric swirl stabilized burner investigated at the University of Cambridge. The proposed approach is then applied to the investigation of a real scale combustor operated with a swirl lean burner, representing the standard device adopted by Baker-Hughes on the heavy-duty 16 MW class engine Nova LT16. An accelerated numerical procedure is used to trigger the LBO, considering both constant firing temperature and constant pilot split conditions. An excellent agreement is observed with respect to the data obtained on a full-annular test rig, confirming the validity of the developed LBO modeling strategy which can be used in design phase to improve the overall engine operability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of injectors with strongly swirled flows, used to promote flame stability in the combustion chambers of gas turbines, influences the behaviour of the effusion cooling jets and consequently of the liner's cooling capabilities. For this reason, unsteady behaviour of the jets in the presence of swirling flow requires a characterization by means of experimental flow field analyses. The experimental setup of this work consists of a non-reactive single-sector linear combustor test rig, scaled up with respect to the real engine geometry to increase spatial resolution and to reduce the frequencies of the unsteadiness. It is equipped with a radial swirler and multi-perforated effusion plates to simulate the liner cooling system. Two effusion plates were tested and compared: with cylindrical and with laid-back fan-shaped 7-7-7 holes in staggered arrangement. Time resolved Particle Image Velocimetry has been carried out: the unsteady characteristics of the jets, promoted by the intermittent interactions with the turbulent mainstream, have been investigated as their vortex structures and turbulent decay. The results demonstrate how an unsteady analysis is necessary to provide a complete characterization of the coolant behaviour and of its turbulent mixing with mainflow, which affect, in turn, the film cooling capability and liner's lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results are often presented in a deterministic way despite the uncertainties related to boundary conditions, numerical modelling, and discretization error. Uncertainty quantification is the field studying how these phenomena affect the numerical result. With these methods, the results obtained are directly comparable with the experimental ones, for which the uncertainty related to the measurement is always shown. This work presents an uncertainty quantification approach applied to CFD: the test case consists of an industrial prismatic gas turbine vane with standard film cooling shaped holes system on the suction side only. The vane was subject of a previous experimental test campaign which had the objective to evaluate the film cooling effectiveness through pressure-sensitive paint technique. CFD analyses are conducted coherently with the experiments: the analogy between heat and mass transfer is adopted to draw out the adiabatic film effectiveness, solving an additional transport equation to track the concentration of CO2 used as a coolant fluid. Both steady and unsteady simulations are carried out: the first one using a RANS approach with k-ω SST turbulence model the latter using a hybrid LES-RANS approach. Regarding uncertainty quantification, three geometrical input parameters are chosen: the hole dimension, the streamwise inclination angle of the holes, and the inlet fillet radius of the holes. Polynomial-chaos approach in conjunction with the probabilistic collocation method is used for the analysis: a first-order polynomial approximation was adopted which required eight evaluations only. RANS approach is used for the uncertainty quantification analysis in order to reduce the computational cost. Results show the confidence interval for the analysis as well as the probabilistic output. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis through Sobol's indices was carried out which prove how these input parameters contribute to the film cooling effectiveness, in particular, when dealing with the additive manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]