This cooling system for low and high pressure turbine blades using plasma actuators provides a cutting-edge cooling modality. In modern turbomachinery applications, temperatures inside the turbines are significantly increased by efforts to reduce noise, fuel burn and emissions thus necessitating significant advancements in blade cooling technologies. Currently, film cooling is the most utilized technique for reducing such thermal stress but is ultimately limited by coolant detachment in the turbine. Using horseshoe plasma actuators, our researchers have improved existing film cooling techniques by allowing the coolant to stay attached to the blade surface for a longer period of time, significantly increasing the cooling effectiveness.
Cooling system for turbine blades used in aerospace and power generation
This technology provides a type of cooling system for low and high pressure turbine blades using plasma actuators. This design will allow the coolant to stay attached to the blade surface for a longer period of time, significantly increasing the cooling effectiveness. The plasma actuators will be used to induce cold flow attachment to the turbine blade surface thus minimizing cooling loss. Various insulator materials like Kapton, Teflon and their combinations will be utilized for minimum heat loss inside the dielectric material. Specifically, there exists a relationship between the number of insulation layers, insulation thickness, dielectric strength, and number of electrodes, which allows us to identify the optimum operating point and range for the best performance of the turbine blade film cooling.