Review and assessment of the database and numerical modeling for turbine heat transfer

The objectives of the NASA Hot Section Technology (HOST) Turbine Heat Transfer subproject were to obtain a better understanding of the physics of the aerothermodynamic phenomena and to assess and improve the analytical methods used to predict the flow and heat transfer in high-temperature gas turbines. At the time the HOST project was initiated, an across-the-board improvement in turbine design technology was needed. A building-block approach was utilized and the research ranged from the study of fundamental phenomena and modeling to experiments in simulated real engine environments. Experimental research accounted for approximately 75 percent of the funding while the analytical efforts were approximately 25 percent. A healthy government/industry/university partnership, with industry providing almost half of the research, was created to advance the turbine heat transfer design technology base

Measured and calculated wall temperatures on air-cooled turbine vanes with boundary layer transition

Convection cooled turbine vane metal wall temperatures experimentally obtained in a hot cascade for one vane design were compared with wall temperatures calculated with TACT1 and STAN5 computer codes which incorporated various models for predicting laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition. Favorable comparisons on both vane surface were obtained at high Reynolds number with only one of these transition models. When other models were used, temperature differences between calculated and experimental data obtained at the high Reynolds number were as much as 14 percent in the separation bubble region of the pressure surface. On the suction surface and at lower Reynolds number, predictions and data unsatisfactorily differed by as much as 22 percent. Temperature differences of this magnitude can represent orders of magnitude error in blade life prediction

MAGNETIC RESONANCE (MR) MEASUREMENTS OF THE MASS FLUX IN GAS-SOLID FLUIDIZED BEDS

Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging was used to measure the time-averaged voidage and particle velocity in a 3D gas-solid fluidized bed. Two different distributors were used. The mass-flux through a horizontal plane was calculated by combining the local voidage and particle velocity measurements. Based on the conservation of mass it was possible to give an error in the combined voidage and particle velocity measurements. It was found that the error in the mass flux was usually small (\u3c 5%), albeit increasing with increasing fluidization velocities

The structure and mechanistic impact of carbon deposits in dehydrogenation reactions

The catalytic dehydrogenation (DH) and oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of light alkanes is widely studied as a route to the formation of alkenes and di-alkenes, important precursor molecules for synthetic rubbers, plastics and a variety of other products [1-4]. Recent studies have focused on the non-oxidative DH of butane over alumina-supported vanadia catalysts [5-7]. In the present work, we provide a detailed understanding of both the role and structure of coke deposited on VOx/Al2O3 during reaction. A range of characterisation techniques have been employed including the first application of terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) to the study of coke. Complementary THz-TDS characterisation of carbonaceous materials including carbon nanofibres (CNFs) has also been conducted

The role and structure of carbonaceous materials in dehydrogenation reactions

The catalytic dehydrogenation (DH) and oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of light alkanes is widely studied as a route to the formation of alkenes and di-alkenes, important precursor molecules for synthetic rubbers, plastics and a variety of other products [1,2]. Recent studies have focused on the non-oxidative DH of butane over alumina-supported vanadia catalysts [3-5]. In the present work, we provide a detailed understanding of both the role and structure of coke deposited on VOx/Al2O3 during reaction. A range of characterisation techniques have been employed including the first application of terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) to the study of coke. Complementary THz-TDS characterisation of carbonaceous materials including carbon nanofibres (CNFs) has also been conducted. For such materials THz-TDS spectra can be correlated with their catalytic performance in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to form styrene

Validation of a low field Rheo-NMR instrument and application to shear-induced migration of suspended non-colloidal particles in Couette flow.

Nuclear magnetic resonance rheology (Rheo-NMR) is a valuable tool for studying the transport of suspended non-colloidal particles, important in many commercial processes. The Rheo-NMR imaging technique directly and quantitatively measures fluid displacement as a function of radial position. However, the high field magnets typically used in these experiments are unsuitable for the industrial environment and significantly hinder the measurement of shear stress. We introduce a low field Rheo-NMR instrument (1H resonance frequency of 10.7MHz), which is portable and suitable as a process monitoring tool. This system is applied to the measurement of steady-state velocity profiles of a Newtonian carrier fluid suspending neutrally-buoyant non-colloidal particles at a range of concentrations. The large particle size (diameter >200μm) in the system studied requires a wide-gap Couette geometry and the local rheology was expected to be controlled by shear-induced particle migration. The low-field results are validated against high field Rheo-NMR measurements of consistent samples at matched shear rates. Additionally, it is demonstrated that existing models for particle migration fail to adequately describe the solid volume fractions measured in these systems, highlighting the need for improvement. The low field implementation of Rheo-NMR is complementary to shear stress rheology, such that the two techniques could be combined in a single instrument

In Situ Measurement of Dynamic Mixing in Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds Using Magnetic Resonance

Three magnetic resonance techniques were implemented to study solids mixing in a fluidized bed. Ultra-fast FLASH imaging was utilised to measure the dispersion of a tracer particle in real time. A novel MR sequence for measurement of the time-averaged mixing of solids in a fluidized bed was developed. Finally images of the velocity of solids were obtained to measure directly the pattern of solids flow

VEGETATION COVER ANALYSIS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE SITES IN UTAH AND ARIZONA USING HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING

Remote sensing technology can provide a cost-effective tool for monitoring hazardous waste sites. This study investigated the usability of HyMap airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data (126 bands at 2.3 x 2.3 m spatial resolution) to characterize the vegetation at U.S. Department of Energy uranium processing sites near Monticello, Utah and Monument Valley, Arizona. Grass and shrub species were mixed on an engineered disposal cell cover at the Monticello site while shrub species were dominant in the phytoremediation plantings at the Monument Valley site. The specific objectives of this study were to: (1) estimate leaf-area-index (LAI) of the vegetation using three different methods (i.e., vegetation indices, red-edge positioning (REP), and machine learning regression trees), and (2) map the vegetation cover using machine learning decision trees based on either the scaled reflectance data or mixture tuned matched filtering (MTMF)-derived metrics and vegetation indices. Regression trees resulted in the best calibration performance of LAI estimation (R{sup 2} > 0.80). The use of REPs failed to accurately predict LAI (R{sup 2} < 0.2). The use of the MTMF-derived metrics (matched filter scores and infeasibility) and a range of vegetation indices in decision trees improved the vegetation mapping when compared to the decision tree classification using just the scaled reflectance. Results suggest that hyperspectral imagery are useful for characterizing biophysical characteristics (LAI) and vegetation cover on capped hazardous waste sites. However, it is believed that the vegetation mapping would benefit from the use of 1 higher spatial resolution hyperspectral data due to the small size of many of the vegetation patches (< 1m) found on the sites

Assessing the surface modifications following the mechanochemical preparation of a Ag/Al2O3 selective catalytic reduction catalyst

The surface modification of a mechanochemically prepared Ag/Al2O3 catalyst compared with catalysts prepared by standard wet impregnated methods has been probed using two-dimensional T1–T2 NMR correlations, H2O temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and DRIFTS. The catalysts were examined for the selective catalytic reduction of NOx using n-octane in the presence and absence of H2. Higher activities were observed for the ball milled catalysts irrespective of whether H2 was added. This higher activity is thought to be related to the increased affinity of the catalyst surface towards the hydrocarbon relative to water, following mechanochemical preparation, resulting in higher concentrations of the hydrocarbon and lower concentrations of water at the surface. DRIFTS experiments demonstrated that surface isocyanate was formed significantly quicker and had a higher surface concentration in the case of the ball milled catalyst which has been correlated with the stronger interaction of the n-octane with the surface. This increased interaction may also be the cause of the reduced activation barrier measured for this catalyst compared with the wet impregnated system. The decreased interaction of water with the surface on ball milling is thought to reduce the effect of site blocking whilst still providing a sufficiently high surface concentration of water to enable effective hydrolysis of the isocyanate to form ammonia and, thereafter, N2