EAGER: Integration of Heat Pipes in Gas Turbines using Artificial Intelligence and Additive Manufacturing

燃气轮机为几乎所有现代飞机提供动力，在美国使用的电力中，约有21%来自天然气。然而，涡轮机的效率和可靠性的主要损失是由涡轮机产生的大量过剩热量造成的。目前的空气冷却技术在消除这种过剩热量方面的成功有限。该项目使用一种名为热管的先进冷却技术，它可以比空气冷却释放更多的热量。使用这项技术将显著提高燃气轮机的燃油消耗、效率和可靠性，从而显著节省成本。该项目包括将叶片或叶片内部构造为热管，并将其延伸到邻近的散热器，从而将入射热量通过热管传递到散热器。由于热管工质相的内部变化，这种设计提供了极高的换热速率和沿叶片的均匀温度。此外，这项技术消除了叶片前缘和后缘的热点，并通过防止热疲劳裂纹来提高叶片的寿命。也有可能要求压缩机不排放空气，从而消除因压缩机排气转移而造成的发动机性能损失。空气冷却与径向旋转热管相结合也是一种较好的冷却方法。提出的热管是一种创新的冷却系统，它包括非传统的几何结构、蒸发、冷凝、蒸汽流动和液/蒸汽的相互作用。液态金属加工液在高离心力和高加速度作用下的传热和两相流动这两个复杂的传输过程是相互耦合的。利用人工智能和添加剂制造对燃气轮机热管叶片和叶片进行了详细的设计分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Gas turbines power almost all modern aircraft and generate about 21% of the electricity used in the United States from natural gas. However, major losses of efficiency and reliability in turbines are caused by the tremendous amount of excess heat that turbines create. Current air-cooling technology has limited success in getting rid of this excess heat. This project uses an advanced cooling technology called heat pipes, which can dissipate significantly greater amounts of heat than air cooling. Using this technology will significantly improve fuel consumption, efficiency and reliability of gas turbines resulting in significant cost savings. The project involves constructing the vane or blade interior as a heat pipe and extending it into an adjacent heat sink, thus transferring incident heat through the heat pipe to the heat sink. This design provides an extremely high heat transfer rate and a uniform temperature along the vane due to the internal changes of the phase of the heat pipe working fluid. Furthermore, this technology eliminates hot spots at the vane leading and trailing edges and increases the vane life by preventing thermal fatigue cracking. There is also the possibility of requiring no bleed air from the compressor, eliminating engine performance losses resulting from the diversion of compressor discharge air. Combined air cooling with radially rotating heat pipes is also considered for a better cooling method. The proposed heat pipe is an innovative cooling system that includes non-conventional geometries, evaporation, condensation, vapor flow, and interaction of the liquid/vapor. These complex transport processes of heat transfer and two-phase flow of a liquid metal working fluid under high centrifugal forces and accelerations are all coupled. A detailed design analysis of integrated gas turbine heat pipe vanes and blades is made using artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.