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GTX 100 Turbine Section Measurement Using

a Temperature Sensitive Crystal Technique.
A Comparison With 3D Thermal and
Aerodynamic Analyses

Mats Annerfeldt
Sergey Shukin
Mats Björkman
Agne Karlsson
Anders Jönsson
Elena Svistounova
Demag Delaval Industrial Turbomachinery AB
Finspong, Sweden

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GTX 100 TURBINE SECTION MEASUREMENT USING A TEMPERATURE

SENSITIVE CRYSTAL TECHNIQUE. A COMPARISON WITH 3D THERMAL AND
AERODYNAMIC ANALYSES

Mats Annerfeldt, Sergey Shukin, Mats Björkman, Agne Karlsson, Anders Jönsson
Elena Svistounova

Demag Delaval Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Finspong, Sweden

1. Abstract
In modern gas turbine engines, higher and higher turbine inlet temperature is used in order to
increase the efficiency. To achieve a high benefit from increased temperature level it is
necessary to minimise the amount of cooling air, which reduces the thermal cycle efficiency.
The difficulty in turbine design is to find the optimal path to increase the efficiency without
sacrificing the component lifetimes.

Modern gas turbine materials usually suffer a steep decrease in material properties when a
certain temperature is exceeded. It is extremely important to know the component
temperatures in real engine conditions with good accuracy, in order to be able to predict the
component lifetimes.
For the heavily cooled components, the main damage mechanism is often thermo-mechanical
fatigue, TMF, caused by the thermal gradients within the component. With more traditional
instrumentation using thermocouples it is not possible to install enough measuring points on
the component to really catch the gradients. Thermal paints show the gradients, but the
commercially available paints are too sparse between the temperature transitions and are often
hard to evaluate with the necessary accuracy of temperature level. The Thermo-crystal
method enables measurement of the temperature with good accuracy in many points on the
same component.
This paper presents the way in which such a measurement was performed under real engine
conditions and shows some of the results. Both gas and metal temperatures for stationary
components as well as rotating blades were measured with Thermo–crystals during the same
test run.
Furthermore, the results from the measurement are compared to the calculated temperature
field of the same component using a 3D heat transfer conjugate model, from which the
temperature field used for lifetime predictions is taken.
The gas temperatures are used for comparing and tuning of the 3D multistage CFD model
used to calculate the temperature boundary conditions for the thermal model of the
component. A comparison between measured and calculated temperature attenuation is
presented in the paper.

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2. Nomenclature

T temperature [C]
T* Stagnation temperature absolute frame of reference [C]
Tw* Stagnation temperature in relative frame of reference[C]
τ time [min]
2*θ Diffraction angle

Mea = measurements
S3D = MBStage3D

3. Introduction
Gas turbine plant owners are, for obvious reasons, very interested in keeping the intervals
between overhauls as long as possible. On the other hand, a forced outage due to component
failure or premature exchange outside the planned inspections should be avoided. It is
therefore of greatest importance to the gas turbine manufacturers to be able to predict
component lifetimes with good accuracy. A detailed knowledge of the temperatures being
exposed to different components during operation is then necessary.

It is very difficult to predict the temperatures with necessary accuracy in all positions of all
components only by using calculation methods. Temperature measurements are needed to
complement the calculations in order to reach a high level of confidence in life expectancy.
The measurements also provide the possibility to detect any life issues at an early stage, or to
identify potentials to reduce the cooling air consumption, improving the overall engine
performance.

The GTX100, a 45 MW industrial gas turbine with 37% efficiency, has successfully
accumulated more than 110 000 operation hours. A number of component upgrades have been
introduced since the original launch and a new fingerprint of the complete turbine section was
taken during a comprehensive measurement in 2003. The instrumentation used in this test
included more than 2 300 measuring points, complemented also with thermal paint. A total
number of 1 975 thermo-crystals, 237 thermocouples and 110 pressure taps were used for the
test of the 3-stage turbine. This paper will focus on the thermo-crystal technique, which gives
an excellent mapping of the temperature distribution in turbine vanes and blades.

The evaluation process for the measurement is shown in Fig 1. In the following, the results for
the temperature attenuation throughout the turbine stages and the thermal results for blade 2
will be presented.

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Measured Gas Measured metal

temperatures and
pressures in the temperatures
flow path

3D aero model Refined 3D aero Mechanic Integrity

of all 3 turbine 3D conjugate heat
local model for each transfer model model
stages component
outlet of the component
Boundary condition at inlet and

distribution

pressure and velocity

Free stream temperature,

Cycles
Predicted life of the component Hours,
distribution
Metal temperature
.

Figure 1 Evaluation process schematic picture

4. The experimental method

When the material of the JMTK (Russian abbreviation for the maximum temperature crystal
measurement) is exposed to neutron radiation, its atomic lattice will be shifted so that the
distance between the atomic planes will be larger. The distance between atomic planes can be
measured using an X-ray diffraction microscope. When a JMTK, which has been illuminated,
is heated up, the distortion induced by the neutron rays will relaxate. The relaxation is
dependent on time and temperature. A higher temperature will make the relaxation go faster.
If the diffraction angle 2*θ is measured after the crystal has been heated up, and the time
during which it has been heated is known, it is possible to look up the temperature it has been
at from a calibration diagram. See Figure 2.

For exposure times over 10 minutes the dependence upon time is not so strong, as can be seen
from Fig 2. If the crystal goes through a transient cycle, which contains several different
temperature levels, the whole cycle has to be integrated. The maximal temperature during the
cycle will be dominating, but lower temperatures will also contribute to the relaxation. The
integration is made by calculating an equivalent hold time at maximal temperature of the
transient.

To be able to accurately calculate the equivalent hold time usually a few thermocouples are
installed on typical positions to record the temperature transient. The temperature transients
for three thermocouples on vane 2 are seen in Fig. 3 The hold time at maximal power output
is approximately 20 minutes.

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Evaluation diagramdiagram
Calibration for Thermocrystals
for JMTK of SiC
(Here shown for every 100 C only)

167

166

165
100
200
164 300
400
163 500
600
Angle [2* ]

700
162
800
900
161 1000
1100
1200
160
1300
1400
159

158

157
1 10 100
Equival ent Hold Time [min]

Figure 2 Typical Calibration diagram for JMTK crystals This diagram is batch specific,
and the figure above is only schematic

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Vane 2 M etal temperatures during the test

900 90
850 85
800 80
750 75
700 70
650 65
TTVW 0240204
600 60
Temperature [C]

550 55

P_el [MW]
TTVW 0240304
500 50
450 45 TTVW 0240404
400 40
350 35 P_el [MW ]
300 30
250 25
200 20
150 15
100 10
50 5
0 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
Time [min]

Figure 3. Transient Temperature response for a TC on Vane 2, aerofoil.

The accuracy of the method is claimed by the crystal supplier to be +/- 10C . This has been
verified by blind tests for some crystals which had been put in an oven at a well known
temperature for a known time. This experiment confirmed the claimed accuracy.
The measuring interval is from 200C to 1400C. For high temperatures the exposure time is
limited.

In this particular test crystals with a diameter of 0.2 mm were used

The metal temperatures were measured by installing the crystals in circular grooves with
diameter, d=0.5mm and depth 0.5mm, using a thermo-cement technique to glue the crystals
into the grooves.
Another advantage of the crystals is that the surface is completely smooth after the
installation, as distinct from many thermocouple installations, and gives better accuracy than a
thermal paint test. It is also possible to install many crystals on a single component. It is an
advantage be able to measure the thermal gradients from a single component instead of doing
a jigsaw puzzle from temperatures measured at several components, as is usually necessary
when measuring with thermocouples. To actually measure the correct gradients is essential
when the main damage mechanism is TMF, as is usual, particularly for first stage components
of intensively cooled components.
The yield rate of the metal temperature crystals during this test is quite good. 95% of the 1975
installed crystals remained in the grooves throughout the test and gave an evaluated
temperature.

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The crystal technique can also be used to measure the gas temperature profile entering the
vane or blade. In this case, crystals are installed at the tip of small ceramic pins attached to the
leading edge. The high heat transfer coefficients in the gas channel environment provide
enough gradient along the pin so that the pin will be insensitive to the conduction of heat from
the pin to the blade, which is colder than the gas. The difference between measured
temperature and real temperature is only about 4C as a maximum in the presented results
(Blade 1). Figure 4 below shows the installation on blade 2.

Figure 4 Blade 2 instrumented with crystals measuring Gas temperature Tw*

In the tests performed on GTX100 reported here the inlet gas temperature of all 6 rows of the
3 stage turbine were instrumented with gas temperature measurement. The yield for the rotor
blades gas temperature measurement was unfortunately less than for the metal crystals and the
vane gas temperatures, only about 80% out of 120 installed crystals.

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5. Measured gas temperature attenuation vs. gas temperatures from 3D NS multistage

calculations

When designing the cooling system for cooled components in modern gas turbines it is
necessary to spend a minimum of cooling air, in order to minimise the negative effect on the
efficiency from the cooling air injection. This means the cooling has to be tailor-made for the
gas temperature distributions of the particular turbine.

Most CFD codes have difficulty in correctly predicting the mixing of the flow as it passes
through the turbine, and thus the temperature attenuation through it. Usually the average
temperature can be predicted with good accuracy, but it is more difficult to predict the shape
of the temperature profile. In this paper the measurement results are compared to the results
from a 3D NS calculation using the code Stage3D.

This kind of test also provides valuable information for verification of CFD codes.

5.1. 3D Description of the CFD calculations

This chapter give a brief description of the CFD calculations performed in order to have
boundary conditions for the 3D conjugate heat transfer code. A schematic picture of the
evaluation process was shown in the introduction, see Fig.1.

An in-house 3D Navier-Stokes solver, MBStage3D, was used to calculate the gas temperature
and other necessary boundary conditions for the conjugate heat transfer calculations. The
CDF calculations were divided into two steps. First a regular simulation of the whole turbine
was performed, then each component was simulated in a separate model, in order to increase
the accuracy by tuning each model against the measured radial temperature distribution.

All simulations were steady, the Spalart – Allmaras one-equation turbulence model with wall
functions was applied and each component was modelled using straight H-mesh grids
containing 350 – 600 thousand nodes (2.5 million in the full turbine model), resulting in 10 <
y+ < 300. In the full turbine model, the inlet boundary conditions (stagnation temperature and
pressure, flow angles and turbulent properties) were taken from a combustor CFD calculation,
the cooling air boundary conditions from a Secondary Air Flow (SAF) calculation and for the
outlet static pressure measured values were used. Inlet and outlet boundary conditions for the
separate models were taken from the full turbine simulation, but the inlet stagnation
temperature was adjusted according to the measurements. Additionally the cooling air
boundary conditions were enhanced in the separate models; these were tuned against previous
field experience and the measured metal temperatures, which indicate how the cooling air
behaves. Fig. 5a shows the computational domain of the full turbine model, one passage in
each component was modelled with assumed periodicity and averaging mixing planes.
Additionally the predicted relative free stream stagnation temperature close to the metal
surface of blade 2, is shown in Fig. 5b. These patterns agree well with traces on blades that
have been under operation in a real machine.

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models with enhanced

followed by separate

boundary conditions
Turbine simulation
Figure 5a Computational domain of the
full turbine model

View of suction side View of pressure side

for 3D conjugate heat

Boundary conditions

transfer calculations
Trace of
trailing edge
cooling air Cold streaks
ejection following the
secondary
flow up/down
on the aerofoil

Cold purge air coming out

from the cavity between
Vane 2 and Blade 2 up on
Figure 5b. Relative free stream the platform surface
stagnation temperature calculated using
separate model of blade 2. ∆T*w = 10K

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5.2. Measured gas temperature attenuation vs gas temperatures from 3D NS multistage

calculations

In order to see how well the full turbine simulation predicts the mixing of cooling air to the
main stream, the calculated and measured stagnation temperatures were compared. Fig.6
shows the results for all the components except the first stage. The measured values are
shown by symbols, e.g. 'Mea T*5' is the measured temperature in the second vane at tangential
position no. 5 and 'Mea T*av' is the average of 'Mea T*5', 'Mea T*22' and 'Mea T*40'. The black
solid lines show the result of the MBStage3D calculations.

The agreement between measurements and calculations is generally fair, the difference is less
than +/- 20K.

Generally the measured temperatures from the blades are less scattered between different
blades in the same stage than for the vanes. This is logical as the blades scan over the whole
turn, and therefore feel the average temperature. The vanes are stationary and will thus show
the temperature in the particular section where they are positioned, which can differ due to
tangential temperature variations from the combustor.

Regarding the shape of the calculated stagnation temperatures, the general trends are captured
but the calculation shows a more oscillating behaviour (the number of measurement points
should have been enough to capture this). This indicates that the mixing of the cooling air
with the hot main stream was too slow in the calculations.

In summary, it looks promising for future evaluations of other cases where measurements do
not exist. This comparison shows a quite good agreement between calculated and measured
temperatures.

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Vane 2 Radial Gas Tem perature distribution Blade 2 Radial Gas Tem perature distribution

1 1

0,9 0,9
M ea: T*av
M ea: T*av
0,8
0,8

fraction of span [-]

M ea: T*5 M ea: Tw*1
fraction of span [-]

0,7 0,7
M ea: Tw*4
M ea: T*22
0,6 0,6
M ea: Tw*7

0,5
M ea: T*40 0,5 S3D calc.

0,4 S3D Calc. 0,4

0,3 0,3

0,2 0,2

0,1 0,1

0 0
950 820 830 840 850 860 870 880 890 900 910 920
T* [C]1000
dT=10 C betw een 1050
gridlines 1100 Tw * [C] dT= 10 C betw een gridlines

Vane 3 Radial Gas Tem perature distribution Blade 3 Radial Gas Tem perature distribution
1 1
0,9 0,9
0,8 0,8
M ea: T*av
fraction of span [-]

fraction of span [-]

0,7 0,7
M ea:T*13
0,6 0,6 M ea: Tw*av
M ea:T*23
0,5 0,5 M ea: Tw*1
S3D Calc. M ea: Tw*2
0,4 0,4
M ea: Tw*3
0,3 0,3
S3D Calc.
0,2 0,2
0,1 0,1
0 0
750 T* [C] dT=10 C 800
betw een gridlines 850 600 650 C betw een gridlines
Tw * [C] dT=10 700

Figure 6 Measured, and calculated temperature attenuation for Blades 2 and 3 and vanes 2 & 3.

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6. Measured metal temperature distribution of a cooled component, compared to

conjugate heat transfer calculations.

The metal temperatures of the components in the gas path are calculated using a 3D metal
model to which boundary conditions in terms of heat transfer coefficients and fluid
temperatures are coupled. Temperatures on the gas side are taken from the 3D NS calculations
described above, and the heat transfer coefficients are calculated using boundary layer
programmes. The cooling system inside the blade is described using a 1D flow network. Each
branch has correlations for heat transfer and pressure losses coupled to it. The calculated
temperatures are then transferred to the mechanical integrity model used for prediction of the
lifetime of the component. One of the main factors which determines the accuracy of the
lifetime prediction is how accurately the temperature distribution was predicted.

The main objective of the test was to measure the metal temperature distributions of the
components, in order to verify the temperature distributions from the design. If the
temperatures differ more than 20C between measurement and calculation, the calculation has
to be redone so that it simulates the measured temperatures, and in the worst case the cooling
has to be improved.
In this paper the thermal calculations for one of the cooled components, e.g. blade 2, is
presented in more detail. A photo of an instrumented blade 2 is shown in Fig 7. Each of the 3
identically instrumented blade 2 had 90 crystals.

The measured temperatures, the average of 3 blades, are shown in Figures 8, 9 and 10
together with results from the thermal calculations.
The scatter between different measured blades is satisfactorily low. The largest difference
found, (max- min) for a single point on the blade was 35 C and the average difference max-
min for similar points at different blades was 10 C.

Figure7. Blade 2 Instrumented with Thermo crystal

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800 820
81 820
0 780
770
760
750 750

74
0
73

74

0
0

720

790
767C

730
725C (+3)

75
790C 739C (-10)

750

720
0
10 7

80
(-30) (+26)

730
740
760

730 720

710
760
760

710
750

720
780
800

722C

760

740
770
786C 775C (-7)

720
(-26) (+15)

0
790

77

730

710
Flow direction
760

710
750
780

785C 746C 737C 723C

760

740
(-30) (+24) (+3) (-3)
750

770

720
770

730

710
78
0

770
760

750

789C
760
760

740

(-19) 770C
770

752C (0)
720

780
770

762C
750

(+23)
710
730
770

(+13)
750

770
770
760

717C
750

700

(-12)
760

740
780
770

780

753C 742C
720
770
750

767C
760

(+12) (+3)
730

751C
750

(-10)
770
770
760

710

(-1)
750
780

760

740
780

720
750

770

759C
0

760
76

730

(-14) 765C 715C 694C

750

750
740

770
740

(+20) (-5) (+11)

750

720

743C
760

742C
0

(-6)
740
74

(+8) 770
0
720

71
750

760
750

730

761C
750
740

753C
740

744C (-1)
750

710

0
76
715C
760

(-4) (+12)
740

(+25)
74

0
20 71
730C 750
0
7
73
730

(+10) 71
0
740

710 720
720 710
740
730 700
700
690
760
740
730 720 680
710
700
6200 61
61 60 0
630 600 590 0
620 580
610
600 590 570
560
580

620
610 0
59
570
580
600 580

580 580
570 580
590 570
570
580 570 540
550
570 560
560
550 530
530 520
540

Figure 8. Calculated and measured temperatures of blade 2 Suction side

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822C
767C
(+3)
(+23)

746C 840
806C
(+34) (-1)

730
0
72 710

72
730

0
71
0
719C

700
780

790
791C

690

780
(+6)

700
(-31)

790

760
680
771C

710

690

72
787C

0
787C (+4)

760
799C
(-12) (+3)

760
(-39)

700
690

730

770
700

790
710
720
690

750
740
713C

760
722C 789C

780
690

760
700
(-3) (+3) (-19) 800C
770

790
730
(-35)

760
780
770
700

Flow direction 710

720
690
710

774C

750
740

780
760
800C

760
776C (-4) (-30)

770
730

(-6)

760
770
700
770

690

710
720
690

700

0
74

750

77
760
0

744C

770
725C 757C

760
(0) 785C

770
(-14) (-2) (-25) 788C
730

770
770

760
700

(-18)
740
690

710
720
690

75
700

760

760
760
770

760
730

776C
770
700

740

(-26)
750
750
710
720
770

700
710

760
720
780

760
770

750

748C 765C
760

765C
730

797C 752C
(-18) (-5) (0)
700

740

(+13)
0

(-17)
75

750
750
710
720

760
710

760

770
700
69
0

760
770

740 743C
730

750

750

770

(+2)
700

74

750
0

796C
760

753C
710
720

(-26) 748C 761C 749C

740 750

710

730
74 (-8)
(-23) (-4)
730

76

(-16) 0
73

690
0

72
720

0
750 760
740 0 760
73 750
720
710 730
740 0 720
73
710 720
730 700
690
660 680
650
620 640
560 58
0 610 630
57 600 62
550 0 0
590 61
0
600
580
580 590

580 580 590

570 570 590
560 580
540 570 580
550 560 570
560 560
560 560
550
530 530 550
540
520

513C – Thermocrystal test

(-13) – Calc. result-measurement

Figure 9. Calculated and measured temperatures of blade 2 Pressure side

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657C
(+36)
765

77
770

721C
5
72 (-6)
76 720
0
755 705
758C
690 0
77 (+2)

73
685

0
73
77

74
5
751C

74
760

0
0

75
700
69

75
76
765
(+1)

0
0

695

5
68

0
67 765

775
690

750

0
68
785
79 745 75
5 0

745
73 740 74
0 73 5

74
5

0
72 740
805 5
810
72 735
0
73
720

0
705 72
0 5

740
71 710
770

740
765

715
760

71

735
5

5 725

5
75

73 730 730 715

72
0 735 735

730
74
750

0
830
740
740 720
745
750 745 5
72
750

710

725
729C
0
755 73

740
(+4)
5

825
73

715
0
74

735
5

72
74

0
731C

730
760 0
75 755

820
(+9)
740C

780
(+5) 74

740
0
73
5

744C

5
750

74
(+3)

733C
(+14)

513C – Thermocrystal test

(-13) – Calc. result-measurement

Figure 10 Calculated and measured temperatures of blade 2 platform

The results in Figs 8, 9 and 10 were obtained using gas side boundary conditions from the
local 3D aero model. In the local model the measured inlet gas temperature profile, Fig 6. has
been used. In Fig 8 which shows the suction side of the blade it is seen that there is an area at
mid-cord, that is calculated approximately 25 C too hot in the cooling model. On the pressure
side opposite to the area measured too cold the temperatures agree well between calculated
and measured. The blade is equipped with a multipass cooling system with ribbed channel at
leading edge and mid cord, and a race track type cooling system at the trailing edge. Close to
the tip at trailing edge the measured temperatures are higher than the calculated on both
pressure and suction side, by approximately 30-35 C. This indicates that the correlation for
the heat transfer coefficient is too optimistic on the inside of the blade. The temperature level
is, however, so low that this is not a problem. The hottest point measured on the blade is, not
very surprisingly, at the pressure side close to the tip 822C. The prediction of leading edge
temperatures is satisfactory; only two points differ more than 12C.

The prediction of the platform temperatures is very good; only one point differs more than
14C.That point is situated at the upstream part of the platform, close to the suction side. The
difference here comes from the difficulty in simulating how the purge flow from the cavity

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before the blade is distributed. The distribution is dependent on unsteady effects and local
geometry features that are not resolved in the degree of detail of the used3D aero model.
The measurement confirms the metal temperature level of blade 2 from the design project of
the engine.

7. Conclusion
After the successful performance of the test it must be stated that using thermo-crystals is a
reliable test method. It provides the possibility to measure temperatures in detail and pick up
the temperature gradients with good accuracy, particularly for rotating blades.
There is generally good correlation between measurements and calculations, which gives
confidence in the used calculation methods, and correlations. However, to ascertain a better
prediction of the gas temperature distributions in future the proposal is to use unsteady CFD
analysis as standard.

During the test several areas with potential for saving cooling air have been identified.

8. References

1. V.A Nikolaenko, V. I. Karnushin. Year 1986. Measurement of temperatures using

irradiated materials.
2. V.A Nikolaenko,V.A Morosov,N.I. Kasianov. Rev. int. Temp et Refract 1976 t.13 pp 17-20

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