Abstract

Gas turbine hot section components are being pushed to the limit with every increasing combustion firing temperatures and improved expectations of life and durability. Gas path components inside gas turbines see some of the harshest conditions including high pressure and temperatures. It is imperative that heat transfer plays a major role in the evaluation and survival of these components. My gas turbine heat transfer journey started in 1989 working Dr. Metzger at Arizona State. After almost 35 years, I continue to make contributions to this field. In this talk, I will share my journey over the past 35 years in making contributions to different problems in gas turbine thermal issues. I have worked on external cooling, internal cooling, combustion and rotational flows. I have also developed very accurate high resolution thermal measurement techniques that have helped improve the quality and accuracy of data as applicable to real engine conditions. I will also share with you some specific challenging projects and results. An overview of the challenges in gas turbine heat transfer measurements and design of cooling systems will be discussed in this presentation.

Speaker

Dr. Srinath Ekkad

Dr. S. V. Ekkad is the Department Head and RJ Reynolds Professor in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department at North Carolina State University. Before that, he was the Associate Vice President for Research and Rolls-Royce Professor at Virginia Tech. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and M.S. from Arizona State University. He has over 25 years of experience in heat transfer related research. He has several awards including ASME Young Investigator in Heat Transfer Award, 2022 AIAA Air Breathing Propulsion Award, 2022 ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award became a FRAeS in 2023 and Fellow of AIAA in 2024.