Numerical and Experimental Study on the Suppression for the Infrared Signatures of a Marine Gas Turbine Exhaust System

Abstract

The flow and thermal fields within the cooling air injection device which is widely used to suppress the infrared (IR) signatures of a marine gas turbine exhaust system were studied numerically and experimentally. A turbulence near-wall model based on the wall function method was adopted. The discretization equations were derived for the control volumes when conjugate heat transfer exists at their interfaces, with the radiation heat flux at the interfaces appearing as an additional source term. The solution method of entrained velocities at the entrance of secondary flow was introduced. The distributions of temperature and static pressure on the diffuser surface, and the temperature of gas at the outlet of the exhaust duct were simulated numerically. The numerical calculated results agreed well with corresponding scale model experimental data. Lastly, the measured IR radiation distributions by scale model experiments at different view angles and various engine power settings, with and without IR signature suppression (IRSS) devices were presented.