Film Cooling on a Modern HP Turbine Blade: Part IV — Compound-Angle Shaped Holes

Author(s):  
E. Lee McGrath ◽  
James H. Leylek ◽  
Frederick A. Buck

The performance and physics of film cooling with compound-angle shaped holes on a modern high-pressure turbine airfoil is studied in detail using state-of-the-art computational simulations. Computations model high-speed single-airfoil-passage cascade experiments, and computational results show good agreement with experimental data. Evaluation of physics includes examination of flow features and adiabatic effectiveness. The blowing ratios (M) simulated on the pressure surface (PS) of the blade are 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5, with a single density ratio of 1.52. On the pressure surface the dominant mechanism affecting coolant behavior is vorticity, which increasingly tucks hot crossflow under the coolant as the blowing ratio increases. Thus at high blowing ratios, a lower percentage of the coolant provides thermal protection for the blade until the vortices dissipate far downstream. Also, the vortex structures cause large lateral temperature gradients despite the lateral motion of the flow induced by the compound-angle injection. The dominance of vorticity can be attributed to poor diffusion of the coolant inside the diffuser of the film hole. On the suction surface (SS), the simulated blowing ratios are 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0, with a single density ratio of 1.52. Pressure gradients normal to the SS result in the flow pushing the coolant onto the blade. Also, vorticity is less dominant since diffusion of coolant inside the film hole is better due to low blowing ratios and due to a hole metering section that is almost 3 times longer than that of the PS hole. Hot crossflow ingestion into the film hole is observed at M = 2.0. Ingested crossflow causes heating of the surface inside the hole that extends down to the end of the hole metering section, where the surface temperatures are approximately equal to an average of the crossflow and coolant temperatures. These results demonstrate the inadequacy of 1-D, empirical design tools and demonstrate the need for a validated CFD-based film cooling methodology.

Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Ferguson ◽  
James H. Leylek ◽  
Frederick A. Buck

A well-tested computational methodology and high-quality data from a companion experimental study are used to analyze the physics of axial-injected, shaped-hole film cooling on the pressure and suction surfaces of a modern high-pressure turbine blade. Realistic engine conditions, including transonic flow, high turbulence levels, and a nominal density ratio of 1.52, are used to examine blowing ratios of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 on the suction surface (SS) and 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 on the pressure surface (PS). SS results show excellent film-cooling performance with the hole shaping, but massive hot crossflow ingestion is found using similar hole shaping on the PS. Primary mechanisms governing the near and far-field cooling effectiveness and crossflow ingestion are identified, including: (1) the nature of the coolant entry into the film hole; (2) location of hole shaping relative to major coolant flow characteristics; and (3) susceptibility of low-momentum fluid to pressure gradients. Changes in blowing ratio, while not introducing new physical mechanisms, significantly alter the extent to which the mechanisms already present affect the flow. These effects are highly non-linear for both SS and PS geometries, highlighting the inadequacy of one-dimensional design practices and the potential usefulness of CFD as a predictive tool.


Author(s):  
D. Keith Walters ◽  
James H. Leylek ◽  
Frederick A. Buck

A well-tested computational methodology and a companion experimental study are used to analyze the physics of compound-angle, cylindrical-hole film cooling on the pressure and suction surfaces of a modern high-pressure turbine airfoil. A single-passage cascade (SPC) is used to model the blade passage flow experimentally and computationally. Realistic engine conditions, including transonic flow, high turbulence levels, and a nominal density ratio of 1.52, are used to examine blowing ratios of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 on the suction surface (SS) and 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 on the pressure surface (PS). The predicted results agree with experimental trends, and differences are explained in terms of known deficiencies in the turbulence treatment. The mean-flow physics downstream of coolant injection are influenced primarily by a single dominant vortex that entrains coolant and mainstream fluid, and by the effect of convex (SS) or concave (PS) curvature on the coolant jet.


Author(s):  
Kevin Liu ◽  
Shang-Feng Yang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

A detailed parametric study of film-cooling effectiveness was carried out on a turbine blade platform. The platform was cooled by purge flow from a simulated stator–rotor seal combined with discrete hole film-cooling. The cylindrical holes and laidback fan-shaped holes were accessed in terms of film-cooling effectiveness. This paper focuses on the effect of coolant-to-mainstream density ratio on platform film-cooling (DR = 1 to 2). Other fundamental parameters were also examined in this study—a fixed purge flow of 0.5%, three discrete-hole film-cooling blowing ratios between 1.0 and 2.0, and two freestream turbulence intensities of 4.2% and 10.5%. Experiments were done in a five-blade linear cascade with inlet and exit Mach number of 0.27 and 0.44, respectively. Reynolds number of the mainstream flow was 750,000 and was based on the exit velocity and chord length of the blade. The measurement technique adopted was the conduction-free pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Results indicated that with the same density ratio, shaped holes present higher film-cooling effectiveness and wider film coverage than the cylindrical holes, particularly at higher blowing ratios. The optimum blowing ratio of 1.5 exists for the cylindrical holes, whereas the effectiveness for the shaped holes increases with an increase of blowing ratio. Results also indicate that the platform film-cooling effectiveness increases with density ratio but decreases with turbulence intensity.


Author(s):  
Shiou-Jiuan Li ◽  
Shang-Feng Yang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

The density ratio effect on leading edge showerhead film cooling has been studied experimentally using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) mass transfer analogy method. Leading edge model is a blunt body with a semi-cylinder and an after body. There are two designs: seven-row and three-row of film cooling holes for simulating vane and blade, respectively. The film holes are located at 0 (stagnation row), ±15, ±30, and ±45 deg for seven-row design, and at 0 and ±30 for three-row design. Four film holes configurations are used for both test designs: radial angle cylindrical holes, compound angle cylindrical holes, radial angle shaped holes, and compound angle shaped holes. Coolant to mainstream density ratio varies from DR = 1.0, 1.5, to 2.0 while blowing ratio varies from M = 0.5 to 2.1. Experiments were conducted in a low speed wind tunnel with Reynolds number 100,900 based on mainstream velocity and diameter of the cylinder. The mainstream turbulence intensity near leading edge model is about 7%. The results show the shaped holes have overall higher film cooling effectiveness than cylindrical holes, and radial angle holes are better than compound angle holes, particularly at higher blowing ratio. Larger density ratio makes more coolant attach to the surface and increases film protection for all cases. Radial angle shaped holes provides best film cooling at higher density ratio and blowing ratio for both designs.


Author(s):  
Sai Shrinivas Sreedharan ◽  
Danesh K. Tafti

Computational studies are carried out using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) to investigate the effect of coolant to mainstream blowing ratio in a leading edge region of a film cooled vane. The three row leading edge vane geometry is modeled as a symmetric semi-cylinder with a flat afterbody. One row of coolant holes is located along the stagnation line and the other two rows of coolant holes are located at ±21.3° from the stagnation line. The coolant is injected at 45° to the vane surface with 90° compound angle injection. The coolant to mainstream density ratio is set to unity and the freestream Reynolds number based on leading edge diameter is 32000. Blowing ratios (B.R.) of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 are investigated. It is found that the stagnation cooling jets penetrate much further into the mainstream, both in the normal and lateral directions, than the off-stagnation jets for all blowing ratios. Jet dilution is characterized by turbulent diffusion and entrainment. The strength of both mechanisms increases with blowing ratio. The adiabatic effectiveness in the stagnation region initially increases with blowing ratio but then generally decreases as the blowing ratio increases further. Immediately downstream of off-stagnation injection, the adiabatic effectiveness is highest at B.R. = 0.5. However, further downstream the larger mass of coolant injected at higher blowing ratios, in spite of the larger jet penetration and dilution, increases the effectiveness with blowing ratio.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakeel Nasir ◽  
Trey Bolchoz ◽  
Wing-Fai Ng ◽  
Luzeng J. Zhang ◽  
Hee Koo Moon ◽  
...  

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of blowing ratio and exit Reynolds number/Mach number on the film cooling performance of a showerhead film cooled first stage turbine vane. The vane midspan was instrumented with single-sided platinum thin film gauges to experimentally characterize the Nusselt number and film cooling effectiveness distributions over the surface. The vane was arranged in a two-dimensional, linear cascade in a heated, transonic, blow-down wind tunnel. Three different exit Mach numbers of Mex = 0.57, 0.76 and 1.0—corresponding to exit Reynolds numbers based on vane chord of 9.7 × 105, 1.1 × 106 and 1.5 × 106, respectively—were tested with an inlet free stream turbulence intensity (Tu) of 16% and an integral length scale normalized by vane pitch (Λx/P) of 0.23. A showerhead cooling scheme with five rows of cooling holes was tested at blowing ratios of BR = 0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 and a density ratio of DR = 1.3. Nusselt number and adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions were presented on the vane surface over a range of s/C = −0.58 on the pressure side to s/C = 0.72 on the suction side of the vane. The primary effects of coolant injection were to augment the Nusselt number and reduce the adiabatic wall temperature downstream of the injection on the vane surface as compared to no film injection case (BR = 0) at all exit Mach number conditions. In general, an increase in blowing ratio (BR = 1.5 to 2.5) showed noticeable Nusselt number augmentation on pressure surface as compared to suction surface at exit Mach 0.57 and 0.75; however, the Nusselt number augmentation for these blowing ratios was found to be negligible on the vane surface for exit Mach 1.0 case. At exit Mach 1.0, an increase in blowing ratio (BR = 1.5 to 2.5) was observed to have an adverse effect on the adiabatic effectiveness on the pressure surface but had negligible effect on suction surface. The effectiveness trend on the suction surface was also found to be influenced by a favorable pressure gradient due to Mach number and boundary layer transition in the region s/C = 0.28 to s/C = 0.45 at all blowing ratio and exit Mach number conditions. An increase in Reynolds number from exit Mach 0.76 to 1.0 increased heat transfer levels on the vane surface at all blowing ratio conditions. A large increase in Reynolds number adversely affected adiabatic effectiveness on the pressure surface at all blowing ratio conditions. On the suction surface, a large increase in Reynolds number also affected adiabatic effectiveness in the favorable pressure gradient and boundary layer transition region.


Author(s):  
Kevin Liu ◽  
Shang-Feng Yang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

Adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness is examined systematically on a typical high pressure turbine blade by varying three critical flow parameters: coolant blowing ratio, coolant-to-mainstream density ratio, and freestream turbulence intensity. Three average coolant blowing ratios 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0; three coolant density ratios 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0; two turbulence intensities 4.2% and 10.5%, are chosen for this study. Conduction-free pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique is used to measure film-cooling effectiveness. Three foreign gases — N2 for low density, CO2 for medium density, and a mixture of SF6 and Argon for high density are selected to study the effect of coolant density. The test blade features 45° compound-angle shaped holes on the suction side and pressure side, and 3 rows of 30° radial-angle cylindrical holes around the leading edge region. The inlet and the exit Mach number are 0.27 and 0.44, respectively. Reynolds number based on the exit velocity and blade axial chord length is 750,000. Results reveal that the PSP is a powerful technique capable of producing clear and detailed film effectiveness contours with diverse foreign gases. As blowing ratio exceeds the optimum value, it induces more mixing of coolant and mainstream. Thus film-cooling effectiveness reduces. Greater coolant-to-mainstream density ratio results in lower coolant-to-mainstream momentum and prevents coolant to lift-off; as a result, film-cooling increases. Higher freestream turbulence causes effectiveness to drop everywhere except in the region downstream of suction side. Results are also correlated with momentum flux ratio and compared with previous studies. It shows that compound shaped hole has the greatest optimum momentum flux ratio, and then followed by axial shaped hole, compound cylindrical hole, and axial cylindrical hole.


Author(s):  
Zhan Wang ◽  
Jian-Jun Liu ◽  
Bai-tao An ◽  
Chao Zhang

The effects of axial row-spacing for double jet film-cooling (DJFC) with compound angle on the cooling characteristics under different blowing ratios were investigated numerically. First, the flow fields and cooling effectiveness of DJFC on flat plate with different axial row-spacing were calculated. Film-cooling with fan-shaped or cylindrical holes was also calculated for the comparison. The results indicate that a larger axial row-spacing is helpful to form the anti-kidney vortex and to improve the cooling effectiveness. The DJFC was then applied to the suction and pressure surface of a real turbine inlet guide vane. Comparisons of film-cooling effectiveness with the cylindrical and fan-shaped holes were also conducted. The results for the guide vane show that on the suction surface the DJFC with a larger axial row-spacing leads to better film coverage and better film-cooling effectiveness than the cylindrical or fan-shaped holes. On the pressure surface, however, the film-cooling with fan-shaped holes is superior to the others.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaxu Yao ◽  
Jin Xu ◽  
Ke Zhang ◽  
Jiang Lei ◽  
Lesley M. Wright

The interaction of flow and film-cooling effectiveness between jets of double-jet film-cooling (DJFC) holes on a flat plate is studied experimentally. The time-averaged flow field in several axial positions (X/d = −2.0, 1.0, and 5.0) is obtained through a seven-hole probe. The downstream film-cooling effectiveness on the flat plate is measured by pressure sensitive paint (PSP). The inclination angle (θ) of all the holes is 35 deg, and the compound angle (β) is ±45 deg. Effects of the spanwise distance (p = 0, 0.5d, 1.0d, 1.5d, and 2.0d) between the two interacting jets of DJFC holes are studied, while the streamwise distance (s) is kept as 3d. The blowing ratio (M) varies as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. The density ratio (DR) is maintained at 1.0. Results show that the interaction between the two jets of DJFC holes has different effects at different spanwise distances. For a small spanwise distance (p/d = 0), the interaction between the jets presents a pressing effect. The downstream jet is pressed down and kept attached to the surface by the upstream one. The effectiveness is not sensitive to blowing ratios. For mid-spanwise distances (p/d = 0.5 and 1.0), the antikidney vortex pair dominates the interaction and pushes both of the jets down, thus leading to better coolant coverage and higher effectiveness. As the spanwise distance becomes larger (p/d ≥ 1.5), the pressing effect almost disappears, and the antikidney vortex pair effect is weaker. The jets separate from each other and the coolant coverage decreases. At a higher blowing ratio, the interaction between the jets of DJFC holes happens later.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 532-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. McGrath ◽  
J. H. Leylek

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to isolate the flow physics responsible for hot crossflow ingestion, a phenomenon that can cause failure of a film cooled gas turbine component. In the gas turbine industry, new compound-angle shaped hole (CASH) geometries are currently being developed to decrease the heat transfer coefficient and increase the adiabatic effectiveness on film cooled surfaces. These new CASH geometries can have unexpected flow patterns that result in hot crossflow ingestion at the film hole. This investigation examines a 15 deg forward-diffused film hole injected streamwise at 35 deg with a compound angle of 60 deg (FDIFF60) and with a length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) of 4.0. Qualitative and quantitative aspects of computed results agreed well with measurements, thus lending credibility to predictions. The FDIFF60 configuration is a good representative of a typical CASH geometry, and produces flow mechanisms that are characteristic of CASH film cooling. FDIFF60 has been shown to have impressive downstream film cooling performance, while simultaneously having undesirable ingestion at the film hole. In addition to identifying the physical mechanisms driving ingestion, this paper documents the effects on ingestion of the blowing ratio, the density ratio, and the film hole Reynolds number over realistic gas turbine ranges of 0.5 to 1.88, 1.6 to 2.0, and 17,350 to 70,000, respectively. The results of this study show that hot crossflow ingestion is caused by a combination of coolant blockage at the film hole exit plane and of crossflow boundary layer vorticity that has been re-oriented streamwise by the presence of jetting coolant. Ingestion results when this re-oriented vorticity passes over the blocked region of the film hole. The density ratio and the film hole Reynolds number do not have a significant effect on ingestion over the ranges studied, but the blowing ratio has a surprising nonlinear effect. Another important result of this study is that the blockage of coolant hampers convection and allows diffusion to transfer heat into the film hole even when ingestion is not present. This produces both an undesirable temperature gradient and high temperature level on the film hole wall itself. Lessons learned about the physics of ingestion are generalized to arbitrary CASH configurations. The systematic computational methodology currently used has been previously documented and has become a standard for ensuring accurate results. The methodology includes exact modeling of flow physics, proper modeling of the geometry including the crossflow, plenum, and film hole regions, a high quality mesh for grid independent results, second order discretization, and the two-equation k–ε turbulence model with generalized wall functions. The steady, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a fully elliptic and fully implicit pressure-correction solver with multiblock unstructured and adaptive grid capability and with multigrid convergence acceleration.


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