Numerical Simulation of Film Cooling on the Tip of a Gas Turbine Blade Available to Purchase

Numerical simulations of flow and heat transfer are presented for a GE-E³ turbine blade with a film-cooled tip. Results are presented for both a flat tip and a squealer tip. Straight-through coolant holes are considered, and the calculation domain includes the flow development in the coolant delivery tubes. Results are presented with three different tip gaps representing 1%, 1.5% and 2.5% of blade span, a blowing ratio (ratio of coolant-jet-exit velocity to average passage flow velocity) of 1, and an inlet turbulence intensity of 6.1%. On a flat tip, film coolant injection is shown to lower the local pressure ratio and alters the nature of the leakage vortex. High film cooling effectiveness and low heat transfer coefficients are obtained along the coolant trajectory; these values increase slightly with increasing tip clearances. For a squealer tip, the flow inside the squealer cavity exhibits streamwise directed flow, which alters the trajectory of the coolant jets and reduces their effectiveness.