Measurement and Simulation of a Transonic Innovative Cooling System (ICS) for High-Temperature Transonic Gas Turbine Stages

Gas turbine design technology requires the development of transonic turbine stages capable of carrying high stage load and of handling hot gas temperatures at turbine inlet. A reliable cooling system is necessary to cope with shocks emanating from preceding blade rows and impinging on the blade especially in the leading edge region. In order to fulfill these requirements researchers at Graz University of Technology have been working on an Innovative Cooling System (ICS) since 1995. The ICS is able to cover large areas of the blade surface with an effective cooling film and to reduce the metal temperature without a shower head cooling arrangement at the leading edge and any trailing edge cooling air ejection. In this paper the authors present a numerical comparison of the ICS to a conventional modern film cooling system both implemented in the same industrial transonic gas turbine blade. An experimental determination of the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distribution around the blades surface was necessary for the ICS because of its uncommon design. The measurements were done on a cylindrical blade in a linear cascade arrangement. An infrared camera system was used to determine the effectiveness of this newly designed cooling system by measuring the temperature distribution on the blade surface. Then a numerical simulation of heat transfer and of internal and external cooling for the turbine blade at test rig conditions was performed. The ICS showed a lower outer wall temperature distribution of the blade compared to a standard film cooling system. The heavily loaded leading edge as well as the trailing edge are well cooled. Further conclusions on the advantages and disadvantages of the ICS are drawn.