Effect of Tip and Pressure Side Coolant Injection on Heat Transfer Distributions for a Plane and Recessed Tip

The present study investigates the effects of coolant injection on adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients from a plane and recessed tip of a HPT first stage rotor blade. Three cases where coolant is injected from (a) five orthogonal holes located along the camber line, (b) seven angled holes located near the blade tip along the pressure side and (c) combination cases when coolant is injected from both tip and pressure side holes were studied. The pressure ratio (inlet total pressure to exit static pressure for the cascade) across the blade row was 1.2, and the experiments were run in a blow-down test rig with a four-blade linear cascade. The Reynolds number based on cascade exit velocity and axial chord length was 8.61×10⁵ and the inlet and exit Mach number were 0.16 and 0.55, respectively. A transient infrared (IR) technique was used to measure adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient simultaneously for three blowing ratios of 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. For all the cases, gap-to-blade span ratio of 1% was used. The depth-to-blade span ratio of 0.0416 was used for the recessed tip. Pressure measurements on the shroud were also taken to characterize the leakage flow and understand the heat transfer distributions. For tip injection, when blowing ratio increases from 1.0 to 2.0, film effectiveness increases for both plane and recessed tip. At blowing ratio 3.0, lift off is observed for both cases. In case of pressure side coolant injection and for plane tip, lift off is observed at blowing ratio 2.0 and reattachments of jets are observed at blowing ratio 3.0. But, almost no effectiveness is observed for squealer tip at all blowing ratios with pressure side injection. For combination case, very high effectiveness is observed at blowing ratio 3.0 for both plane and recessed blade tip. It appears that for this high blowing ratio, coolant jets from the tip hit the shroud first and then reattach back on to the blade tip. For tip injection, as blowing ratio increases heat transfer coefficient decreases for both plane and recessed tip. In case of pressure side coolant injection and for plane tip, film injection reduced heat transfer coefficient along the pressure side. Minimal effect is observed for recessed tip at all blowing ratios. For combination case, very high heat transfer coefficient is observed at blowing ratio 3.0 for both plane and recessed blade tip. It appears that for this high blowing ratio, coolant jets from the tip hit the shroud first and then reattach back on to the blade tip.