An Investigation of the Effects of Film Cooling in a High-Pressure Aeroengine Turbine Stage

Cooling is required to enable the turbine components to survive and have acceptable life in the very high gas temperatures occurring in modern engines. The cooling air is bled from the compression system, with typically about 15% of the core flow being diverted in military engines and about 20% in civil turbofans. Cooling benefits engine specific thrust and efficiency by allowing higher cycle temperatures to be employed, but the bleed air imposes cycle penalties and also reduces the aerodynamic efficiency of the turbine blading, typically by 2–4%. Cooling research aims to develop and validate improved design methodologies that give maximum cooling effectiveness for minimum cooling flow. This paper documents external cooling research undertaken in the Isentropic Light Piston Facility at QinetiQ as part of a European collaborative programme on turbine aerodynamics and heat transfer. In Phase I, neither the ngv nor the rotor was cooled; cooling was added to the ngv only for Phase II, and to the rotor and ngv in Phase III. Coolant blowing rates and density ratios were also varied in the experiments. This paper describes the ILPF and summarises the results of this systematic programme, paying particular attention to the variation in aerofoil heat transfer with changing coolant conditions, and the effects coolant ejection has on the aerofoil’s aerodynamic performance.