Velocity Measurements Around Film Cooling Holes With Deposition Available to Purchase

The choice of synthetic fuels (synfuels) in order to achieve greater fuel flexibility may lead to unwanted solid depositions on the blades of turbomachines. The objective of this paper is to gain information of the flow field over a turbine blade with depositions around the film cooling holes. For the investigation the particle image velocimetry technique (PIV) is utilized. The experiments are conducted in a low speed wind tunnel at a Reynolds number of 300,000 based on the distance from the leading edge to the middle of the cooling holes and a Reynolds number of 9,200 based on the hole diameter. Three different simulation plates are tested in the tunnel—a flat plate for comparison, a plate with large depositions only upstream of the holes, and one with smaller depositions all around the holes. The two deposition configurations are scaled models of actual depositions formed at simulated engine flow conditions on a turbine test coupon. The experiments are conducted at four different coolant to free stream blowing ratios—0, 0.5, 1, and 2—and at a density ratio of 1.1. PIV images are taken in four planes from the side of the tunnel to record the main flow structures and in five planes from the end of the tunnel to record the secondary flow structures. The results show that the type of deposition has a large influence on the flow field. With the smaller depositions the penetration of the coolant jet into the free stream is significantly reduced but the dimension and strength of the kidney vortices is increased compared to the flat plate. With the large depositions, on the other hand, the penetration of the coolant jet is much higher due to the ramp effect and the dimension of the secondary vortices is also increased. It can also be seen that the coolant gathers and stays behind the large depositions and then flows off very slowly. Film effectiveness and surface heat flux data acquired with the same plates (and reported previously) allow the identification of flow features and their direct influence on the film cooling performance.