Heat Transfer Performance of a Transonic Turbine Blade Passage in Presence of Leakage Flow Through Upstream Slot and Mateface Gap With Endwall Contouring

Comparison of heat transfer performance of a non-axisymmetric contoured endwall to a planar baseline endwall in presence of leakage flow through stator-rotor rim seal interface and mateface gap is reported in this paper. Heat transfer experiments were performed on a high turning (∼127°) turbine airfoil passage at Virginia Tech’s transonic blow down cascade facility under design conditions (exit isentropic Mach number 0.88 and 0° incidence) for two leakage flow configurations — 1) mateface blowing only, 2) simultaneous coolant injection from the upstream slot as well as mateface gap. Coolant to mainstream mass flow ratios (MFR) were 0.35% for mateface blowing only, whereas for combination blowing, a 1.0% MFR was chosen from upstream slot and 0.35% MFR from mateface. A common source of coolant supply to the upstream slot and mateface plenum made sure the coolant temperatures were identical at both upstream slot and mateface gap at the injection location. The contoured endwall geometry was generated to minimize secondary aerodynamic losses. Transient IR (Infrared) thermography technique was used to measure endwall surface temperature and a linear regression method was developed for simultaneous calculation of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and adiabatic cooling effectiveness (ETA), assuming a 1D semi-infinite transient conduction. Results indicate reduction in local hot spot regions near suction side as well as area averaged HTC using the contoured endwall compared to baseline endwall for all coolant blowing cases. Contoured geometry also shows better coolant coverage profiles further along the passage. Detailed interpretation of the heat transfer results along with near endwall flow physics has also been discussed.