The Effects of Inlet Reynolds Number, Exit Mach Number and Incidence Angle on Leading Edge Film Cooling Effectiveness of a Turbine Blade in a Linear Transonic Cascade

This paper experimentally investigates the film cooling performance of a leading edge with three rows of film holes on an enlarged turbine blade in a linear cascade. The effects of blowing ratio, inlet Reynolds number, isentropic exit Mach number and off-design incidence angle (i<0°) are considered. Experiments were conducted in a short-duration transonic wind tunnel which can model realistic engine aerodynamic conditions and adjust inlet Reynolds number and exit Mach number independently. The surface film cooling measurements were made at the midspan of the blade using thermocouples based on transient heat transfer measurement method. The changing of blowing ratio from 1.7 to 3.3 leads to film cooling effectiveness increasing on both pressure side and suction side. The Mach number or Reynolds number has no effect on the film cooling effectiveness on pressure side nearly, while increasing these two factors has opposite effect on film cooling performance on suction side. The increasing Mach number decreases the film cooling effectiveness at the rear region mainly, while at higher Reynolds number condition, the whole suction surface has significantly higher film cooling effectiveness because of the increasing cooling air mass flow rate. When changing the incidence angle from −15° to 0°, the film cooling effectiveness of pressure side decreases, and it presents the opposite trend on suction side. At off-design incidence of −15° and −10°, there is a low peak following the leading edge on the pressure side caused by the separation bubble, but it disappears with the incidence and blowing ratio increased.