Effect of Trailing-Edge Ejection on Local Heat (Mass) Transfer in Pin Fin Cooling Channels in Turbine Blades

Experiments are conducted to study the local heat transfer distribution and pressure drop in a pin fin channel that models the cooling passages in modern gas turbine blades. The detailed heat/mass transfer distribution is determined via the naphthalene sublimation technique for flow through a channel with a 16-row, staggered 3 × 2 array of short pin fins (with a height-to-diameter ratio of 1.0, and streamwise and spanwise spacing-to-diameter ratios of 2.5) and with flow ejection through holes in one of the side walls and at the straight flow exit (to simulate ejection through holes along the trailing edges and through tip bleed holes of turbine blades). The pin fin heat/mass transfer and the channel wall heat/mass transfer are obtained for the straight-flow-only and the ejection-flow cases. The results show that the regional pin heat/mass transfer coefficients are generally higher than the corresponding regional wall heat/mass transfer coefficients in both cases. When there is side wall flow ejection, a portion of the flow turns to exit the ejection holes and the rate of heat/mass transfer decreases in the straight flow direction as a result of the reducing mass flow rate along the channel. The rate of cooling air flow through a pin fin channel in a gas turbine blade must be increased to compensate for the “loss” of the cooling air through trailing edge ejection holes, so that the blade tip is cooled sufficiently.