Study of Hot Streak Phenomena in Subsonic and Transonic Flows

Experimental data have shown that combustor hot streaks can lead to pressure side “hot spots” on first-stage turbine rotor blades. Although many modern turbines operate at high subsonic or transonic flow speeds, the majority of bot streak experiments and numerical simulations performed during the last decade have been for low-speed flows. The presence of shock waves in a turbine stage can significantly affect the surface temperature distributions, and a knowledge of the interaction between shock waves and combustor hot streaks may help in the turbine design process. In the present investigation, quasi-three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes simulations have been performed for a high-pressure turbine operating at two vane settings. At the open-vane setting, the flow is predominantly high subsonic with no trailing-edge shock waves, and at the closed-vane setting there are trailing-edge shocks.