The rectangular vortex generator pairs (RVGPs) are arranged upstream of the film cooling holes to achieve better coolant coverage on the endwall near the pressure-side corner area. The endwall film cooling effectiveness distributions under transonic flow conditions are numerically calculated for the single RVGP and double rows of RVGPs cases. At first, the effects of three geometrical parameters (i.e., the distance between RVGP and cooling hole, height of RVGP and attack angle of RVGP) on endwall film cooling effectiveness are studied with a single hole and RVGP at different mainstream inlet Reynolds numbers and blowing ratios. Then, the double rows of RVGPs are applied to further enhance the overall film cooling effectiveness on the blade endwall. The results show that the implementation of RVGPs significantly enhances the film cooling effect on transonic blade endwall at a pressure-side corner area. With the increase of RVGP height, the lateral coolant coverage on the endwall corner area is improved. However, by decreasing the distance between the vortex generator pair and cooling hole, the film cooling effectiveness downstream of the cooling holes is increased. The attack angle of RVGP mainly affects the shape of coolant spreading on endwall surface. The RVGP with optimum dimensions and arrangement is able to suppress the coolant from lifting off the endwall and increase the coolant diffusion near the endwall. Compared with no vortex generator case, the area-averaged film cooling effectiveness on endwall with double rows of RVGPs is improved by 13.16%.

The challenge in the design of oxy-combustors for direct-fired supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2 ) cycles is in addressing disparate performance metrics and objectives. Key design parameters to consider include, among others, injector design for mixing and flame stability, split of recycled CO 2 diluent between injectors and cooling films, target flame temperatures to control noncondensable products, and strategies to inject the diluent CO 2 for film cooling and thermal control. In order to support novel oxy-combustor designs, a high-fidelity yet numerically efficient modeling framework based on the CRUNCH CFD ® flow solver is presented, featuring key physics-based submodels relevant in this regime. For computational efficiency in modeling large kinetic sets, a flamelet/progress variable (FPV) based tabulated-chemistry approach is utilized featuring a three-stream extension to allow for the simulation of the CO 2 film cooling stream in addition to the fuel and oxidizer streams. Finite rate chemistry effects are modeled in terms of multiple progress variables for the primary flame as well as for slower-evolving chemical species such as NO x and SO x contaminants. Real fluid effects are modeled using advanced equations of states. The predictive capabilities of this computationally tractable design support tool are demonstrated on a conceptual injector design for an oxy-combustor operating near 30 MPa. Simulations results provide quantitative feedback on the effectiveness of the film cooling as well as the level of contaminants (CO, NO, and N) in the exhaust due to impurities entering from the injectors. These results indicate that this framework would be a useful tool for refining and optimizing the oxy-combustor designs as well as risk mitigation analyses.

An experimental investigation has been performed to study the film-cooling performance of the cylindrical holes embedded in the sine-wave-shaped-trench. The sine-wave-shaped-trench is obtained by changing the trailing edge of the transverse trench into sine-wave shape; the holes are located next to the peaks of the wave. The sine-wave-shaped-trench is expected to get a wider spread of the cooling jet in the spanwise direction. The film-cooling effectiveness, heat-transfer coefficient, and discharge coefficient of the sine-wave-shaped-trench hole configurations with different trench depths (0.75D, 1D) and wave peaks (1D, 2D) are measured by the transient thermal liquid measurement technique. The blowing ratio covers a range from 0.5 to 2.0. The transverse trench hole is investigated as a basis of the comparison. Thermal and hydrodynamic fields are investigated numerically using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations with Realizable k– ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment. Results show that broadening the wave peak of the sine-wave-shaped-trench improves the spanwise uniformity of the injection. There is a pair of anticounter-rotating vortices formed downstream of the sine-wave-trailing-edge. Increasing the trench depth shows positive effects on the heat-transfer coefficients ratio of the sine-wave-shaped-trench. The discharge coefficients of the sine-wave-shaped-trenches are higher than that of the transverse trench which means the sine-wave shape trench has a lower flow resistance.

Wind-tunnel testing of turbines cascade is an important technique for quantifying the realistic conditions of turbine-vane film cooling. However, the complex and expensive facilities needed for the multipassage design of such wind tunnels have prompted the introduction of the single-passage design strategy. In this contribution, detailed procedures for building a novel single-passage transonic wind-tunnel using additive manufacturing are presented. In addition, the detailed flow structure caused by the passage was investigated. The proposed design was evaluated step-by-step using an integrated model that successively comprised two-dimensional (2D) periodic passage simulation, 2D single-passage simulation, three-dimensional (3D) single-passage simulation, construction, and testing. The proposed design was found to achieve flow periodicity at transonic flow conditions with relatively low-flow consumption. The results were validated by comparison to the available literature data. In addition, an endwall-cooling configuration was successfully deployed using fast-response pressure-sensitive paint (fast-PSP). This study, combined with the help of commercial software and 3D printing, shed light upon strategies for time- and cost-reduction in linear cascade design, which could benefit the turbomachinery community.

Considered is double wall cooling, with full-coverage effusion-cooling on the hot side of the effusion plate, and a combination of impingement cooling and cross flow cooling, employed together on the cold side of the effusion plate. Data are given for a main stream flow passage with a contraction ratio (CR) of 4 for main stream Reynolds numbers Re ms and Re ms,avg of 157,000–161,000 and 233,000–244,000, respectively. Hot-side measurements (on the main stream flow or hot side of the effusion plate) are presented, which are measured using infrared thermography. Using a transient thermal measurement approach, measured are spatially resolved distributions of surface adiabatic film cooling effectiveness, and surface heat transfer coefficient. For the same Reynolds number, initial blowing ratio (BR), and streamwise location, increased thermal protection is often provided when the effusion coolant is provided by the cross flow/impingement combination configuration, compared to the cross flow only supply arrangement. In general, higher adiabatic effectiveness values are provided by the impingement only arrangement, relative to the impingement/cross flow combination configuration, when compared at the same Reynolds number, initial BR, and x/d e location. Data for one streamwise location of x/d e = 60 show that the highest net heat flux reduction line-averaged net heat flux reduction (NHFR) values are produced either by the impingement/cross flow combination configuration or by the impingement only arrangement, depending upon the particular magnitude of BR, which is considered.

Turbine inlet conditions in lean-burn aeroengine combustors are highly swirled and present nonuniform temperature distributions. Uncertainty and lack of confidence associated with combustor-turbine interaction affect significantly engine performance and efficiency. It is well known that only Large-eddy and scale-adaptive simulations (SAS) can overcome the limitations of Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) in predicting the combustor outlet conditions. However, it is worth investigating the impact of such improvements on the predicted aerothermal performance of the nozzle guide vanes (NGVs), usually studied with RANS-generated boundary conditions. Three numerical modelling strategies were used to investigate a combustor-turbine module designed within the EU Project FACTOR: (i) RANS model of the NGVs with RANS-generated inlet conditions; (ii) RANS model of the NGVs with scale-adaptive simulation (SAS)-generated inlet conditions; (iii) SAS model inclusive of both combustor and NGVs. It was shown that estimating the aerodynamics through the NGVs does not demand particularly complex approaches, in contrast to situations where turbulent mixing is key. High-fidelity predictions of the turbine entrance conditions proved very beneficial to reduce the discrepancies in the estimation of adiabatic temperature distributions. However, a further leap forward can be achieved with an integrated simulation, capable of reproducing the transport of unsteady fluctuations generated from the combustor through the turbine, which play a key role in presence of film cooling. This work, therefore, shows how separate analysis of combustor and NGVs can lead to a poor estimation of the thermal loads and ultimately to a wrong thermal design of the cooling system.

This paper presents volumetric velocimetry (VV) measurements for a jet in crossflow that is representative of film cooling. VV employs particle tracking to nonintrusively extract all three components of velocity in a three-dimensional volume. This is its first use in a film-cooling context. The primary research objective was to develop this novel measurement technique for turbomachinery applications, while collecting a high-quality data set that can improve the understanding of the flow structure of the cooling jet. A new facility was designed and manufactured for this study with emphasis on optical access and controlled boundary conditions. For a range of momentum flux ratios from 0.65 to 6.5, the measurements clearly show the penetration of the cooling jet into the freestream, the formation of kidney-shaped vortices, and entrainment of main flow into the jet. The results are compared to published studies using different experimental techniques, with good agreement. Further quantitative analysis of the location of the kidney vortices demonstrates their lift off from the wall and increasing lateral separation with increasing momentum flux ratio. The lateral divergence correlates very well with the self-induced velocity created by the wall–vortex interaction. Circulation measurements quantify the initial roll up and decay of the kidney vortices and show that the point of maximum circulation moves downstream with increasing momentum flux ratio. The potential for nonintrusive VV measurements in turbomachinery flow has been clearly demonstrated.

Experimentally measured results are presented for different experimental conditions for a test plate with double wall cooling, composed of full-coverage effusion-cooling on the hot side of the plate, and cross-flow cooling on the cold side of the plate. The results presented are different from those from past investigations, because of the addition of a significant mainstream pressure gradient. Main stream flow is provided along a passage with a contraction ratio of 4, given by the ratio upstream flow area, to downstream flow area. With this arrangement, local blowing ratio decreases significantly with streamwise development along the test section, for every value of initial blowing ratio considered, where this initial value is determined at the most upstream row of effusion holes. Experimental data are given for a sparse effusion hole array. The experimental results are provided for mainstream Reynolds numbers of 92,400–96,600, and from 128,400 to 135,000, and initial blowing ratios of 3.3–3.6, 4.4, 5.2, 6.1–6.3, and 7.3–7.4. Results illustrate the effects of blowing ratio for the hot side and the cold side of the effusion plate. Of particular interest are values of line-averaged film cooling effectiveness and line-averaged heat transfer coefficient, which are generally different for contraction ratio of 4, compared to a contraction ratio of 1, because of different amounts and concentrations of effusion coolant near the test surface. In regard to cold-side measurements on the crossflow side of the effusion plate, line-averaged Nusselt numbers for contraction ratio 4 are often less than values for contraction ratio 1, when compared at the same main flow Reynolds number, initial blowing ratio, and streamwise location.

Investigations on infrared (IR) radiation suppression of axisymmetric vectoring exhaust nozzle (AVEN) are meaningful, due to the requests for maneuverability and IR stealth capability of aircrafts. In this paper, the synthetic suppression scheme of film cooling and low-emissivity coating was adopted on the center body and divergent flaps of the nozzles at 0 deg, 10 deg, and 20 deg vectoring angles. The IR signatures of both the baseline AVEN and the nozzles with IR suppression were measured. Comparing the IR signatures of the nozzles with and without IR suppression measures, the IR suppression effectiveness of the film cooling and low-emissivity coating was obtained. The investigation results indicate that the IR signatures of AVEN decrease with the increase of vectoring angle. The film cooling enables a remarkable decrease of the IR signatures of AVEN. The synthetic suppression of film cooling and low-emissivity coating enables a further decrease of IR signatures. For the case studied in this paper, the integrated radiation intensities of the nozzles with film cooling and low-emissivity coating at 0 deg, 10 deg, and 20 deg vectoring angles are decreased by 52.3%, 57.9%, and 37.2% at 0 deg measurement angle, respectively.

The effects of effusion and film cooling momenta on combustor flow fields are investigated. Steady, compressible three-dimensional (3D) simulations are performed on a single-swirler combustor using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) with flamelet generated manifold and Lagrangian–Eulerian multiphase spray, while accounting for dome and liner cooling. Two simulations are performed on the same mesh. One simulation is conducted using a parallelized, automated, predictive, imprint cooling (PAPRICO) model with dynamic flux boundary conditions and downstream pressure probing (DFBC-DPP). PAPRICO involves removing the cooling jet geometry from the dome and liner while retaining the cooling hole imprints. The PAPRICO model does not require a priori knowledge of the cooling flow rates through various combustor liner regions nor specific mesh partitioning. The other simulation is conducted using the homogenously patched cooling (HPC) model, which involves removing all the cooling jets. The HPC model applies volumetric sources adjacent to the combustor wall regions where cooling jets are present. The momentum source, however, becomes negligible. The HPC model is not predictive and requires tedious ex situ mass flow measurements from an auxiliary flowbench experiment, afflicted with systematic errors. Hence, the actual in situ air flow splits through the several combustor regions is not known with absolute certainty. The numerical results are compared with measurements of mass flow rates, static pressure drops, and path-integrated temperatures. The results demonstrate that it is critical to account for the discrete dome and liner cooling momentum to better emulate the reacting flow in a combustor.

New experimental data are provided for full-coverage effusion cooling and impingement array cooling, as applied simultaneously onto the respective external and internal surfaces of a single instrumented test plate. For the effusion cooled surface, presented are spatially resolved distributions of surface adiabatic film cooling effectiveness, and surface heat transfer coefficients. For the impingement cooled surface, presented are spatially resolved distributions of surface Nusselt numbers. Impingement jet arrays at different jet Reynolds numbers, from 7930 to 18,000, are employed. Experimental data are given for spanwise and streamwise impingement hole spacing such that coolant jet hole centerlines are located midway between individual effusion hole entrances. For the effusion cooling, streamwise hole spacing and spanwise hole spacing (normalized by effusion hole diameter) are 15 and 4, respectively. Effusion hole angle is 25 deg, and effusion plate thickness is 3.0 effusion hole diameters. In regard to the impingement cooled cold-side surface of the effusion plate, associated surface Nusselt number variations provide evidence that impingement jets are turned and redirected as they cross the impingement passage, just prior to the entrance of coolant into individual effusion holes. In regard to the effusion cooled hot-side surface of the effusion plate, when compared at particular values of injectant and mainstream Reynolds numbers, streamwise location x / d e and blowing ratio BR, significantly increased thermal protection is provided when the effusion coolant is provided by an array of impingement cooling jets (compared to a cross flow channel supply arrangement).

The switch from diffusive combustion to premixed combustion in a modern gas turbine changes the combustor exit temperature profile to a more uniform one. This will directly affect the cooling of the first stage vane especially the endwall region. A typical endwall configuration with matched nondimensional parameters to the engine condition was investigated experimentally in this study. Two endwall cooling arrangements at four different coolant to mainstream mass flow ratios (MFR) were tested in a linear cascade. Detailed measurements of pressure distribution, heat transfer coefficient, adiabatic film cooling effectiveness, and overall effectiveness of the endwall were performed. The temperature-sensitive paint (TSP) and pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) were used to acquire these parameters. The conjugate heat transfer characteristic of endwall with film cooling and impingement cooling was discussed. Moreover, the influence of coolant mass flow rate on conjugate heat transfer of endwall was analyzed. One- and two-dimensional methods for overall effectiveness prediction based on experimental data for separate parameters and correlations were also studied.

Measurements are presented for a high-pressure transonic turbine stage operating at design-corrected conditions with forward and aft purge flow and blade film cooling in a short-duration blowdown facility. Four different film-cooling configurations are investigated: simple cylindrical-shaped holes, diffusing fan-shaped holes, an advanced-shaped hole, and uncooled blades. A rainbow turbine approach is used so each of the four blade types comprises a wedge of the overall bladed disk and is investigated simultaneously at identical speed and vane exit conditions. Double-sided Kapton heat-flux gauges are installed at midspan on all three film-cooled blade types, and single-sided Pyrex heat-flux gauges are installed on the uncooled blades. Kulite pressure transducers are installed at midspan on cooled blades with round and fan-shaped cooling holes. Experimental results are presented both as time-averaged values and as time-accurate ensemble-averages. In addition, the results of a steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics (RANS CFD) computation are compared to the time-averaged data. The computational and experimental results show that the cooled blades reduce heat transfer into the blade significantly from the uncooled case, but the overall differences in heat transfer among the three cooling configurations are small. This challenges previous conclusions for simplified geometries that show shaped cooling holes outperforming cylindrical holes by a great margin. It suggests that the more complicated flow physics associated with an airfoil operating in an engine-representative environment reduces the effectiveness of the shaped cooling holes. Time-accurate comparisons provide some insight into the complicated interactions that are driving these flows and make it difficult to characterize cooling benefits.

Gas turbines overall efficiency enhancement requires further increasing of the firing temperature and decreasing of cooling flow usage. Multihole (or effusion, or full-coverage) film cooling is widely used for hot gas path components cooling in modern gas turbines. The present study focused on the adiabatic film effectiveness measurement of a round multihole flat-plate coupon. The measurements were conducted in a subsonic open-loop wind tunnel with a generic setup to cover different running conditions. The test conditions were characterized by a constant main flow Mach number of 0.1 with constant gas temperature. Adiabatic film effectiveness was measured by pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) through mass transfer analogy. CO 2 was used as the coolant to reach the density ratio of 1.5. Rig computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted to evaluate the impact of inlet boundary layer on testing. Experimental data cover blowing ratios (BRs) at 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 2.0. Both 2D maps and lateral average profiles clearly indicated that the film effectiveness increases with increasing BR for BR < 0.8 and decreases with increasing BR for BR > 0.8. This observation agreed with coolant jet behavior of single film row, i.e., attached, detached then reattached, and fully detached. PSP data quality was then discussed in detail for validating large eddy simulation.

This work describes the main findings of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis intended to accurately investigate the flow field and wall heat transfer as a result of the mutual interaction between a swirling flow generated by a lean burn injection system and a slot–effusion liner cooling system. In order to overcome some limitations of Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approach, the simulations were performed with shear stress transport (SST)–scale-adaptive simulation (SAS), a hybrid RANS–large eddy simulation (LES) model. Moreover, the significant computational effort due to the presence of more than 600 effusion holes was limited exploiting two different modeling strategies: a homogeneous model based on the application of uniform boundary conditions on both aspiration and injection sides, and another solution that provides a coolant injection through point mass sources within a single cell. CFD findings were compared to experimental results coming from an investigation carried out on a three-sector linear rig. The comparison pointed out that advanced modeling strategies, i.e., based on discrete mass sources, are able to reproduce the effects of mainstream–coolant interactions on convective heat loads. By validating the approach through a benchmark against time-averaged quantities, the transient data acquired were examined in order to better understand the unsteady behavior of the thermal load through a statistical analysis, providing useful information with a design perspective.

Two-dimensional thermal profiles were experimentally measured downstream of a single row of film cooling holes on both an adiabatic and a matched Biot number model turbine vane. The measurements were taken as a comparison to computational simulations of the same model and flow conditions. Previously, adiabatic and overall effectiveness comparisons have been made between experimental and computational data. To improve computational models of the evolution of a film cooling jet as it propagates downstream, the thermal field above the vane, not just the footprint on the vane surface, must be analyzed. This study expands these data to include 2D thermal fields above the vane at 0, 5, and 10 hole diameters downstream of the film cooling holes. Four blowing ratios were tested, M = 0.28, 0.65, 1.11, and 2.41. In each case, the computational jets remained colder than the experimental jets because they did not diffuse into the mainstream as quickly. In addition, the computational results for the higher two blowing ratios exhibited the effects of the kidney vortex commonly studied in film cooling, but the experimental thermal fields were not dominated by this vortex. Finally, in comparing results above adiabatic and matched Biot number models, these thermal fields allow for an accurate analysis of whether or not the adiabatic wall temperature was a reasonable estimate of the driving temperature for heat transfer.

There have been numerous studies of the behavior of shaped film cooling holes for turbine applications. It is known that the introduction of coolant is an unsteady process, and a handful of studies have described and characterized the unsteadiness. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies in which unsteady acoustic effects have been actively exploited such that they have led to novel designs with improved cooling performance. This paper discusses the fundamental mechanism of pressure wave propagation through cooling holes and describes systems in which holes which have been acoustically shaped have led to a direct improvement in film cooling hole performance. The mechanism relies on sequential pressure wave reflection within an acoustically shaped hole and is therefore applicable in regions where the external surface is subject to large pressure wave fluctuations at high frequency. The principle is developed analytically, and then demonstrated with a number of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. We demonstrate that a desired temporal mass flow rate profile can be achieved by appropriate acoustic shaping of the cooling hole. The purpose of this paper is to describe the fundamental design considerations relevant to acoustic shaping. The discussion is developed with reference to a film cooling system for the over-tip region of an unshrouded rotor. The performance benefit of the system in terms of modulation of unsteady mass flux and ingestion characteristics is quantified. It is believed that this is the first time this significant effect has been exploited in film cooling design.

There have been numerous studies reporting film effectiveness for film rows in isolation, which have led to correlations that are used for preliminary design. Many applications require multiple film cooling rows. Although there is some published data which deal with the combined effect of multiple rows, in most design situations the additive effect is computed using correlations for single rows. The most widely used method is the Sellers superposition method. In many applications, the method gives accurate results. Although the method is to some extent physically based, energy is not conserved within the model, and in certain situations this limitation can be shown to lead to an underprediction of the film effectiveness. In this paper, a new energy-based method for predicting the additive effect of multiple film cooling rows is outlined. The physical basis and limitations of the model are discussed. Predictions conducted using the new method are compared with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data and contrasted with the Sellers method. In situations where energy conservation is required to avoid underprediction of effectiveness the method is shown to be advantageous.

It has been previously demonstrated that Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations do not accurately capture the mixing between the coolant flow and the main flow in trailing edge slot film cooling configurations. Most RANS simulations use a fixed turbulent Schmidt number of either 0.7 or 0.85 to determine the turbulent scalar flux, based on the values for canonical flows. This paper explores the extent to which RANS predictions can be improved by modifying the value of the turbulent Schmidt number. Experimental mean 3D velocity and coolant concentration data obtained using magnetic resonance imaging techniques are used to evaluate the accuracy of RANS simulations. A range of turbulent Schmidt numbers from 0.05 to 1.05 is evaluated and the optimal turbulent Schmidt number for each case is determined using an integral error metric which accounts for the difference between RANS and experiment throughout a three-dimensional region of interest (ROI). The resulting concentration distribution is compared in detail with the experimentally measured coolant concentration distribution to reveal where the fixed turbulent Schmidt number assumption fails. It is shown that the commonly used turbulent Schmidt number of 0.85 overpredicts the surface effectiveness in all cases, particularly when the k-omega shear stress transport (SST) model is employed, and that a lower value of the turbulent Schmidt number can improve predictions.

The demand for increased thrust, higher engine efficiency, and reduced fuel consumption has increased the turbine inlet temperature and pressure in modern gas turbine engines. The outcome of these higher temperatures and pressures is the potential for unconsumed radical species to enter the turbine. Because modern cooling schemes for turbine blades involve injecting cool, oxygen-rich air adjacent to the surface, the potential for reaction with radicals in the mainstream flow, and augmented heat transfer to the blade arises. This result is contrary to the purpose of film cooling. In this environment, there is a competing desire to consume any free radicals prior to the flow entering the rotor stage while still maintaining surface temperatures below the metal melting temperature. This study evaluated various configurations of multiple cylindrical rows of cooling holes in terms of both heat release and effective downstream cooling. Results were evaluated based on net heat flux reduction (NHFR) and a new wall absorption (WA) parameter which combined the additional heat available from these secondary reactions with the length of the resulting flame to determine which schemes protected the wall more efficiently. Two particular schemes showed promise. The two row upstream configuration reduced the overall augmentation of heat by creating a short, concentrated reaction area. Conversely, the roll forward configuration minimized the local heat flux enhancement by spreading the reaction area over the surface being cooled.