Film Cooling Effectiveness Distributions on a Turbine Blade Cascade Platform With Stator-Rotor Purge and Discrete Film Hole Flows

An experimental investigation to obtain detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on a cooled turbine blade platform within a linear cascade has been completed. The Reynolds number of the freestream flow is $3.1×105$⁠, and the platform has a labyrinthlike seal upstream of the blades to model a realistic stator-rotor seal configuration. An additional coolant is supplied to the downstream half of the platform via discrete film cooling holes. The coolant flow rate through the upstream seal varies from 0.5% to 2.0% of the mainstream flow, while the blowing ratio of the coolant through the discrete holes varies from 0.5 to 2.0 (based on the mainstream velocity at the exit of the cascade). Detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions are obtained using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique under a wide range of coolant flow conditions and various freestream turbulence levels (0.75% or 13.4%). The PSP technique clearly shows how adversely the coolant is affected by the passage induced flow. With only purge flow from the upstream seal, the coolant flow rate must exceed 1.5% of the mainstream flow in order to adequately cover the entire passage. However, if discrete film holes are used on the downstream half of the passage, the platform can be protected while using less coolant (i.e., the seal flow rate can be reduced).