David G. Bogard

Film-Cooling Effectiveness Downstream of a Single Row of Holes With Variable Density Ratio

Film-cooling effectiveness was studied using a row of inclined holes that injected cryogenically cooled air across a flat, adiabatic test plate. The density ratio of the coolant to mainstream varied from 1.2 to 2.0. Surface temperatures were measured using a unique surface thermocouple arrangement free of conduction errors. Temperatures were obtained along the jet centerline and across a number of lateral locations. By independently varying density ratio and blowing rate, scaling of adiabatic effectiveness with mass flux ratio, velocity ratio, and momentum ratio was determined. Depending on the momentum flux ratio, the jet either remains attached to the surface, detaches and then reattaches, or is fully detached. For attached jets, the centerline effectiveness scaled with the mass flux ratio. However, for detached-reattached jets, a consistent scaling was not found although the general distribution of the centerline effectiveness scaled with momentum flux ratio. Laterally averaged effectiveness was found to be dependent on density ratio and momentum flux ratio. Decreases in density ratio and increases in momentum flux ratio were found to reduce the spreading of the film cooling jet significantly and thereby reduce laterally averaged effectiveness.

Gas Turbine Film Cooling

The durability of gas turbine engines is strongly dependent on the component temperatures. For the combustor and turbine airfoils and endwalls, film cooling is used extensively to reduce component temperatures. Film cooling is a cooling method used in virtually all of todays aircraft turbine engines and in many power-generation turbine engines and yet has very difficult phenomena to predict. The interaction of jets-in-crossflow, which is representative of film cooling, results in a shear layer that leads to mixing and a decay in the cooling performance along a surface. This interaction is highly dependent on the jet-to-crossflow mass and momentum flux ratios. Film-cooling performance is difficult to predict because of the inherent complex flowfields along the airfoil component surfaces in turbine engines. Film cooling is applied to nearly all of the external surfaces associated with the airfoils that are exposed to the hot combustion gasses such as the leading edges, main bodies, blade tips, and endwalls. In a review of the literature, it was found that there are strong effects of freestream turbulence, surface curvature, and hole shape on the performance of film cooling. Film cooling is reviewed through a discussion of the analyses methodologies, a physical description, and the various influences on film-cooling performance.

Film Cooling With Compound Angle Holes: Adiabatic Effectiveness

Film cooling effectiveness was studied experimentally in a flat plate test facility with zero pressure gradient using a single row of inclined holes, which injected high-density, cryogenically cooled air. Round holes and holes with a diffusing expanded exit were directed laterally away from the free-stream direction with a compound angle of 60 deg. Comparisons were made with a baseline case of round holes aligned with the free stream. The effects of doubling the hole spacing to six hole diameters for each geometry were also examined. Experiments were performed at a density ratio of 1.6 with a range of blowing ratios from 0.5 to 2.5 and momentum flux ratios from 0.16 to 3.9. Lateral distributions of adiabatic effectiveness results were determined at streamwise distances from 3 D to 15 D downstream of the injection holes. All hole geometries had similar maximum spatially averaged effectiveness at a low momentum flux ratio of I = 0.25, but the round and expanded exit holes with compound angle had significantly greater effectiveness at larger momentum flux ratios. The compound angle holes with expanded exits had a much improved lateral distribution of coolant near the hole for all momentum flux ratios.

Characterization and Laboratory Simulation of Turbine Airfoil Surface Roughness and Associated Heat Transfer

The physical characteristics of surface roughness observed on first-stage high-pressure turbine vanes that had been in service for a long period were investigated in this study. Profilometry measurements were utilized to provide details of the surface roughness formed by deposits of foreign materials on different parts of the turbine vane. Typical measures of surface roughness such as centerline average roughness values were shown to be inadequate for characterizing roughness effects. Using a roughness shape parameter originally derived from regular roughness arrays, the turbine airfoil roughness was characterized in terms of equivalent sand-grain roughness in order to develop an appropriate simulation of the surface for laboratory experiments. Two rough surface test plates were designed and fabricated. These test plates were evaluated experimentally to quantify the heat transfer rate for flow conditions similar to that which occurs on the turbine airfoil. Although the roughness levels on the two test plates were different by a factor of two, both surfaces caused similar 50 percent increases in heat transfer rates relative to a smooth surface. The effects of high free-stream turbulence, with turbulence levels from 10 to 17 percent, were also investigated. Combined free-stream turbulence and surface roughness effects were found to be additive, resulting in as much as a 100 percent increase in heat transfer rate.

Scaling of Performance for Varying Density Ratio Coolants on an Airfoil With Strong Curvature and Pressure Gradient Effects

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the film cooling performance on the suction side of a first-stage turbine vane. Tests were conducted on a nine times scale vane model at density ratios of DR = 1.1 and 1.6 over a range of blowing conditions, 0.2 ≤ M ≤ 1.5 and 0.05 ≤ I ≤ 1.2. Two different mainstream turbulence intensity levels, Tu∞ =0.5 and 20 percent, were also investigated. The row of coolant holes studied was located in a position of both strong curvature and strong favorable pressure gradient. In addition, its performance was isolated by blocking the leading edge showerhead coolant holes. Adiabatic effectiveness measurements were made using an infrared camera to map the surface temperature distribution. The results indicate that film cooling performance was greatly enhanced over holes with a similar 50 deg injection angle on a flat plate. Overall, adiabatic effectiveness scaled with mass flux ratio for low blowing conditions and with momentum flux ratio for high blowing conditions. However, for M < 0.5, there was a higher rate of decay for the low density ratio data. High mainstream turbulence had little effect at low blowing ratios, but degraded performance at higher blowing ratios.

High Freestream Turbulence Effects on Turbulent Boundary Layers

High freestream turbulence levels significantly alter the characteristics of turbulent boundary layers. Numerous studies have been conducted with freestreams having turbulence levels of 7 percent or less, but studies using turbulence levels greater than 10 percent have been essentially limited to the effects on wall shear stress and heat transfer. This paper presents measurements of the boundary layer statistics for the interaction between a turbulent boundary layer and a freestream with turbulence levels ranging from 10 to 20 percent. The boundary layer statistics reported in this paper include mean and rms velocities, velocity correlation coefficients, length scales, and power spectra. Although the freestream turbulent eddies penetrate into the boundary layer at high freestream turbulence levels, as shown through spectra and length scale measurements, the mean velocity profile still exhibits a log-linear region. Direct measurements of total shear stress (turbulent shear stress and viscous shear stress) confirm the validity of the log-law at high freestream turbulence levels. Velocity defects in the outer region of the boundary layer were significantly decreased resulting in negative wake parameters. Fluctuating rms velocities were only affected when the freestream turbulence levels exceeded the levels of the boundary layer generated rms velocities. Length scales and power spectra measurements showed large scale turbulent eddies penetrate to within y+ = 15 of the wall.

High-Resolution Film Cooling Effectiveness Measurements of Axial Holes Embedded in a Transverse Trench With Various Trench Configurations

Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness of axial holes embedded within a transverse trench on the suction side of a turbine vane was investigated. High-resolution two-dimensional data obtained from infrared thermography and corrected for local conduction provided spatial adiabatic effectiveness data. Flow parameters of blowing ratio, density ratio, and turbulence intensity were independently varied. In addition to a baseline geometry, nine trench configurations were tested, all with a depth of 1/2 hole diameter, with varying widths, and with perpendicular and inclined trench walls. A perpendicular trench wall at the very downstream edge of the coolant hole was found to be the key trench characteristic that yielded much improved adiabatic effectiveness performance. This configuration increased adiabatic effectiveness up to 100% near the hole and 40% downstream. All other trench configurations had little effect on the adiabatic effectiveness. Thermal field measurements confirmed that the improved adiabatic effectiveness that occurred for a narrow trench with perpendicular walls was due to a lateral spreading of the coolant and reduced coolant jet separation. The cooling levels exhibited by these particular geometries are comparable to shaped holes, but much easier and cheaper to manufacture.

Full-Coverage Film Cooling With Short Normal Injection Holes

An experimental and computational investigation was conducted on the film cooling adiabatic effectiveness of a flat plate with full coverage film cooling. The full coverage film cooling array was comprised of ten rows of coolant holes, arranged in a staggered pattern, with short L/D51, normal coolant holes. A single row of cooland holes was also examined to determine the accuracy of a superposition prediction of the full coverage adiabatic effectiveness performance. Large density coolant jets and high mainstream turbulence conditions were utilized to simulate realistic engine conditions. High-resolution adiabatic effectiveness measurements were obtained using infrared imaging techniques and a large-scale flat plate model. Optimum adiabatic effectiveness was found to occur for a blowing ratio of M50.65. At this blowing ratio separation of the coolant jet immediately downstream of the hole was observed. For M 50.65, the high mainstream turbulence decreased the spatially averaged effectiveness level by 12 percent. The high mainstream turbulence produced a larger effect for lower blowing ratios. The superposition model based on single row effectiveness results over-predicted the full coverage effectiveness levels. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1400111#

A Film-Cooling Correlation for Shaped Holes on a Flat-Plate Surface

A common method of optimizing coolant performance in gas turbine engines is through the use of shaped film-cooling holes. Despite widespread use of shaped holes, existing correlations for predicting performance are limited to narrow ranges of parameters. This study extends the prediction capability for shaped holes through the development of a physics-based empirical correlation for predicting laterally averaged film-cooling effectiveness on a flat-plate downstream of a row of shaped film-cooling holes. Existing data were used to deternzine the physical relationship between film-cooling effectiveness and several parameters, including blowing ratio, hole coverage ratio, area ratio, and hole spacing. Those relationships were then incorporated into the skeleton form of an empirical correlation, using results from the literature to determine coefficients for the correlation. Predictions from the current correlation, as well as existing shaped-hole correlations and a cylindrical hole correlation, were compared with the existing experimental data. Results show that the current physics-based correlation yields a significant improvement in predictive capability, by expanding the valid parameter range and improving agreement with experimental data. Particularly significant is the inclusion of higher blowing ratio conditions (up to M = 2.5) into the current correlation, whereas the existing correlations worked adequately only at lower blowing ratios (M ≈ 0.5).

COMPARISON OF RANS TURBULENCE MODELS FOR PREDICTION OF FILM COOLING PERFORMANCE

The realizable k-e, standard k-ω, and RSM turbulence models were used to simulate flat plate film cooling experiments that are commonly described in literature. Adiabatic effectiveness simulations revealed that using the standard k-ω model resulted in the closest agreement with experimentally determined laterally averaged adiabatic effectiveness, but the worst agreement with centerline adiabatic effectiveness. Conversely, the realizable k-e model agreed worst with experimental laterally averaged adiabatic effectiveness values and best with centerline values. Use of the anisotropic RSM model was not found to predict more realistic coolant spreading than the other models. Simulations to find heat transfer coefficients without film cooling showed good agreement with correlations for all three models, and the closest agreement resulted from using the realizable k-e model. Heat transfer coefficient augmentation was also examined for two configurations: unit density ratio with and without upstream heating. Laterally averaged heat transfer coefficient augmentation simulations using all three turbulence models agreed well with experiments. However, the spanwise variation in heat transfer coefficient augmentation in all cases was greater than is typically seen experimentally.Copyright