Joshua B. Anderson

The Effect of Internal Crossflow on the Adiabatic Effectiveness of Compound Angle Film Cooling Holes

In gas turbine engines, film cooling holes are often fed by an internal crossflow, with flow normal to the direction of the external flow around the airfoil. Many experimental studies have used a quiescent plenum to feed model film cooling holes and thus do not account for the effects of internal crossflow. In this study, an experimental flat plate facility was constructed to study the effects of internal crossflow on a row of cylindrical compound angle film cooling holes. There are relatively few studies available in literature that focus on the effects of crossflow on film cooling performance, with no studies examining the effects of internal crossflow on film cooling with round, compound angled holes. A crossflow channel allowed for coolant to flow alternately in either direction perpendicular to the mainstream flow. Experimental conditions were scaled to match realistic turbine engine conditions at low speeds. Cylindrical compound angle film cooling holes were operated at blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 and at a density ratio (DR) of 1.5. The results from the crossflow experiments were compared to a baseline plenum-fed configuration. This study showed that significantly greater adiabatic effectiveness was achieved for crossflow counter to the direction of coolant injection.

Experimental Investigation of Coolant-to-Mainstream Scaling Parameters With Cylindrical and Shaped Film Cooling Holes

The performance of film cooling designs is typically quantified by the adiabatic effectiveness, with results presented in terms of non-dimensional parameters such as the blowing ratio, momentum flux ratio, or velocity ratio of the coolant to the overflowing mainstream gas. In order to appropriately model experimental film cooling designs, the correct coolant flow parameter should be selected. In this work, a single row of axial round holes and shaped holes were placed in a flat plate and tested within a recirculating wind tunnel at low speeds and temperatures. Mainstream turbulence intensity and boundary layer thickness were set similar to expected engine conditions. The density ratio of the coolant was varied from 1.2 to 1.6 in order to independently vary the parameters listed above, which were tested at six different conditions for each density ratio. High-resolution IR thermography was used to measure adiabatic effectiveness downstream of the single row of cooling holes. The results indicate that adiabatic effectiveness performance of cylindrical and shaped holes are scaled most effectively using velocity ratio, providing much more accurate results then when the blowing ratio is used.© 2015 ASME

Evaluation of superposition predictions for showerhead film cooling on a vane

The leading edge of a turbine vane is subject to some of the highest temperature loading within an engine, and an accurate understanding of leading edge film coolant behavior is essential for modern engine design. Although there have been many investigations of the adiabatic effectiveness for showerhead film cooling of a vane leading edge region, there have been no previous studies in which individual rows of the showerhead were tested with the explicit intent of validating superposition models. For the current investigation, a series of adiabatic effectiveness experiments were performed with a five-row and three-row showerhead. The experiments were repeated separately with each individual row of holes active. This allowed evaluation of superposition methods on both the suction side of the vane, which was moderately convex, and the pressure side of the vane, which was mildly concave. Superposition was found to accurately predict performance on the suction side of the vane at lower momentum flux ratios, but not at higher momentum flux ratios. On the pressure side of the vane the superposition predictions were consistently lower than measured values, with significant errors occurring at the higher momentum flux ratios. Reasons for the under-prediction by superposition analysis are presented.Copyright

The Effect of Internal Cross-Flow on the Adiabatic Effectiveness of Compound Angle Film Cooling Holes

In gas turbine engines, film cooling holes are often fed by an internal cross-flow, with flow normal to the direction of the external flow around the airfoil. Many experimental studies have used a quiescent plenum to feed model film cooling holes and thus do not account for the effects of internal cross-flow. In this study, an experimental flat plate facility was constructed to study the effects of internal cross-flow on a row of cylindrical compound angle film cooling holes. Operating conditions were scaled, based on coolant hole Reynolds number and turbulence level, to match realistic turbine engine conditions. A cross-flow channel allowed for coolant to flow alternately in either direction perpendicular to the mainstream flow. Film cooling holes were operated at blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 at a density ratio of 1.5. There are relatively few studies available in literature that focus on the effects of cross-flow on film cooling performance, with no studies examining the effects of internal cross-flow on film cooling with round, compound angled holes. This study showed that significantly greater adiabatic effectiveness was achieved for cross-flow in the opposite direction of the span-wise direction of the coolant holes and provides possible explanations for this result.Copyright

Convex curvature effects on film cooling adiabatic effectiveness

Surface curvature is known to have significant effects on film cooling performance, with convex curvature inducing increased film effectiveness and concave curvature causing decreased film effectiveness. Generally, these curvature effects have been presumed to scale with 2r/d at the film cooling hole location, where r is the radius of curvature and d is coolant hole diameter. In this study, the validity of this scaling of curvature effects are examined by performing experiments in regions of large and low curvature on a model vane. Single rows of cylindrical holes were placed at various locations along the high curvature section of the suction side of the vane. For the first series of experiments, a single row of holes was placed at two locations with different local surface curvature. The coolant hole diameters were then adjusted to match 2r/d values. Results from these experiments showed that there was better correspondence of film performance when using the 2r/d scaling, but there was not an exact matching of performance. A second series of experiments focused on evaluating the effects of curvature downstream of the coolant holes. One row of holes was placed at a position upstream of the highest curvature, while another row was placed at a downstream position such that the radius of curvature was equivalent for the two rows of holes. Results indicated that the local radius of curvature is not sufficient in understanding the performance of film cooling. Instead, the curvature envelope downstream of the coolant holes plays a significant role on the performance of film cooling for cylindrical holes.Copyright