Unsteady Wake and Coolant Density Effects on Turbine Blade Film Cooling Using PSP Technique

Author(s):  
Akhilesh P. Rallabandi ◽  
Shiou-Jiuan Li ◽  
Je-Chin Han

The effect of an unsteady stator wake (simulated by wake rods mounted on a spoke wheel wake generator) on the modeled rotor blade is studied using the Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) mass transfer analogy method. Emphasis of the current study is on the mid-span region of the blade. The flow is in the low Mach number (incompressible) regime. The suction (convex) side has simple angled cylindrical film-cooling holes; the pressure (concave) side has compound angled cylindrical film cooling holes. The blade also has radial shower-head leading edge film cooling holes. Strouhal numbers studied range from 0 to 0.36; the exit Reynolds Number based on the axial chord is 530,000. Blowing ratios range from 0.5 to 2.0 on the suction side; 0.5 to 4.0 on the pressure side. Density ratios studied range from 1.0 to 2.5, to simulate actual engine conditions. The convex suction surface experiences film-cooling jet lift-off at higher blowing ratios, resulting in low effectiveness values. The film coolant is found to reattach downstream on the concave pressure surface, increasing effectiveness at higher blowing ratios. Results show deterioration in film cooling effectiveness due to increased local turbulence caused by the unsteady wake, especially on the suction side. Results also show a monotonic increase in film-cooling effectiveness on increasing the coolant to mainstream density ratio.

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhilesh P. Rallabandi ◽  
Shiou-Jiuan Li ◽  
Je-Chin Han

The effect of an unsteady stator wake (simulated by wake rods mounted on a spoke-wheel wake generator) on the modeled rotor blade is studied using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) mass-transfer analogy method. Emphasis of the current study is on the midspan region of the blade. The flow is in the low Mach number (incompressible) regime. The suction (convex) side has simple angled cylindrical film-cooling holes; the pressure (concave) side has compound angled cylindrical film-cooling holes. The blade also has radial shower-head leading edge film-cooling holes. Strouhal numbers studied range from 0 to 0.36; the exit Reynolds number based on the axial chord is 530,000. Blowing ratios range from 0.5 to 2.0 on the suction side and 0.5 to 4.0 on the pressure side. Density ratios studied range from 1.0 to 2.5, to simulate actual engine conditions. The convex suction surface experiences film-cooling jet lift-off at higher blowing ratios, resulting in low effectiveness values. The film coolant is found to reattach downstream on the concave pressure surface, increasing effectiveness at higher blowing ratios. Results show deterioration in film-cooling effectiveness due to increased local turbulence caused by the unsteady wake, especially on the suction side. Results also show a monotonic increase in film-cooling effectiveness on increasing the coolant to mainstream density ratio.


Author(s):  
T. Elnady ◽  
I. Hassan ◽  
L. Kadem ◽  
T. Lucas

An experimental investigation has been performed to study the film cooling of a smooth expansion exit at the leading edge of a gas turbine vane. A two-dimensional cascade has been employed to measure the cooling performance of the proposed expansion using a transient Thermochromatic Liquid Crystal technique. One row of cylindrical holes, located on the stagnation line, is investigated with two expansion levels at the hole exit, 2d and 4d, in addition to the standard cylindrical exit. The air is injected at 0° and 30° inclination angles with the mainstream direction at four blowing ratios ranging from 1 and 2 and a 0.9 density ratio. The Mach number and the Reynolds number based on the cascade exit velocity and the axial chord are 0.23 and 1.4E5, respectively. The detailed local cooling effectiveness over both the pressure side and the suction side are presented in addition to the lateral-averaged cooling effectiveness. The proposed expansion enhances the coolant distribution over the leading edge, particularly over the suction side. The cooling effectiveness increases with the increase of the blowing ratio due to the decrease in the jet lift-off, hence higher cooling capacity is provided. The complete confrontation between both streams on the 0° inclination angle causes a strong dispersion to the coolant, yielding a significant reduction in the effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Chao-Cheng Shiau ◽  
Nafiz H. K. Chowdhury ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Alexander V. Mirzamoghadam ◽  
Ardeshir Riahi

This work focuses on the parametric experimental study of film cooling effectiveness on the suction side of a scaled turbine vane under transonic flow condition. The experiments were performed in a five-vane annular sector cascade blowdown facility. The controlled exit Mach numbers were 0.7, 0.9, and 1.1, from high subsonic to transonic conditions. N2, CO2, and Argon/SF6 mixture were used to investigate the effects of coolant-to-mainstream density ratios, ranging from 1.0, 1.5 to 2.0. Three row-averaged coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratios in the range 0.7, 1.0, and 1.6 are studied. The test vane includes three rows of radial-angle cylindrical holes around the leading edge and two rows of compound-angle shaped holes on the suction side. All the cooling holes are active in order to study the resultant film cooling on suction side as well as from leading edge. Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique was used to obtain the film cooling effectiveness distributions from suction side holes and the contribution from leading edge showerhead holes. This work shows the effects of coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratio, density ratio, and exit Mach number on the film cooling effectiveness as well as its interaction with a potential shock wave. The results indicate that when the cooling holes are located in a critical region on the vane suction surface, the parametric effect on film cooling performance will significantly deviate from the common trend for a typical hole geometry.


Author(s):  
Andrew F. Chen ◽  
Chao-Cheng Shiau ◽  
Je-Chin Han

The combined effects of inlet purge flow and the slashface leakage flow on the film cooling effectiveness of a turbine blade platform were studied using the pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on the endwall were obtained and analyzed. The inlet purge flow was generated by a row of equally-spaced cylindrical injection holes inside a single-tooth generic stator-rotor seal. In addition to the traditional 90 degree (radial outward) injection for the inlet purge flow, injection at a 45 degree angle was adopted to create a circumferential/azimuthal velocity component toward the suction side of the blades, which created a swirl ratio (SR) of 0.6. Discrete cylindrical film cooling holes were arranged to achieve an improved coverage on the endwall. Backward injection was attempted by placing backward injection holes near the pressure side leading edge portion. Slashface leakage flow was simulated by equally-spaced cylindrical injection holes inside a slot. Experiments were done in a five-blade linear cascade with an average turbulence intensity of 10.5%. The inlet and exit Mach numbers were 0.26 and 0.43, respectively. The inlet and exit mainstream Reynolds numbers based on the axial chord length of the blade were 475,000 and 720,000, respectively. The coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratios (MFR) were varied from 0.5%, 0.75%, to 1% for the inlet purge flow. For the endwall film cooling holes and slashface leakage flow, blowing ratios (M) of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 were examined. Coolant-to-mainstream density ratios (DR) that range from 1.0 (close to low temperature experiments) to 1.5 (intermediate DR) and 2.0 (close to engine conditions) were also examined. The results provide the gas turbine engine designers a better insight into improved film cooling hole configurations as well as various parametric effects on endwall film cooling when the inlet (swirl) purge flow and slashface leakage flow were incorporated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 521 ◽  
pp. 104-107
Author(s):  
Ling Zhang ◽  
Quan Heng Jin ◽  
Da Fei Guo

The Realizable k-ε turbulence model was performed to investigate the film cooling effectiveness with different blowing ratio 1,1.5,2 and different density ratio 1,1.5,2.The results show that, cooling effectiveness increases with the augment of blowing ratio. On the pressure side, cooling effectiveness increases with the augment of density ratio. On the suction side, with higher density ratio the leading edge cooling increases, the middle section reduces, and the trailing edge cooling effectiveness increases first decreases.


Author(s):  
Sridharan Ramesh ◽  
Chris LeBlanc ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

Film cooling performance depends strongly on the hole exit geometry, blowing ratio, and hole location. The goal of this study is to evaluate film cooling geometries that can provide better protection over the suction surface of the airfoil beyond the throat region. This study compares the performance of standard cylindrical; fan-shaped (10° flare/laidback); tripod hole geometry (15° breakout angle); and tripod holes with shaped exits (5° flare on 15° tripod). Film cooling holes are located just upstream of the throat region on the suction side of an airfoil. The airfoil is a scaled up first stage vane from GE E3 engine and is mounted on a low speed linear cascade wind tunnel. A range of blowing ratios from 0.5 to 2.0 was covered for a cylindrical hole, while ensuring all other hole geometries run under similar mass flow rate conditions. Steady state IR (Infra-Red) technique was employed to measure adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. Results show that the tripod holes with and without shaped exits provide much higher film effectiveness than cylindrical and slightly higher effectiveness than shaped exit holes using 50% lesser cooling air while operating at the same blowing ratios. Effectiveness values up to 0.2–0.25 are seen 40-hole diameters downstream for the tripod hole configurations thus providing cooling in the important trailing edge portion of the airfoil.


Author(s):  
Shantanu Mhetras ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Ron Rudolph

The effect of film cooling holes placed along the span of a fully-cooled high pressure turbine blade in a stationary, linear cascade on film cooling effectiveness is studied using the Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) technique. Effect of showerhead injection at the leading edge and the presence of compound angled, diffusing holes on the pressure and suction side are also examined. Six rows of compound angled shaped film cooling holes are provided on the pressure side while four such rows are provided on the suction side of the blade. The holes have a laidback and fan-shaped diffusing cross-section. Another three rows of cylindrical holes are drilled at a typical angle on the leading edge to capture the effect of showerhead film coolant injection. The film cooling hole arrangement simulates a typical film cooled blade design used in stage 1 rotor blades for gas turbines used for power generation. A typical blowing ratio is defined for each film hole row and tests are performed for 100%, 150% and 200% of this typical value. Tests are performed for inlet Mach numbers of 0.36 and 0.45 with corresponding exit Mach numbers of 0.51 and 0.68 respectively. The flow remains subsonic in the throat region for both Mach numbers. The corresponding free stream Reynolds number, based on the axial chord length and the exit velocity, are 1.3 million and 1.74 million respectively. Freestream turbulence intensity level at the cascade inlet is 6%. Results show that varying blowing ratios can have a significant impact on film-cooling effectiveness distribution. Large spanwise variations in effectiveness distributions are also observed. Similar distributions were observed for both Mach numbers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Liu ◽  
Shang-Feng Yang ◽  
Je-Chin Han

Adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness is examined systematically on a typical high pressure turbine blade by varying three critical flow parameters: coolant blowing ratio, coolant-to-mainstream density ratio, and freestream turbulence intensity. Three coolant density ratios 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 are chosen for this study. The average blowing ration and the turbulence intensity are 1.5% and 10.5%, respectively. Conduction-free pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique is used to measure film-cooling effectiveness. Foreign gases are used to study the effect of coolant density. Two test blades feature axial angle and 45 deg compound-angle shaped holes on the suction side and pressure side. Both designs have 3 rows of 30 deg radial-angle cylindrical holes around the leading edge region. The inlet and the exit Mach number are 0.27 and 0.44, respectively. Reynolds number based on the exit velocity and blade axial chord length is 750,000. Overall, the compound angle design performs better film coverage that axial angle. Greater coolant-to-mainstream density ratio results in lower coolant-to-mainstream momentum and prevents coolant to lift-off.


Author(s):  
Sridharan Ramesh ◽  
Christopher LeBlanc ◽  
Diganta Narzary ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

Film cooling performance of the antivortex (AV) hole has been well documented for a flat plate. The goal of this study is to evaluate the same over an airfoil at three different locations: leading edge suction and pressure surface and midchord suction surface. The airfoil is a scaled up first stage vane from GE E3 engine and is mounted on a low-speed linear cascade wind tunnel. Steady-state infrared (IR) technique was employed to measure the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. The study has been divided into two parts: the initial part focuses on the performance of the antivortex tripod hole compared to the cylindrical (CY) hole on the leading edge. Effects of blowing ratio (BR) and density ratio (DR) on the performance of cooling holes are studied here. Results show that the tripod hole clearly provides higher film cooling effectiveness than the baseline cylindrical hole case with overall reduced coolant usage on the both pressure and suction sides of the airfoil. The second part of the study focuses on evaluating the performance on the midchord suction surface. While the hole designs studied in the first part were retained as baseline cases, two additional geometries were also tested. These include cylindrical and tripod holes with shaped (SH) exits. Film cooling effectiveness was found at four different blowing ratios. Results show that the tripod holes with and without shaped exits provide much higher film effectiveness than cylindrical and slightly higher effectiveness than shaped exit holes using 50% lesser cooling air while operating at the same blowing ratios. Effectiveness values up to 0.2–0.25 are seen 40-hole diameters downstream for the tripod hole configurations, thus providing cooling in the important trailing edge portion of the airfoil.


Author(s):  
Nafiz H. K. Chowdhury ◽  
Chao-Cheng Shiau ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Luzeng Zhang ◽  
Hee-Koo Moon

The performance of a full coverage film cooling configuration called cross-row (CR) configuration including upstream inlet leakage flow was studied by measuring the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distribution using PSP technique. Experiments were conducted in a blow-down wind tunnel cascade facility at the isentropic exit Mach number of 0.5 corresponding to inlet Reynolds number of 3.8 × 105, based on axial chord length. A free-stream turbulence level was generated as high as 19% with a length scale of 1.7 cm at the inlet. The results are presented as two-dimensional adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions on the endwall surface with corresponding spanwise averaged distributions. The focus of this study is to investigate the effect of coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratio (MFR) and density ratio (DR) on the proposed endwall cooling design. Initially, increased MFR for the endwall cooling and upstream leakage levels up the local adiabatic cooling effectiveness and yields relatively uniform coverage on the entire endwall. However, in either case, highest MFR does not provide any improvement as endwall cooling suffered from the jet lift-off and leakage coolant coverage restricted by the downstream near-wall flow field. Results also indicated a density ratio of 1.5 provides the best performance. Finally, a fair comparison is made with another design called axial-row (AR) configuration from a companion paper.


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