For increased specific thrust and efficiency, more effective film cooling schemes are developed with each successive gas turbine design. Adding secondary film cooling holes to each primary film cooling hole represents such improvement without significantly increasing cost. Presented is an experimental investigation on the effects of secondary-to-primary hole diameter ratio on film cooling performance and flow structure in the coolant-to-passage flow merge zone. Film cooling effectiveness values and heat transfer coefficients are measured in the vicinity of the hole by the Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) technique. Measured in-flow temperature fields in the coolant emerging zone identify flow makeup, whether coolant or passage. Furthermore, complementary flow and thermal fields are numerically documented. The Reynolds number based on mainstream velocity and primary hole diameter is 20,300, a representative value. Performance features are compared at three blowing ratios (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) and two mass flow ratios (3.43% and 5.15%). Secondary holes improve film cooling effectiveness, especially when blowing rate is high. Secondary holes create an “anti-kidney vortex structure” that weakens the main kidney vortex pair which helps keep coolant attached to the surface, allowing more effective laterally spreading. However, adding secondary holes increases heat transfer coefficients, especially at high blowing rates. The secondary-to-primary hole diameter ratio is an important parameter. Larger secondary holes can counteract the detrimental effects of having higher blowing ratios, but with increased blowing ratios this improvement subsides. An optimum diameter ratio is sought.

The stators of the first stage of a gas turbine are exposed to severe temperatures. The coolant streams introduced to prevent the stators from thermal damage further complicate the highly three-dimensional vane passage flow. Recent results have shown that the coolant streams injected for cooling the combustor also influence the flow physics and the cooling effectiveness in the first-stage stator vanes passage. However, the effects of changing the mass flow rate of these combustor coolant streams on the passage flowfield have not been studied. As understanding the coolant transport is necessary for analyzing changes in cooling effectiveness in the vane passage, detailed aerodynamic and thermal measurements along the whole vane passage are required. This two-part paper presents such measurements taken for a variety of combustor coolant and endwall film coolant flow rates. The experiments were conducted in a low-Mach-number facility with engine-representative Reynolds numbers and large-scale high-level turbulence. The objective of the first part is to describe the flow that influences endwall and vane surface cooling effectiveness distributions, which are presented in the second part. The measurements show changes in the passage flowfield due to changes in both combustor coolant and endwall film coolant flow rates. Overall, the flow-physics remains largely unaffected by changes in coolant flow rates except in the endwall-vane surfaces region where the combustor coolant flow rate dominates changes in coolant transport. This is shown to have a high impact on endwall and vane surface cooling.

Effective coolant schemes are required for providing cooling to the first stage stator vanes of gas turbines. To correctly predict coolant performance on the endwall and vane surfaces, these coolant schemes should also consider the effects of coolant streams introduced upstream in the combustor section of a gas turbine engine. This two-part paper presents measurements taken on a first-stage nozzle guide vane cascade that includes combustor coolant injection. The first part of this paper explains how coolant transport and coolant-mainstream interaction in the vane passage is affected by changing the combustor coolant and endwall film coolant flow rates. This paper explains how those flows affect the coolant effectiveness on the endwall. Part one showed that a significant amount of coolant injected upstream of the endwall is present along the pressure surface of the vanes as well as over the endwall. Part two shows effectiveness measurement results taken in this study on the endwall and pressure and suction surfaces of the vanes. Sustained endwall coolant effectiveness is observed along the whole passage for all cases. It is uniform in the pitch-wise direction. Combustor coolant flow significantly affects cooling performance even near the trailing edge. The modified flow field results in the pressure surface being cooled more effectively than the suction surface. While the effectiveness distribution on the pressure surface varies with combustor and film coolant flow rates, the suction surface remains largely unchanged.

Effective coolant schemes are required for providing cooling to the first stage stator vanes of gas turbines. To correctly predict coolant performance on the endwall and vane surfaces, these coolant schemes should also consider the effects of coolant streams introduced upstream in the combustor section of a gas turbine engine. This two-part paper presents measurements taken on a first-stage nozzle guide vane cascade that includes combustor coolant injection. The first part of this paper explains how coolant transport and coolant-mainstream interaction in the vane passage is affected by changing the combustor coolant and endwall film coolant flow rates. This paper explains how those flows affect the coolant effectiveness on the endwall. Part one showed that a significant amount of coolant injected upstream of the endwall is present along the pressure surface of the vanes as well as over the endwall. Part two shows effectiveness measurement results taken in this study on the endwall and pressure and suction surfaces of the vanes. Sustained endwall coolant effectiveness is observed along the whole passage for all cases. It is uniform in the pitch-wise direction. Combustor coolant flow significantly affects cooling performance even near the trailing edge. The modified flow field results in the pressure surface being cooled more effectively than the suction surface. While the effectiveness distribution on the pressure surface varies with combustor and film coolant flow rates, the suction surface remains largely unchanged.