A full thermal experimental assessment of a novel dendritic cooling scheme for high-pressure turbine vanes has been conducted and is presented in this paper, including a comparison to the current state-of-the-art cooling arrangement for these components. The dendritic cooling system consists of cooling holes with multiple internal branches that enhance internal heat transfer and reduce the blowing ratio at hole exit. Three sets of measurements are presented, which describe, first, the local internal heat transfer coefficient of these structures and, secondly, the cooling flow capacity requirements and overall cooling effectiveness of a highly engine-representative dendritic geometry. Full-coverage surface maps of overall cooling effectiveness were acquired for both dendritic and baseline vanes in the Annular Sector Heat Transfer Facility, where scaled near-engine conditions of Mach number, Reynolds number, inlet turbulence intensity, and coolant-to-mainstream pressure ratio (or momentum flux ratio) are achieved. Engine hardware was used, with laser-sintered metal counterparts for the novel cooling geometry (their detailed configuration, design, and manufacture are discussed). The dendritic system will be shown to offer improved overall cooling effectiveness at a reduced cooling mass flow rate due to a more uniform film cooling effectiveness, a decreased tendency for films to lift off in regions of low external cross flow, improved through-wall heat transfer and internal cooling efficiency, increased internal wetted surface area of the cooling holes, and the enhanced turbulence induced in them.
A novel form of gas turbine blade or vane cooling in which passages repeatedly branch within the wall of the cooled component is introduced in this paper. These so called dendritic cooling geometries offer particular performance improvements compared to traditional cooling holes where the external cross flow is low, and conventional films have a tendency to lift off the surface. In these regions improved internal cooling efficiency is achieved, while the coolant film is ejected at a low momentum ratio resulting in reduced aerodynamic losses between the film and hot gases, and a more effective surface film. By varying the number of branches of the systems at a particular location it is possible to tune the flow and heat transfer to the requirements at that location whilst maintaining the pressure margin. The additional loss introduced using the internal branching structure allows a full film-coverage arrangement of holes at the external blade surface. In this paper the results of transient heat transfer experiments characterising the internal heat transfer coefficient distribution in large scale models of dendritic passages are reported. Experiments were conducted with 1, 2 and 3 internal flow branches at a range of engine representative Reynolds numbers and exit momentum ratios. CFD models are used to help explain the flow field in the cooling passages. Furthermore the sensitivity of the pressure loss to the blowing ratio at the exit of the cooling holes is characterised and found to be inversely proportional to the number of branches in the dendritic system. Surprisingly the highly branched systems generally do not exhibit the highest pressure losses.
A full thermal experimental assessment of a novel dendritic cooling scheme for high-pressure turbine vanes has been conducted and is presented in this paper, including comparisons to the conventional cooling arrangement for these components. The dendritic cooling system consists of cooling holes with multiple internal branches which enhance internal heat transfer and reduce the blowing ratio at hole exit. Three sets of measurements are presented, which describe, first, the local internal heat transfer coefficient of these structures, and, secondly, the cooling flow capacity requirements and overall cooling effectiveness of a highly engine-representative dendritic geometry. Full-coverage surface maps of overall cooling effectiveness were acquired for both dendritic and baseline vanes in the Annular Sector Heat Transfer Facility, where scaled near-engine conditions of Mach number, Reynolds number, inlet turbulence intensity and coolant-to-mainstream pressure ratio (or momentum flux ratio) are achieved. Engine hardware was used, with laser-sintered metal counterparts for the novel cooling geometry (their detailed configuration, design, and manufacture are discussed). The dendritic system will be shown to offer improved overall cooling effectiveness at a reduced cooling mass flow rate due to a more uniform film cooling effectiveness, a decreased tendency for films to lift off in regions of low external cross flow, improved through-wall heat transfer and internal cooling efficiency, increased internal wetted surface area of the cooling holes, and the enhanced turbulence induced in them.
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