Shaped film cooling holes are a well-established cooling technique used in gas turbines to keep component metal temperatures in an acceptable range. One of the goals of film cooling is to reduce the driving temperature for convection at the wall, the success of which is generally represented by the film cooling adiabatic effectiveness. However, the introduction of a film cooling jet-in-crossflow, especially if it is oriented at a compound angle, can augment the convective heat transfer coefficient and dominate the flowfield. This work aims to understand the effect that a compound angle has on the flowfield and adiabatic effectiveness of a shaped film cooling hole. Five orientations of the public 7–7–7 shaped film cooling hole were tested, from a streamwise-oriented hole (0 deg compound angle) to a 60 deg compound angle hole, in increments of 15 deg. Additionally, two pitchwise spacings of P/D = 3 and 6 were tested to examine the effect of hole-to-hole interaction. All cases were tested at a density ratio of 1.2 and blowing ratios ranging from 1.0 to 4.0. The experimental results show that increasing compound angle leads to increased lateral spread of coolant and enables higher laterally averaged effectiveness at high-blowing ratios. A smaller pitchwise spacing leads to more complete coverage of the endwall and has higher laterally averaged effectiveness even when normalized by coverage ratio, suggesting that hole to hole interaction is important for compound angled holes. Steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was not able to capture the exact effectiveness levels, but did predict many of the observed trends. The lateral motion of the coolant jet was also quantified, both from the experimental data and the CFD prediction, and as expected, holes with a higher compound angle and higher blowing ratio have greater lateral motion, which generally also promotes hole-to-hole interaction.
Shaped film cooling holes are used extensively in gas turbines to reduce component temperatures. These holes generally consist of a metering section through the material and a diffuser to spread coolant over the surface. These two hole features are created separately using electrical discharge machining (EDM), and occasionally, an offset can occur between the meter and diffuser due to misalignment. The current study examines the potential impact of this manufacturing defect to the film cooling effectiveness for a well-characterized shaped hole known as the 7-7-7 hole. Five meter-diffuser offset directions and two offset sizes were examined, both computationally and experimentally. Adiabatic effectiveness measurements were obtained at a density ratio of 1.2 and blowing ratios ranging from 0.5 to 3. The detriment in cooling relative to the baseline 7-7-7 hole was worst when the diffuser was shifted upstream (aft meter-diffuser offset), and least when the diffuser was shifted downstream (fore meter-diffuser offset). At some blowing ratios and offset sizes, the fore meter-diffuser offset resulted in slightly higher adiabatic effectiveness than the baseline hole, due to a reduction in the high-momentum region of the coolant jet caused by a separation region created inside the hole by the fore meter-diffuser offset. Steady Reynolds-averaging Navier–Stokes (RANS) predictions did not accurately capture the levels of adiabatic effectiveness or the trend in the offsets, but it did predict the fore offset's improved performance.
Shaped film cooling holes are used as a cooling technology in gas turbines to reduce metal temperatures and improve durability, and they generally consist of a small metering section connected to a diffuser that expands in one or more directions. The area ratio (AR) of these holes is defined as the area at the exit of the diffuser, divided by the area at the metering section. A larger AR increases the diffusion of the coolant momentum, leading to lower average momentum of the coolant jet at the exit of the hole and generally better cooling performance. Cooling holes with larger ARs are also more tolerant of high blowing ratio conditions, and the increased coolant diffusion typically better prevents jet lift-off from occurring. Higher ARs have traditionally been accomplished by increasing the expansion angle of the diffuser while keeping the overall length of the hole constant. The present study maintains the diffuser expansion angles and instead increases the length of the diffuser, which results in longer holes. Various ARs have been examined for two shaped holes: one with forward and lateral expansion angles of 7 deg (7-7-7 hole) and one with forward and lateral expansion angles of 12 deg (12-12-12 hole). Each hole shape was tested at numerous blowing ratios to capture trends across various flow rates. Adiabatic effectiveness measurements indicate that for the baseline 7-7-7 hole, a larger AR provides higher effectiveness, especially at higher blowing ratios. Measurements also indicate that for the 12-12-12 hole, a larger AR performs better at high blowing ratios but the hole experiences ingestion at low blowing ratios. Steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations did not accurately predict the levels of adiabatic effectiveness, but did predict the trend of improving effectiveness with increasing AR for both hole shapes. Flowfield measurements with particle image velocimetry (PIV) were also performed at one downstream plane for a low and high AR case, and the results indicate an expected decrease in jet velocity due to a larger diffuser.
Shaped film cooling holes are used as a cooling technology in gas turbines to reduce metal temperatures and improve durability, and they generally consist of a small metering section connected to a diffuser that expands in one or more directions. The area ratio of these holes is defined as the area at the exit of the diffuser, divided by the area at the metering section. A larger area ratio increases the diffusion of the coolant momentum, leading to lower average momentum of the coolant jet at the exit of the hole and generally better cooling performance. Cooling holes with larger area ratios are also more tolerant of high blowing ratio conditions, and the increased coolant diffusion typically better prevents jet liftoff from occurring. Higher area ratios have traditionally been accomplished by increasing the expansion angle of the diffuser while keeping the overall length of the hole constant. The present study maintains the diffuser expansion angles and instead increases the length of the diffuser, which results in longer holes. Various area ratios have been examined for two shaped holes: one with forward and lateral expansion angles of 7° (7-7-7 hole) and one with forward and lateral expansion angles of 12° (12-12-12 hole). Each hole shape was tested at numerous blowing ratios to capture trends across various flow rates. Adiabatic effectiveness measurements indicate that for the baseline 7-7-7 hole, a larger area ratio provides higher effectiveness, especially at higher blowing ratios. Measurements also indicate that for the 12-12-12 hole, a larger area ratio performs better at high blowing ratios but the hole experiences ingestion at low blowing ratios. Steady RANS simulations did not accurately predict the levels of adiabatic effectiveness, but did predict the trend of improving effectiveness with increasing area ratio for both hole shapes. Flowfield measurements with PIV were also performed at one downstream plane for a low and high area ratio case, and the results indicate an expected decrease in jet velocity due to a larger diffuser.
Film cooling holes are a well-established cooling technique used in gas turbines to keep component metal temperatures in an acceptable range. A streamwise-oriented film cooling hole creates a symmetric counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) due to the jet interaction with the crossflow. As the orientation of the film cooling hole is incrementally misaligned with the streamwise direction (known as a compound angle), one of the vortices in the CRVP gains strength at the expense of the other until there is a single streamwise vortex that dominates the flowfield. This vortex diffuses the coolant jet and impinges hot gas onto the surface, which can augment heat transfer coefficients in a region uncovered by coolant. Although this has been well studied for cylindrical holes, there is less understanding about the nature of this phenomenon for shaped holes, which are intended to diffuse coolant laterally to minimize flowfield interaction. In the present study, particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the flowfield of compound angled shaped film cooling holes at several downstream planes normal to the streamwise direction. Five compound angled 7-7-7 holes were tested, from a streamwise oriented hole (0° compound angle) to a 60° compound angle hole, in increments of 15°. All cases were tested at a density ratio of 1.0 and blowing ratios ranging from 1.0 to 4.0. Experimental data shows that the circulation increases as compound angle increases because the flowfield transitions from a CRVP to a single streamwise vortex. For large compound angles, the streamwise vortex lifts the core of the jet off of the surface, isolating the coolant from the endwall. Measurements also indicate hole-to-hole interaction downstream for cases with high blowing ratio and large compound angle. Flowfield results are compared with adiabatic effectiveness results from a companion study in order to explain hole-to-hole interaction trends.
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