This paper presents detailed measurements of the film-cooling effectiveness for three single, scaled-up film-cooling hole geometries. The hole geometries investigated include a cylindrical hole and two holes with a diffuser shaped exit portion (i.e. a fanshaped and a laidback fanshaped hole). The flow conditions considered are the crossflow Mach number at the hole entrance side (up to 0.6), the crossflow Mach number at the hole exit side (up to 1.2), and the blowing ratio (up to 2). The coolant-to-mainflow temperature ratio is kept constant at 0.54. The measurements are performed by means of an infrared camera system which provides a two-dimensional distribution of the film-cooling effectiveness in the nearfield of the cooling hole down to x/D = 10. As compared to the cylindrical hole, both expanded holes show significantly improved thermal protection of the surface downstream of the ejection location, particularly at high blowing ratios. The laidback fanshaped hole provides a better lateral spreading of the ejected coolant than the fanshaped hole which leads to higher laterally averaged film-cooling effectiveness. Coolant passage crossflow Mach number and orientation strongly affect the flowfield of the jet being ejected from the hole and, therefore, have an important impact on film-cooling performance.

For future efficient and light aero-engines it is essential to develop optimized lubrication systems. These systems require increased temperature and pressure levels in combination with high rotational speeds without compromising the high level of safety and reliability. This applies especially to the bearing chamber as one of the most challenging components of the oil system. Due to the mixing of the sealing airflow and the lubrication oil a complex air- / oilflow is formed inside the chamber. In order to gain a deeper insight into the physical phenomena of the flow inside the bearing chamber a multiyear fundamental study has been initiated. This study focuses for the first time on detailed measurements of the local air- / oilflow field. In the first phase of the project experiments have been carried out to determine the rotating and swirling pure airflow. Hence a specially adapted three dimensional Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) system was used to resolve the complex flow. The results revealed that different flow patterns occurred depending on the ratio between the shaft speed and the airflow rate. In the near future it is aimed to resolve the droplet flow also to provide a complete knowledge of the air- / oilflow in bearing chambers.

A comprehensive set of generic experiments has been conducted to investigate the effect of elevated free-stream turbulence on film cooling performance of shaped holes. A row of three cylindrical holes as a reference case, and two rows of holes with expanded exits, a fanshaped (expanded in lateral direction), and a laidback fanshaped hole (expanded in lateral and streamwise direction) have been employed. With an external (hot gas) Mach number of Mam=0.3 operating conditions are varied in terms of free-stream turbulence intensity (up to 11%), integral length scale at constant turbulence intensity (up to 3.5 hole inlet diameters), and blowing ratio. The temperature ratio is fixed at 0.59 leading to an enginelike density ratio of 1.7. The results indicate that shaped and cylindrical holes exhibit very different reactions to elevated free-stream turbulence levels. For cylindrical holes film cooling effectiveness is reduced with increased turbulence level at low blowing ratios whereas a small gain in effectiveness can be observed at high blowing ratios. For shaped holes, increased turbulence intensity is detrimental even for the largest blowing ratio M=2.5. In comparison to the impact of turbulence intensity the effect of varying the integral length scale is found to be of minor importance. Finally, the effect of elevated free-stream turbulence in terms of heat transfer coefficients was found to be much more pronounced for the shaped holes.

In the internal air system of gas turbine engines or generators, a large variety of different types of annular channels with rotating cylinders are found. Even though the geometry is very simple, the flow field in such channels can be completely three-dimensional and also unsteady. From the literature it is well-known that the basic two-dimensional flow field breaks up into a pattern of counter-rotating vortices as soon as the critical speed of the inner cylinder is exceeded. The presence of a superimposed axial flow leads to a helical shape of the vortex pairs that are moving through the channel. For the designer of cooling air systems there are several open questions. Does the formation of a Taylor-vortex flow field significantly affect the convective heat transfer behavior of the channel flow? Is there a stability problem even for high axial Reynolds-numbers and where is the location of the stability boundary? After all, the general influence of rotation on the heat transfer characteristics has to be known. By the results of flow field and heat transfer measurements, the impact of rotation and the additional influence of Taylor-vortex formation on the heat transfer characteristics in annular channels with axial throughflow will be discussed. The flow field was investigated by time-dependant LDA-measurements, which revealed detailed information about the flow conditions. By a spectral analysis of the measured data, the different flow regimes could be identified. Based on these results, the heat transfer from the hot gas to the rotating inner shaft was determined with a steady-state method. Thus, the influence of the different physical phenomena such as rotation with and without Taylor-vortex formation or the flow development could be separated and quantified. Finally, correlations of the measured results were derived for technical applications.

This paper presents detailed measurements of the film-cooling effectiveness for three single, scaled-up film-cooling hole geometries. The hole geometries investigated include a cylindrical hole and two holes with a diffuser-shaped exit portion (i.e., a fan-shaped and a laid-back fan-shaped hole). The flow conditions considered are the crossflow Mach number at the hole entrance side (up to 0.6), the crossflow Mach number at the hole exit side (up to 1.2), and the blowing ratio (up to 2). The coolant-to-mainflow temperature ratio is kept constant at 0.54. The measurements are performed by means of an infrared camera system, which provides a two-dimensional distribution of the film-cooling effectiveness in the near field of the cooling hole down to x/D = 10. As compared to the cylindrical hole, both expanded holes show significantly improved thermal protection of the surface downstream of the ejection location, particularly at high blowing ratios. The laidback fan-shaped hole provides a better lateral spreading of the ejected coolant than the fan-shaped hole, which leads to higher laterally averaged film-cooling effectiveness. Coolant passage cross-flow Mach number and orientation strongly affect the flowfield of the jet being ejected from the hole and, therefore, have an important impact on film-cooling performance.

One viable option to improve cooling methods used for gas turbine blades is to optimize the geometry of the film-cooling hole. To optimize that geometry, effects of the hole geometry on the complex jet-in-crossflow interaction need to be understood. This paper presents a comparison of detailed flowfield measurements for three different single, scaled-up, hole geometries all at a blowing ratio and density ratio of unity. The hole geometries include a round hole, a hole with a laterally expanded exit, and a hole with a forward-laterally expanded exit. In addition to the flowfield measurements for expanded cooling hole geometries being unique to the literature, the testing facility used for these measurements was also unique in that both the external mainstream Mach number (Ma∞ = 0.25) and internal coolant supply Mach number (Mac = 0.3) were nearly matched. Results show that by expanding the exit of the cooling holes, the penetration of the cooling jet as well as the intense shear regions are significantly reduced relative to a round hole. Although the peak turbulence levels for all three hole geometries was nominally the same, the source of that turbulence was different. The peak turbulence level for both expanded holes was located at the exit of the cooling hole resulting from the expansion angle being too large. The peak turbulence level for the round hole was located downstream of the hole exit where the velocity gradients were very large.

No abstract

A comprehensive set of generic experiments has been conducted to investigate the effect of elevated free-stream turbulence on film cooling performance of shaped holes. A row of three cylindrical holes as a reference case, and two rows of holes with expanded exits, a fanshaped (expanded in lateral direction), and a laidback fanshaped hole (expanded in lateral and streamwise direction) have been employed. With an external (hot gas) Mach number of Mam = 0.3 operating conditions are varied in terms of free-stream turbulence intensity (up to 11%), integral length scale at constant turbulence intensity (up to 3.5 hole inlet diameters), and blowing ratio. The temperature ratio is fixed at 0.59 leading to an engine-like density ratio of 1.7. The results indicate that shaped and cylindrical holes exhibit very different reactions to elevated free-stream turbulence levels. For cylindrical holes film cooling effectiveness is reduced with increased turbulence level at low blowing ratios whereas a small gain in effectiveness can be observed at high blowing ratios. For shaped holes, increased turbulence intensity is detrimental even for the largest blowing ratio (M = 2.5). In comparison to the impact of turbulence intensity the effect of varying the integral length scale is found to be of minor importance. Finally the effect of elevated free-stream turbulence in terms of heat transfer coefficients was found to be much more pronounced for the shaped holes.