This study evaluates the impact of typical cooling hole shape variations on the thermal performance of fan-shaped film holes. A comprehensive set of experimental test cases featuring 16 different film-cooling configurations with different hole shapes have been investigated. The shape variations investigated include hole inlet-to-outlet area ratio, hole coverage ratio, hole pitch ratio, hole length, and hole orientation (compound) angle. Flow conditions applied cover a wide range of film blowing ratios M=0.5 to 2.5 at an engine-representative density ratio DR=1.7. An infrared thermography data acquisition system is used for highly accurate and spatially resolved surface temperature mappings. Accurate local temperature data are achieved by an in situ calibration procedure with the help of thermocouples embedded in the test plate. Detailed film-cooling effectiveness distributions and discharge coefficients are used for evaluating the thermal performance of a row of fan-shaped film holes. An extensive variation of the main geometrical parameters describing a fan-shaped film-cooling hole is done to cover a wide range of typical film-cooling applications in current gas turbine engines. Within the range investigated, laterally averaged film-cooling effectiveness was found to show only limited sensitivity from variations of the hole geometry parameters. This offers the potential to tailor the hole geometry according to needs beyond pure cooling performance, e.g., manufacturing facilitations.
A common method of optimizing coolant performance in gas turbine engines is through the use of shaped film-cooling holes. Despite widespread use of shaped holes, existing correlations for predicting performance are limited to narrow ranges of parameters. This study extends the prediction capability for shaped holes through the development of a physics-based empirical correlation for predicting laterally averaged film-cooling effectiveness on a flat-plate downstream of a row of shaped film-cooling holes. Existing data were used to determine the physical relationship between film-cooling effectiveness and several parameters, including blowing ratio, hole coverage ratio, area ratio, and hole spacing. Those relationships were then incorporated into the skeleton form of an empirical correlation, using results from the literature to determine coefficients for the correlation. Predictions from the current correlation, as well as existing shaped-hole correlations and a cylindrical hole correlation, were compared with the existing experimental data. Results show that the current physics-based correlation yields a significant improvement in predictive capability, by expanding the valid parameter range and improving agreement with experimental data. Particularly significant is the inclusion of higher blowing ratio conditions (up to M=2.5) into the current correlation, whereas the existing correlations worked adequately only at lower blowing ratios (M≈0.5).
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