An Experimental Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer at the Leading Edge of a Gas Turbine Airfoil

Abstract

This paper describes the experimental methods used to determine the surface temperatures and heat-transfer coefficients at the leading edge, and elsewhere over the surface, of a specially designed double-edge wedge shell specimen subjected to cyclic heating in a high velocity hot gas stream generated by a burner rig. The methods included temperature measurements with thermocouples (embedded below the surface) as well as surface temperature measurements by optical pyrometry. The experiments were carried-out at gas temperatures between 806 to 1323 °C and velocities in the range from Mach 0.32 to Mach 0.39. The calibration procedures for each method, the various testing conditions to which the airfoil-like specimen was exposed and the results pertaining to the determination of the surface temperatures and heat-transfer coefficients are described and discussed.