Comparison of Aerodynamic Loss of a Gas Turbine Vane with Various Trailing Edge Cooling Schemes

Abstract

In this study, a comparison of aerodynamic loss of gas turbine vane with various trailing edge configurations was experimentally performed. For the trailing edge, three cooling schemes (the cutback slot, the central injection slot, and the pressure side hole) and three levels of trailing edge diameter (7.5, 10.0, and 12.5% of the throat width, respectively) were considered. The total pressure loss was measured in a five-vane linear cascade at the low-speed mainstream condition (20 m/s) using a Kiel probe and a two-axis traversing device. The measurement region was constrained to the near mid-span region, and the measurement step size was 1 mm. The results showed that the distribution of the total pressure loss was strongly affected by cooling schemes. The vane with the pressure side hole showed a similar distribution to that of the baseline in which a cooling scheme was not applied. It was also shown that the total pressure loss increased as the trailing edge diameter increased regardless of the cooling schemes. Except for the cutback slot cases, there was an inflection point at which the tendency of the area-averaged total pressure loss to the blowing ratio was changed. Through the present study, correlation equations for each cooling scheme were derived against the trailing edge diameter and the blowing ratio.