Session: 12-08 Effects of film cooling geometry on cooling performance (I)

Paper Number: 126024

126024 - Performance Comparison of Different Leading Edge Cooling Layouts Considering Inlet Swirl 

In modern aero-engine and gas turbine, the interaction between the combustor and the turbine has a significant impact on both aerodynamic and cooling performance of the turbine. Strong swirl is used to stabilize the combustion and due to the interaction between the combustor and the turbine, non-uniform distributions of temperature and velocity can be observed on the inlet surface of the turbine, which notably affect the performance of turbine blade. In this work the effect of residual swirl on the leading edge area, which is characterized by high thermal loading, is studied. The primary research interest of this work is to improve the cooling performance of the leading edge by optimizing the layout the cooling holes and an optimized cooling layout is proposed to minimize the negative impact caused by the inlet swirl. First, performance comparison of different leading edge cooling layouts considering the inlet swirl is conducted using the measurement based on Pressure-Sensitive-Paint (PSP) technology. Results show that asymmetric cooling hole layouts, for example, cooling hole distribution driven by sinusoidal function, can clearly improve the performance, without changing the hole geometry nor the mass flow rate of the cooling air. Then, based on the experimental results and the analysis, a new layout based on the stagnation line is proposed, which can increase the area-averaged film cooling effectiveness by 35% and reduce the standard deviation of film cooling effectiveness by 20% on the leading edge region. Furthermore, the cooling performance of new layout is measured under high swirl conditions by PSP technology and improved performance is verified by experiment.

Presenting Author: Kexin Hu Tsinghua University

Presenting Author Biography: The presenter, Kexin Hu, is a Master student from the Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University. Her research interests include the flow structure and cooling characteristics of film cooling on gas turbine and she focus on the investigation and optimization of the vane film cooling under non-uniform inlet conditions.

Authors:

Kexin Hu Tsinghua University
Zhen Zhang Tsinghua University
Xinrong Su Tsinghua University
Xin Yuan Tsinghua University