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A computational and experimental investigation of film cooling effectiveness Zhou, Jian Ming

Abstract

Film cooling is a technique used to protect turbine blades or other surfaces from a high temperature gas stream. This thesis presents an experimental and computational study of film cooling effectiveness based on two film cooling models in which coolant is injected onto a flat plate from a uniform slot (2-D) and a row of discrete holes (3-D). The existing turbulence models and near-wall turbulence treatments are evaluated. The transport equations are solved by the control volume finite difference and multigrid formulation, and the flow and heat transfer near the injection orifices and the film cooled wall are resolved by grid refinement. To verify the numerical model, physical experiments based on the heat-mass transfer analogy were carried out. Film cooling effectiveness and flow fields were measured using a flame ionization detector and hot-wire anemometry. For the 2-D model, the turbulence is modelled by the multiple-time-scale (M-T-s) turbulence model combined with the low-Re k turbulence model in the viscosity-affected near-wall region. Comparisons of the film cooling effectiveness and flow fields between computations and experiments for mass flow rate (RM) of 0.2,0.4,0.6 show that the M-T S model provides better agreement than the k-E model especially at high RM. Also, the low-Re k turbulence model used in the near-wall region allows for grid refinement near the film cooled wall, giving better flow and heat transfer predictions downstream of injection than the wall function method. For the 3-D model, a non-isotropic k-E turbulence model is used in combination with the low-Re k turbulence model as the near-wall treatment. Comparison of the spanwise averaged film cooling effectiveness between computation and experiment shows good agreement for mass flow ratios of 0.2, 0.4; however, the numerical values are consistently lower than the measured results for RM = 0.8. Comparison of the mean velocity and turbulence kinetic energy shows good agreement, especially near the injection. Further work to extend the M-T-S model to the 3-D model is suggested. Parametric tests of film cooling by single and double-row injection were carried out computationally to investigate the effects of mass flow rate, injection direction, hole spacing and stagger on the film cooling effectiveness. The superior performance of the lateral injection at high mass flow ratio, mainly near the injection orifice, is demonstrated. For the double-row injection, consistently better performance of the arrangement with stagger factor A/d=3 is found for the range of parameters investigated.

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