Effect of blowing ratio on Film-Cooling effectiveness of Ginkgo Shaped Holes: A numerical approach

Abstract

Modern gas turbine engines operate at significantly high temperatures to improve thermal efficiency and power output to a greater extent. The enhancement in rotor inlet temperature (RIT) increases the heat transfer rate to the turbine blades which requires sophisticated cooling schemes to maintain the blade temperature in acceptable levels. Therefore, the present work refers to the numerical investigation of film cooling technique applied in gas turbines. The cooling performance of two different shaped holes namely Ginkgo Forward (GF) and Ginkgo Reverse (GR)) were investigated in terms of centerline and local lateral effectiveness and comprehensive comparison was made with the cooling performance of cylindrical (CY) hole. The investigations were performed at two density ratios (DR=1.6, 2.0) and three different blowing ratios (BR=1.0, 1.5 and 2.0). At all the operating conditions, the results demonstrated significant augmentation in centerline and lateral effectiveness when GR shaped hole was employed followed by the GF and CY cooling holes. For shaped holes, the low velocity gradient through the film alleviated jet lift off and turbulence intensity resulting in decreased entrainment of hot gas to bottom surface. To conclude, the lateral coverage due to the shaped cooling holes significantly enhanced the thermal protection and overall cooling performance.