Film Cooling Optimization Using Numerical Computation of the Compressible Viscous Flow Equations and Simplex Algorithm

Abstract

Film cooling is vital to gas turbine blades to protect them from high temperatures and hence high thermal stresses. In the current work, optimization of film cooling parameters on a flat plate is investigated numerically. The effect of film cooling parameters such as inlet velocity direction, lateral and forward diffusion angles, blowing ratio, and streamwise angle on the cooling effectiveness is studied, and optimum cooling parameters are selected. The numerical simulation of the coolant flow through flat plate hole system is carried out using the “CFDRC package” coupled with the optimization algorithm “simplex” to maximize overall film cooling effectiveness. Unstructured finite volume technique is used to solve the steady, three-dimensional and compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The results are compared with the published numerical and experimental data of a cylindrically round-simple hole, and the results show good agreement. In addition, the results indicate that the average overall film cooling effectiveness is enhanced by decreasing the streamwise angle for high blowing ratio and by increasing the lateral and forward diffusion angles. Optimum geometry of the cooling hole on a flat plate is determined. In addition, numerical simulations of film cooling on actual turbine blade are performed using the flat plate optimal hole geometry.