Shaped-Hole Film Cooling With Pulsed Secondary Flow

Abstract

The effects of the coolant jet pulsing frequency (PF), duty cycle (DC), and hole shape geometry on heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness were investigated with a film hole located on a semicircular leading edge test model with an afterbody. Cylindrical and diffusion-shaped holes located at 21.5° from the stagnation line were investigated. An infrared thermography technique with a single transient test was used to determine both the heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness. Spanwise averaged heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness were computed from the local values for all test conditions under the same Reynolds number (Re) of 60,000 and density ratio (DR) of 1.11. A dimensionless Frossling number (Fr) was used to represent the heat transfer coefficient. The effects of duty cycles of 50%, 75%, and 100% (continuous coolant) on film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient were investigated at coolant jet pulsing frequencies of 5 Hertz (Hz) and 10 Hertz. The duty cycle and pulsing frequency were controlled by the opening and closing time settings of two synchronized pulsed valves. The blowing parameters investigated included continuous coolant at the blowing ratios (M) of 0.75, 1.00, 1.50 and 2.00. The subsequent pulsed cases for a combination of pulsing frequency and duty cycle were varied from the corresponding continuous case without changing the coolant flow rate (or blowing ratio) setting for a total of 40 cases for the shaped and cylindrical film holes. The shaped hole provides higher local film effectiveness values than the classical cylindrical hole when coolant flow is steady at M = 1.00. The higher local film effectiveness for the shaped hole was also observed for pulsed cases at M = 1.50 (Meff = 1.25) and M = 2.00 (Meff = 1.07) due to wider film spreading or coverage. The pulsed coolant cases provide higher spanwise averaged film effectiveness than the continuous coolant at M = 1.50 for both hole geometries. In contrast to the film effectiveness, the spanwise averaged Frossling numbers of pulsed coolant are lower compared to the continuous coolant for both hole shapes at the same blowing ratio. Combining the effects of heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness, one can compute a relative heat load ratio to evaluate the performance of the film cooling. The pulsed coolant cases in general perform better than continuous coolant. The shaped hole geometry provides better film cooling performance than the cylindrical hole geometry for all blowing ratios including the continuous and the pulsed coolant cases studied.