Local Source Based CFD Modeling of Effusion Cooling Holes: Validation and Application to an Actual Combustor Test Case

Abstract

State-of-the-art liner cooling technology for modern combustion chambers is represented by effusion cooling (or full-coverage film cooling). Effusion is a very efficient cooling strategy typically based on the use of several inclined small diameter cylindrical holes, where liner temperature is controlled by the combined protective effect of coolant film and heat removal through forced convection inside each hole. A CFD-based thermal analysis of such components implies a significant computational cost if the cooling holes are included in the simulations; therefore many efforts have been made to develop lower order approaches aiming at reducing the number of mesh elements. The simplest approach models the set of holes as a uniform coolant injection, but it does not allow an accurate assessment of the interaction between hot gas and coolant. Therefore higher order models have been developed, such as those based on localized mass sources in the region of hole discharge. The model presented in this paper replaces the effusion hole with a mass sink on the cold side of the plate, a mass source on the hot side, whereas convective cooling within the perforation is accounted for with a heat sink. The innovative aspect of the work is represented by the automatic calculation of the mass flow through each hole, obtained by a run time estimation of isentropic mass flow with probe points, while the discharge coefficients are calculated at run time through an in-house developed correlation. In the same manner, the heat sink is calculated from a Nusselt number correlation available in literature for short length holes. The methodology has been applied to experimental test cases of effusion cooling plates and compared to numerical results obtained through a CFD analysis including the cooling holes, showing a good agreement. A comparison between numerical results and experimental data was performed on an actual combustor as well, in order to prove the feasibility of the procedure.