Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) can be a powerful tool in measuring the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. There are two distinct sources of error for this measurement technique: the ability to experimentally obtain the data and the validity of the heat and mass transfer analogy for the problem being studied. This paper will assess the experimental aspect of this PSP measurement specifically for film cooling applications. Experiments are conducted in an effort to quantifiably bound expected errors associated with temperature nonuniformities in testing and photodegradation effects. Results show that if careful experimental procedures are put in place, both of these effects can be maintained to have less than 0.022 impact on effectiveness. Through accurate semi in situ calibration down to 4% atmospheric pressure, the near-hole distribution of effectiveness is measured with high accuracy. PSP calibrations are performed for multiple coupons, over multiple days. In addition, to reach a partial pressure of zero the calibration vessel was purged of all air by flowing CO2. The primary contribution of this paper lies in the uncertainty analysis performed on the PSP measurement technique. A thorough uncertainty analysis is conducted and described, in order to completely understand the presented measurements and any shortcomings of the PSP technique. This quantification results in larger, albeit more realistic, values of uncertainty and helps provide a better understanding of film cooling effectiveness measurements taken using the PSP technique. The presented uncertainty analysis takes into account all random error sources associated with sampling and calibration, from intensities to effectiveness. Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness measurements are obtained for a single row of film cooling holes inclined at 20 deg, with CO2 used as coolant. Data are obtained for six blowing ratios. Maps of uncertainty corresponding to each effectiveness profile are available for each test case. These maps show that the uncertainty varies spatially over the test surface and high effectiveness corresponds to low uncertainty. The noise floors can be as high as 0.04 at effectiveness levels of 0. Day-to-day repeatability is presented for each blowing ratio and shows that laterally averaged effectiveness data are repeatable within 0.02 effectiveness.

Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) can be a powerful tool in measuring the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. There are two distinct sources of error for this measurement technique; the ability to experimentally obtain the data and the validity of the heat and mass transfer analogy for the problem being studied. This paper will assess the experimental aspect of this PSP measurement specifically for film cooling applications. Experiments are conducted in an effort to quantifiably bound expected errors associated with temperature non-uniformities in testing and photo-degradation effects. Results show that if careful experimental procedures are put in place, both of these effects can be maintained to have less than 0.022 impact on effectiveness. Through accurate semi-in-situ calibration down to 4% atmospheric pressure, the near-hole distribution of effectiveness is measured with high accuracy. PSP calibrations are performed for multiple coupons, over multiple days. In addition, to reach a partial pressure of 0 the calibration vessel was purged of all air by flowing CO2. The primary contribution of this paper lies in the uncertainty analysis performed on the PSP measurement technique. A thorough uncertainty analysis is conducted and described, in order to completely understand the presented measurements and any shortcomings of the PSP technique. This quantification results in larger, albeit more realistic, values of uncertainty, and helps provide a better understanding of film cooling effectiveness measurements taken using the PSP technique. The presented uncertainty analysis takes into account all random error sources associated with sampling and calibration, from intensities to effectiveness. Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness measurements are obtained for a single row of film cooling holes inclined at 20 degrees, with CO2 used as coolant. Data is obtained for six blowing ratios. Maps of uncertainty corresponding to each effectiveness profile are available for each test case. These maps show that the uncertainty varies spatially over the test surface, high effectiveness corresponds to low uncertainty. The noise floors can be as high as 0.04 at effectiveness levels of 0. Day-to-day repeatability is presented for each blowing ratio and shows that laterally averaged effectiveness data is repeatable within 0.02 effectiveness.

Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness contours are obtained experimentally with the use of temperature sensitive paint (TSP) on low thermal conductivity film cooled surfaces. The effects of blowing ratio, surface angle, and hole spacing are observed by testing four full-coverage arrays composed of cylindrical staggered holes all compounded at 45 deg, which parametrically vary the inclination angles, 30 deg and 45 deg, and the spacing of the holes 14.5 and 19.8 times the diameter. Local film cooling effectiveness is obtained throughout these largely spaced arrays to 23 rows for the 19.8 diameter spacing array and 30 rows for the 14.5 diameter spacing array. The coolant takes several rows to merge and begin to interact with lateral holes at these large spacings; however, at downstream rows the film merges laterally and provides high effectiveness in the gaps between injections. At low blowing, each individual jet remains discrete throughout the array. At higher blowing rates, the profile is far more uniform due to jets spreading as they reattach with the wall. Laterally averaged values of effectiveness approach 0.3 in most cases with some high blowing low spacing, even reaching 0.5.

Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness measurements are obtained using pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) on a flat film cooled surface. The effects of blowing ratio and hole spacing are investigated for four multirow arrays comprised of eight rows containing 52 holes of 3.8 mm diameter with 20 deg inclination angles and hole length-to-diameter ratio of 11.2. The four arrays investigated have two different hole-to-hole spacings composed of cylindrical and diffuser holes. For the first case, lateral and streamwise pitches are 7.5 times the diameter. For the second case, pitch-to-diameter ratio is 14 in lateral direction and 10 in the streamwise direction. The holes are in a staggered arrangement. Adiabatic effectiveness measurements are taken for a blowing ratio range of 0.3–1.2 and a density ratio of 1.5, with CO2 injected as the coolant. A thorough boundary layer analysis is presented, and data were taken using hotwire anemometry with air injection, with boundary layer, and turbulence measurements taken at multiple locations in order to characterize the boundary layer. Local effectiveness, laterally averaged effectiveness, boundary layer thickness, momentum thickness, turbulence intensity, and turbulence length scale are presented. For the cylindrical holes, at the first row of injection, the film jets are still attached at a blowing ratio of 0.3. By a blowing ratio of 0.5, the jet is observed to lift off, and then impinge back onto the test surface. At a blowing ratio of 1.2, the jets lift off, but reattach much further downstream, spreading the coolant further along the test surface. A thorough uncertainty analysis has been conducted in order to fully understand the presented measurements and any shortcomings of the measurement technique. The maximum uncertainty of effectiveness and blowing ratio is 0.02 counts of effectiveness and 3%, respectively.

Modern research on gas turbine cooling continues to focus on the optimization of different cooling designs, and better understanding of the underlying flow physics so that cooling schemes can be coupled together. The current study focuses on one particular coupled cooling design: an impingement-effusion cooling system, which combines impingement cooling on the backside of the cooled component and full coverage effusion cooling on the exposed surface. The goal of this study is to explore a wide range of geometrical parameters outside the ranges normally reported in the available literature. Particular attention is given to the total coolant spent per unit surface area cooled. Through determination of impingement heat transfer, film cooling effectiveness, and film cooling heat transfer on the target wall, a simplified heat transfer model of the cooled component is developed to show the relative impact of each parameter on the overall cooling effectiveness. The use of Temperature Sensitive Paint (TSP) for data acquisition allows for high resolution local heat transfer and effectiveness results. Impingement arrays with local extraction of coolant via effusion are able to produce higher overall heat transfer, as no significant cross flow is present to deflect the impinging jets. Low jet-to-target-plate spacing produces the highest yet most non-uniform heat transfer distribution; at high spacing the heat transfer rate is much less sensitive to impingement height. Arrays with high hole-to-hole spacing and high jet Reynold’s number are more effective (per mass of coolant used) than tightly spaced holes at low jet Reynold’s number. On the effusion side, staggered hole arrangements provide significantly higher film cooling effectiveness than their in-line counterparts as the staggered arrangement minimizes jet interactions and promotes a more even lateral distribution of coolant.