The dependence of heat transfer on film cooling near the leading edge of a blade was investigated using the naphthalene sublimation technique and applying the analogy between heat and mass transfer. Therefore, the local sublimation rate with and without film cooling was measured. The symmetric leading edge was cooled by an air mass flow out of two staggered rows of holes. The measurements were carried out with a constant Reynolds number Re = 80000, different incidence angles φ = 0° to 10° and a blowing rate varying from M = 0.3 to 2.5. The flow without film cooling was visualized around the leading edge with smoke to indicate the existence of separation bubbles. To determine the dependence of incidence angle and blowing rate on jet trajectories, smoke was mixed to the cooling air. The mass transfer coefficient was determined with the naphthalene sublimation technique. Due to the high resolution of the sublimation technique the local mass transfer distribution around the cooling holes could also be measured. Furthermore, the location of stagnation points and separation bubbles were investigated. The results of the tests without film cooling were also compared with those obtained by observing stagnation point mass transfer on a cylinder and with those by laminar flow across a flat plate. The mass transfer coefficient of film cooling experiments was related to the mass transfer coefficient without film cooling to describe the local dependence of heat transfer coefficient on film cooling. An increase on relativ heat transfer near the film cooling holes is obtained by increasing the blowing rate. No further influence on heat transfer along the pressure side is detected for an incidence angle larger than 10° as the cooling films were shifted around the leading edge from the pressure to the suction side.

The effect of leading edge film cooling on heat transfer was experimentally investigated using the naphthalene sublimation technique. The experiments were performed on a symmetrical model of the leading edge suction side region of a high pressure turbine blade with one row of film cooling holes on each side. Two different lateral inclinations of the injection holes were studied: 0° and 45°. In order to build a data base for the validation and improvement of numerical computations, highly resolved distributions of the heat/mass transfer coefficients were measured. Reynolds numbers (based on hole diameter) were varied from 4000 to 8000 and blowing rate from 0.0 to 1.5. For better interpretation, the results were compared with injection-flow visualizations. Increasing the blowing rate causes more interaction between the jets and the mainstream, which creates higher jet turbulence at the exit of the holes resulting in a higher relative heat transfer. This increase remains constant over quite a long distance dependent on the Reynolds number. Increasing the Reynolds number keeps the jets closer to the wall resulting in higher relative heat transfer. The highly resolved heat/mass transfer distribution shows the influence of the complex flow field in the near hole region on the heat transfer values along the surface.