No abstract

The flow field in the passage of a high pressure gas turbine is quite complex, involving strong secondary flows, transverse pressure gradients and strong streamwise acceleration. This complexity may have an adverse effect on cooling of the hub endwall, which is subjected to high thermal loading due to the flat combustor exit temperature profile of modern low-NOx systems. Therefore, given material limitations, better cooling management techniques that can be included with certainty in new gas turbine designs are needed. In the present study, film cooling has been investigated experimentally in a stationary linear cascade. The flow is representative of a high pressure gas turbine rotor with combustor liner coolant introduced to the approach flow. Focus is on the endwall axisymmetric contouring and the cooling effect of leakage flow bled from the compressor through the stator-rotor disc cavity. Two endwall contours, ‘shark nose’ (gradual slope over a larger distance) and ‘dolphin nose’ (steep slope over a shorter distance), are considered and comparison is made under conditions of three mass flow rates (MFR) of leakage, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of the approach flow rate. The performance of both endwall contours is compared at different streamwise locations in terms of adiabatic effectiveness values over the endwall. This study gives enhanced insight into the physics of coolant flow mixing, migration and subsequent coverage over the endwall. The results show the cooling effects of the contoured shapes over a range of leakage flow rates in the strong secondary flow environment. It is found that the leakage flow plays a crucial role in enhancing coolant coverage over the endwall. To add to our knowledge of mixing effects, detailed thermal field data are taken in the leakage flow discharge region. Doing so helps explain the behavior of the flow as it is ejected into the passage and interacts with the mainstream flow.

Flow in a high pressure gas turbine passage is complex, involving systems of secondary vortex flows and strong transverse pressure gradients. This complexity causes difficulty in providing film cooling coverage to the hub endwall region, which is subjected to high thermal loading due to combustor exit hot core gases. Therefore, an improved understanding of these flow features and their effects on endwall film cooling is needed to assist designers in developing efficient cooling schemes. The experimental study presented in this paper is performed on a linear, stationary, two-passage cascade representing the first stage nozzle guide vane of a high-pressure gas turbine. The sources of film cooling flows are the upstream combustor liner coolant and the leakage flow from the combustor-nozzle guide vane interfacial gap. Measurements are performed on an axisymmetrically-contoured endwall passage under conditions of various leakage mass flow rates to mainstream flow ratios (MFR= 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%). Flow migration and mixing are documented by measuring passage thermal fields and adiabatic effectiveness values over the endwall. It is found that, compared to our previous studies with a rotor inlet leakage slot geometry, the thin slot geometry of the nozzle leakage path gives a more uniform coolant spread over the endwall with significant coverage reaching the downstream and pressure-side regions of the passage. Interestingly, the coverage is seen to be only weakly dependent on the leakage mass low ratio and even reduce slightly with an increase in mass flow ratio above 1%, as indicated by lowered endwall adiabatic effectiveness values.