One way to increase cycle efficiency of a gas turbine engine is to operate at higher turbine inlet temperature (TIT). In most engines, the turbine inlet temperatures have increased to be well above the metallurgical limit of engine components. Film cooling of gas turbine components (blades and vanes) is a widely used technique that allows higher turbine inlet temperatures by maintaining material temperatures within acceptable limits. In this cooling method, air is extracted from the compressor and forced through internal cooling passages within turbine blades and vanes before being ejected through discrete cooling holes on the surfaces of these airfoils. The air leaving these cooling holes forms a film of cool air on the component surface which protects the part from hot gas exiting the combustor.Design optimization of the airfoil film cooling system on an engine scale is a key as increasing the amount of coolant supplied yields a cooler airfoil that will last longer, but decreases engine core flow-diminishing overall cycle efficiency. Interestingly, when contemplating the physics of film cooling, optimization is also a key to developing an effective design. The film cooling process is shown to be a complex function of at least two important mechanisms: Increasing the amount of coolant injected reduces the driving temperature (adiabatic wall temperature) of convective heat transfer-reducing heat load to the airfoil, but coolant injection also disturbs boundary layer and augments convective heat transfer coefficient due to local increase in freestream turbulence.Accurate numerical modeling of airfoil film cooling performance is a challenge as it is complicated by several factors such as film cooling hole shape, coolant-to-freestream blowing ratio, coolant-to-freestream momentum ratio, surface curvature, approaching boundary layer state, Reynolds number, Mach number, combustor-generated high freestream turbulence, turbulence length scale, and secondary flows just to name a few. Until computational methods are able to accurately simulate these factors affecting film cooling performance, experimental studies are required to assist engineers in designing effective film cooling schemes. experimental data, uncertainty analysis, and computational work, all of which were used in the process of pursuing this research endeavor.iv Acknowledgments

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of blowing ratio and exit Reynolds number/Mach number on the film cooling performance of a showerhead film cooled first stage turbine vane. The vane midspan was instrumented with single-sided platinum thin film gauges to experimentally characterize the Nusselt number and film cooling effectiveness distributions over the surface. The vane was arranged in a two-dimensional, linear cascade in a heated, transonic, blow-down wind tunnel. Three different exit Mach numbers of Mex = 0.57, 0.76 and 1.0—corresponding to exit Reynolds numbers based on vane chord of 9.7 × 105, 1.1 × 106 and 1.5 × 106, respectively—were tested with an inlet free stream turbulence intensity (Tu) of 16% and an integral length scale normalized by vane pitch (Λx/P) of 0.23. A showerhead cooling scheme with five rows of cooling holes was tested at blowing ratios of BR = 0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 and a density ratio of DR = 1.3. Nusselt number and adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions were presented on the vane surface over a range of s/C = −0.58 on the pressure side to s/C = 0.72 on the suction side of the vane. The primary effects of coolant injection were to augment the Nusselt number and reduce the adiabatic wall temperature downstream of the injection on the vane surface as compared to no film injection case (BR = 0) at all exit Mach number conditions. In general, an increase in blowing ratio (BR = 1.5 to 2.5) showed noticeable Nusselt number augmentation on pressure surface as compared to suction surface at exit Mach 0.57 and 0.75; however, the Nusselt number augmentation for these blowing ratios was found to be negligible on the vane surface for exit Mach 1.0 case. At exit Mach 1.0, an increase in blowing ratio (BR = 1.5 to 2.5) was observed to have an adverse effect on the adiabatic effectiveness on the pressure surface but had negligible effect on suction surface. The effectiveness trend on the suction surface was also found to be influenced by a favorable pressure gradient due to Mach number and boundary layer transition in the region s/C = 0.28 to s/C = 0.45 at all blowing ratio and exit Mach number conditions. An increase in Reynolds number from exit Mach 0.76 to 1.0 increased heat transfer levels on the vane surface at all blowing ratio conditions. A large increase in Reynolds number adversely affected adiabatic effectiveness on the pressure surface at all blowing ratio conditions. On the suction surface, a large increase in Reynolds number also affected adiabatic effectiveness in the favorable pressure gradient and boundary layer transition region.

This experiment investigates the effects of blowing ratio on the film cooling performance of a showerhead-cooled first-stage turbine vane at low freestream turbulence (Tu = 2%) and an integral length scale normalized by vane pitch (Λx/P) of 0.05. The exit Reynolds number based on vane true chord is 1.1 × 106. The effect of freestream turbulence at high Mach number (Mex = 0.76) and blowing ratio (BR = 0, 1.5, 2.0) is also explored by comparing results with high freestream turbulence measurements (Tu = 16%) previously performed in the same cascade. To characterize film cooling performance, platinum thin-film gauges were used to measure Nusselt number and film cooling effectiveness distributions at the midspan of the vane. Net heat flux reduction is also addressed. The primary effects of coolant injection were augmentation of Nusselt number and reduction of adiabatic wall temperature on the vane surface. In general, increasing blowing ratio showed increases in Nusselt number augmentation over the vane surface and an increase in film cooling effectiveness as well. Both Nusselt number and film cooling effectiveness trends were influenced by a strong favorable pressure gradient and resulting flow acceleration on the suction surface. Comparing low freestream turbulence results with high freestream turbulence measurements showed that large-scale, high freestream turbulence can decrease heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness downstream of injection.