This paper describes the application of an unstructured mesh, solution-adaptive, 2D Navier-Stokes solver to the numerical simulation of the flow through film-cooled turbine cascades. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a cell-vertex explicit finite-volume method. Integration in time, to a steady-state solution, is performed by a five-stage Runge-Kutta algorithm. Turbulence effects are accounted for by a k-ε model.
The use of unstructured meshes, based on Delaunay triangulation, allows to mesh the entire flow domain, including internal coolant passages, without any geometrical limitations. In combination with a solution-dependent mesh-adaption technique, the strong interactions between coolant and outer flow, leading to complex flow features, can be simulated in a realistic and efficient way.
Solutions are presented for several test cases with and without film-cooling and are compared with experimental data, illustrating the capabilities of the presented flow solver.