Flow and Heat Transfer Analysis of Mist-Film Cooling on a Flat Plate

Abstract

Film cooling is one of the preferred methods for effective cooling of a gas turbine that forms a protective layer between hot flue gases and blade surface. This paper investigates the interaction of mist in the secondary flow and physics indicating the upper limit of mist concentration. Numerical simulations are performed on a flat plate having a series of discrete holes with 35 degree streamwise orientation and the holes are connected to a common delivery plenum chamber. The blowing ratio, density ratio and Reynolds number based on freestream and hole diameter (D) are 0.5, 1.2 and 15885 respectively. A two-phase mist consisting of finely dispersed water droplets of 10 micron in an airstream is introduced as the coolant from these holes. The latent heat absorbed by the evaporating droplets significantly reduces the sensible heat of the main stream, providing heat sinks that result in enhanced cooling effectiveness. The coupling between the two-phases is modelled through the interaction terms in the transport equations. Computations are performed by ANSYS Fluent 15.0 using k-ε realizable model. The results illustrate insight of complex transport phenomena associated with the mist of varying concentration from 2% to 7%. It has been observed that the maximum enhancement of cooling effectiveness reaches 43% at X/D = 10 for 2% mist by mass with an average enhancement of 26.5%. For 3% mist, the maximum enhancement becomes 80% at X/D = 16 with the average cooling enhancement of 43%. Mist concentrations 5% and beyond trend to increase average cooling because of more absorption of latent heat by droplets, but its trajectories shift towards wall, detrimental to the blade due to corrosion effect and thermal stresses.