Shower Head and Trailing Edge Cooling Influence on Transonic Vane Aero Performance

Abstract

An experimental investigation on a cooled nozzle guide vane (NGV) has been conducted in an annular sector to quantify aerodynamic influences of shower head (SH) and trailing edge (TE) cooling. The investigated vane is a typical high pressure gas turbine vane, geometrically similar to a real engine component, operated at a reference exit Mach number of 0.89. The investigations have been performed for various coolant-to-mainstream mass–flux ratios. New loss equations are derived and implemented regarding coolant aerodynamic losses. Results lead to a conclusion that both TE cooling and SH film cooling increase the aerodynamic loss compared to an uncooled case. In addition, the TE cooling has higher aerodynamic loss compared to the SH cooling. Secondary losses decrease with inserting SH film cooling compared to the uncooled case. The TE cooling appears to have less impact on the secondary loss compared to the SH cooling. Area-averaged exit flow angles around midspan increase for the TE cooling.