Effect of a Cutback Squealer and Cavity Depth on Film-Cooling Effectiveness on a Gas Turbine Blade Tip

Abstract

Film-cooling effectiveness from shaped holes on the near tip pressure side and cylindrical holes on the squealer cavity floor is investigated. The pressure side squealer rim wall is cut near the trailing edge to allow the accumulated coolant in the cavity to escape and cool the tip trailing edge. Effects of varying blowing ratios and squealer cavity depth are also examined on film-cooling effectiveness. The film-cooling effectiveness distributions are measured on the blade tip, near tip pressure side and the inner pressure side and suction side rim walls using pressure sensitive paint technique. The internal coolant-supply passages of the squealer tipped blade are modeled similar to those in the GE-E3 rotor blade with two separate serpentine loops supplying coolant to the film-cooling holes. Two rows of cylindrical film-cooling holes are arranged offset to the suction side profile and along the camber line on the tip. Another row of shaped film-cooling holes is arranged along the pressure side just below the tip. The average blowing ratio of the cooling gas is controlled to be 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. A five-bladed linear cascade in a blow down facility with a tip gap clearance of 1.5% is used to perform the experiments. The free-stream Reynolds number, based on the axial chord length and the exit velocity, was 1,480,000 and the inlet and exit Mach numbers were 0.23 and 0.65, respectively. A blowing ratio of 1.0 is found to give best results on the pressure side, whereas the tip surfaces forming the squealer cavity give best results for M=2. Results show high film-cooling effectiveness magnitudes near the trailing edge of the blade tip due to coolant accumulation from upstream holes in the tip cavity. A squealer depth with a recess of 2.1mm causes the average effectiveness magnitudes to decrease slightly as compared to a squealer depth of 4.2mm.