Effects of Rotation and Channel Orientation on the Flow Field Inside a Trailing Edge Internal Cooling Channel

Abstract

The flow field inside a trailing edge (TE) cooling channel for gas turbine blades has been numerically investigated with reference to the effects of channel rotation and orientation. The channel consists of a single passage with high aspect ratio cross-section. The flow entering from the hub is discharged through both the channel tip and inter-pedestal passages at the TE. A commercial 3D RANS solver including a κ–ω SST turbulence model has been used to simulate the isothermal steady airflow at 20000 Reynolds number in the case of static channel and for two rotation numbers (Ro = 0.23, 0.46) at varying the channel orientation with respect to the rotation axis (γ = 0°, γ = 22.5°, γ = 45°). The present work extends a previous experimental analysis performed by the authors on the same channel geometry, the results of which are used to validate the numerical model. Rotation effects are shown to alter significantly the distribution of both the mass flow in the inlet duct and the velocity along the channel height. This causes remarkable modifications of the 3D flow structures in the inter-pedestal passages and, in particular, the disappearance of the horseshoe vortices from the pedestal upstream face. Changing the channel orientation results in an attenuation of the rotation effects in the inlet duct and in the hub region of the TE.