Experimental Survey on Heat Transfer in a Trailing Edge Cooling System: Effects of Rotation in Internal Cooling Ducts

Abstract

The high thermal loads, the heavy structural stresses and the small thickness required for aerodynamic performances make the trailing edge cooling (TE) cooling of high pressure gas turbine blades a critical challenge. The presented paper point out an experimental study focusing the aerothermal performance of a TE internal cooling system of a high pressure gas turbine blade, evaluated under stationary and rotating conditions. The investigated geometry consists of a 30:1 scaled model reproducing the typical wedge shaped discharge duct with one row of enlarged pedestals. The airflow pattern inside the device simulates a highly loaded rotor blade cooling scheme with a 90° turning flow from the radial hub inlet to the tangential TE outlet. Two different tip configurations were tested, the first one with a completely closed section, the second one with 5 holes on the tip outlet surfaces discharging at ambient pressure. To investigate the rotation effects on the trailing edge cooling system performance, a rotating test rig was purposely developed and manufactured. The test rig is composed by a rotating arm that holds the PMMA TE model and the instrumentation. A thin Inconel heating foil and wide band Thermo-chromic Liquid Crystals are used to perform steady state heat transfer measurements. A rotary joint ensures the pneumatic connection between the blower and the rotating apparatus, moreover several slip rings are used for both instrumentation power supply and thermocouple connection. Heat transfer coefficient measurements were made with fixed Reynolds number close to 20k in the hub inlet section and with variable rotating speed in order to set the Rotation number from 0 (non rotational test) up to 0.3. Six different configurations were tested: two different tip mass flow rates (the first one with a completely closed tip, the second one with the 12.5% of the inlet flow discharged from the tip) and three different surface conditions: the first one consists in the flat plate case and the others in two ribbed cases, with different angular orientation (60° and −60° respect to the radial direction). Results are reported in terms of detailed heat transfer coefficient 2D maps on the suction side surface as well as span-wise profiles inside the pedestal ducts. The reported work has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).