Showerhead film cooling injection orientation design on the turbine vane leading edge considering representative lean burn combustor outflow

Abstract

The heat transfer performance of showerhead film cooling on the vane leading edge was numerically investigated considering representative lean burn combustor swirling outflow. Three cases with different inflow conditions (uniform inflow, positive swirling inflow, and negative swirling inflow) and three cases with different film injection angles (45°, 90°, and 135°) were studied. As the first study to explore the showerhead film design principle under swirling inflow, a newly designed asymmetrical counter-inclined (45° and 135°) film cooling was also proposed. To examine the design principles, the cooling effectiveness, heat transfer augmentation, and heat flux reduction of the newly designed asymmetrical case were evaluated compared with the traditional symmetrical case. The results show that the swirling inflow introduces obvious radial pressure gradient on the vane. The radial pressure gradient is the key influence factor to deflect the coolant migration, decrease the cooling effect, and degrade the homogeneity. The film with opposite orientation to the radial pressure gradient can weaken the deflect effect. The radial pressure gradient direction differs in different regions, making it impossible for the film with congruent injection orientation to simultaneously resist the pressure gradient on the entire vane. For the new design, the boundary line of the counter-inclined holes is consistent with the twisted stagnation line to guarantee that the injection orientation of all the film holes is opposite to the radial pressure gradient. As expected, the new design can effectively weaken the deflection effect and show uniform film distribution. The higher coolant mass ratio provides more obvious enhancement effect. At coolant mass ratio 3.71% and 4.56%, the overall area-averaged heat flux reduction (Δ q) is increased by 0.311 and 0.576, and the overall area-averaged relative standard deviation is reduced by 12.17 and 11.66 compared with the traditional design. The results have confirmed the adaptability of the film design principle under swirling inflow.