Abstract Investigating turbine blade cooling and blade tip clearance leakage is crucial for reducing turbine losses and enhancing overall engine performance. Therefore, this paper uses the E3 two-stage high-pressure turbine as a case and employs the source term method to model the film cooling configuration, validating its efficacy and examining the performance parameters and flow field characteristics of air-cooled turbines under varying blade tip clearances. The outcomes demonstrate that the source term approach accurately forecasts the comprehensive performance parameters of air-cooled turbines, with blade tip clearance height predominantly impacting turbine performance in high-velocity regions. For small blade tip clearance, air-cooled turbines exhibit diminished efficiency with a decreasing expansion ratio in high-velocity regions, but they demonstrate an inverse behavior in low-velocity regions. Conversely, under conditions of larger blade tip clearances, the cooling effectiveness of air-cooled turbines is more pronounced in regions characterized by low expansion ratios and low speeds.
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