The Transpiration-Cooled Gas Turbine

Abstract

This paper describes a program of experimental and analytical research designed to evaluate the aerodynamic and thermodynamic performance of transpiration-cooled porous surfaces in the high-temperature gas turbine. The aerodynamic penalties of effusing coolant through a set of nozzle blades are shown to be small, particularly when compared with the thermodynamic advantages which accrue from the effective cooling obtained. Although the effusing coolant can in certain circumstances increase gas to blade heat transfer rates by destabilizing a laminar boundary layer, in the turbulent boundary layers which predominate in turbine practice there is inevitably a reduction in heat transfer which can be satisfactorily predicted theoretically. In the combustion system of the gas turbine, transpiration cooling appears also to be very attractive, but much work remains to be done on heat transfer rates in the flame-tube.