Film Cooling on a Gas Turbine Blade Near the End Wall

Abstract

The local film cooling effectiveness on a gas turbine blade with a row of discrete cooling jets has been measured using a mass transfer technique. Particular emphasis is placed on phenomena near the end wall of the blade. This region contains a horseshoe vortex system modified by a passage vortex. On the concave (pressure) surface the film cooling performance is not greatly altered by the presence of the end wall. On the convex surface of the blade the film cooling is essentially absent in a triangular region extending from near the region of peak curvature on the blade to its trailing edge. This unprotected region closely corresponds to the location of the passage vortex as indicated by flow visualization. The passage vortex sweeps away the injected coolant flow from the surface. Upstream of the unprotected area the injected flow is skewed toward the middle span of the blade. The influence of the end wall extends about one-half chord length up from the end wall in the present experiments.