Numerical Evaluation of Novel Shaped Holes for Enhancing Film Cooling Performance

The overall film cooling performance of three novel film cooling holes has been numerically investigated in this paper, including adiabatic film cooling effectiveness, heat transfer coefficients as well as discharge coefficients. The novel holes were proposed to help cooling injection spread laterally on a cooled endwall surface. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with shear stress transport (SST) k-x turbulence model were solved to perform the simulation based on turbulence model validation by using the relevant experimental data. Additionally, the grid independent test was also carried out. With a mainstream Mach number of 0.3, flow conditions applied in the simulation vary in a wide range of blowing ratio from 0.5 to 2.5. The coolant-to-mainstream density ratio (DR) is fixed at 1.75, which can be more approximate to real typical gas turbine applications. The numerical results for the cylindrical hole are in good agreement with the experimental data. It is found that the flow structures and temperature distributions downstream of the cooling injection are significantly changed by shaping the cooling hole exit. For a low blowing ratio of 0.5, the three novel shaped cooling holes present similar film cooling performances with the traditional cylindrical hole, while with the blowing ratio increasing, all the three novel cooling holes perform better, of which the bean-shaped hole is considered to be the best one in terms of the overall film cooling performance.