Simulation of film cooling enhancement with mist injection

Cooling of gas turbine hot section components such as combustor liners, combustor transition pieces, turbine vanes (nozzles) and blades (buckets) is a critical task for improving the life and reliability of hot-section components. Conventional cooling techniques using air-film cooling, impingement jet cooling, and turbulators have significantly contributed to cooling enhancements in the past. However, the increased net benefits that can be continuously harnessed by using these conventional cooling techniques seem to be incremental and are about to approach their limit. Therefore, new cooling techniques are essential for surpassing these current limits. This paper investigates the potential of film cooling enhancement by injecting mist into the coolant. The computational results show that a small amount of injection (2% of the coolant flow rate) can enhance the cooling effectiveness about 30% similar to 50%. The cooling enhancement takes place more strongly in the downstream region, where the single-phase film cooling becomes less powerful. Three different holes are used in this study including a 2-D slot, a round hole, and a fan-shaped diffusion hole. A comprehensive study is performed on the effect of flue gas temperature, blowing angle, blowing ratio, mist injection rate, and droplet size on the cooling effectiveness with 2-D cases. Analysis on droplet history (trajectory and size) is undertaken to interpret the mechanism of droplet dynamics.