Detailed film cooling effectiveness and three component velocity field measurements on a first stage turbine vane subject to high freestream turbulence

This experimental program studied the effects of high freestream turbulence on film cooling for a turbine vane. This investigation focussed on the showerhead and pressure surface of an airfoil. An emphasis of this study was to acquire highly detailed film cooling effectiveness and velocity measurements in the showerhead region. Acquisition of both pieces of information resulted in detailed knowledge of the physics involved in the interaction of the coolant jets and the freestream flow in this region of an airfoil. By generating a 18% turbulence level at the leading edge of the airfoil, the impact of elevated freestream turbulence was also studied. Of further interest was the affect of a highly turbulent flow resulting from both the freestream flow as well as that generated from the showerhead jets themselves, further downstream. The impact of this turbulent approach flow will have significant consequence on downstream film cooling designs. In order to achieve the desired goals, modification to the existing closed loop wind tunnel facility was required. The new tunnel consisted of a test section containing a center, instrumented airfoil with inner and outer walls positioned to match the flow parameters around the center airfoil. The center airfoil was built at a nine times scale ratio. In utilizing this large scale vane and still matching the engine conditions, a better understanding of leading edge film cooling was gained. This was a result of the high spatial resolution of the flow field gained from the large scale of the airfoil. This benefited both the Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) system for velocity measurements and the infrared camera used for thermal field measurements. High effectiveness levels were measured throughout the showerhead region. This was attributed to a build up of coolant along the span of the airfoil. The introduction of a high freestream turbulence level increased the uniformity at the expense of lower overall effectiveness levels. Velocity field measurements verified that a core of coolant existed in the near wall region of the airfoil. This showerhead coolant flow dominated the flow at the downstream coolant row.