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Effect of turbine endwall contouring on its aerodynamic performance has been widely studied, but only a few studies are available in the open literature investigating its effect on heat transfer performance; especially at transonic exit Mach number conditions. In this paper, we report a study of effect of contouring on endwall heat transfer performance of a high-turning high-pressure (HP) turbine blade passage operating under transonic exit conditions. The paper describes comparison of heat transfer performance of two contoured endwall geometries, one aerodynamically optimized (AO) and the other heat transfer optimized (HTO), with a baseline, noncontoured geometry. The endwall geometries were experimentally investigated at Virginia Tech's transient, blow down, transonic linear cascade facility at three exit Mach numbers, Mex= 0.71, 0.88(design) and 0.95, for their heat transfer performance. Endwall surface temperatures were measured using infrared (IR) thermography and local heat transfer coefficient (HTC) values were calculated using measured temperatures. A camera matrix model-based data postprocessing technique was developed to relate the two-dimensional images captured by IR camera to three-dimensional endwall contours. The measurement technique and the methodology for postprocessing of the heat transfer coefficient data have been presented in detail. Discussion and interpretation of experimental results have been augmented using aerodynamic CFD simulations of the geometries. Both the contoured endwalls demonstrated a significant reduction in the overall average heat transfer coefficient values of the order of 10%. The surface Stanton number distributions also indicated a reduction in the level of hot spots for most of the endwall surface. However, at some locations an increase was also observed, especially in the area near the leading edge (LE). The results indicate that the endwall contouring could significantly improve heat transfer performance of turbine passages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is an experimental investigation of film cooling from cylindrical holes embedded in transverse trenches. Different trench depths are considered with two trench widths. Trench holes can occur when blades are coated with thermal barrier coating (TBC) layers. The film-hole performance and behavior will be different .for the trench holes compared to standard cylindrical holes that are fush with the surface. The trench width and depth depend on the mask region and the thickness of the TBC layer. Detailed heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness measurements are obtained simultaneously using a single test transient IR thermography technique. The study is performed at a single mainstream Reynolds number based on freestream velocity and film-hole diameter of ll,O00 at four different coolant-to-mainstream blowing ratios of O.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. The results show that film effectiveness is greatly enhanced by the trenching due to the improved two-dimensional nature of the film and lateral ,spreading. The detailed heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness contours provide a clear understanding of the jet-mainstream interactions for different hole orientations. Computational fluid dynamics simulation using FLUENT was also performed to determine the jet-mainstream interactions to better understand the surface heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness distributions. [DOI: 10.1115/1.2950057]

Film cooling performance is studied for cylindrical holes embedded in craters. Different crater geometries are considered for a typical crater depth. Cratered holes may occur when blades are coated with thermal barrier coating layers by masking the hole area during thermal barrier coating (TBC) spraying, resulting in a hole surrounded by a TBC layer. The film performance and behavior is expected to be different for the cratered holes compared to standard cylindrical holes. Detailed heat transfer coefficient and film effectiveness measurements are obtained simultaneously using a single test transient IR thermography technique. The study is performed at a single mainstream Reynolds number based on freestream velocity and film-hole diameter of 11,000 at four different coolantto-mainstream blowing ratios of O.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. The results show that film cooling effectiveness is slightly enhanced by cratering of holes, but a substantial increase in heat transfer enhancement negates the benefits of higher film effectiveness. Three different crater geometries are studied and compared to a base line flush cylindrical hole, a trenched hole, and a typical diffuser shaped hole. Computational fluid dynamics simulation using FLUENT was also performed to determine the jet-mainstream interactions associated with the experimental surface measurements. [DOI: 10.1115/1.2950055]