Numerical Simulation on the Effect of Cooling Hole Configuration on the Film Cooling Effectiveness in TBC Coated Turbine Vanes.

Numerical simulation was performed to investigate adiabatic film cooling effectiveness of cooling holes over thermal barrier coated superalloy substrate. Divergent, convergent-divergent and curved configuration of cooling holes were compared with the inclined cylindrical hole configuration. The coolant flow was strongly attached with the surface for 35º inclination. The film cooling effectiveness at different blowing ratios of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 was analysed. The study was carried out using realizable k-ϵ (RKE) model. The curved hole configuration provided enhanced cooling effectiveness even at 0.8 blowing ratio in comparison with other cases. The presence of curvature reduced the coolant velocity thereby preventing the detachment of jet from the surface and forming a very strong longitudinal film. The coolant jet starts detaching from the surface for blowing ratio higher than 1.2; the high momentum of the film cooling jet causes a lift off the surface. At 1.2 blowing ratio, a greater spread of coolant flow along the test surface was observed. Better film cooling effectiveness was evident at 0.8 and 1.2 blowing ratios. At 0.8, the enhancement in the overall film cooling effectiveness of divergent, convergent-divergent and curved hole configuration was about 14 %, 50 % and 59 %, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]