TURBINE BLADE TIP FILM-COOLING AND HEAT TRANSFER MEASUREMENTS AT HIGH BLOWING RATIOS

Film-cooling and heat transfer characteristics of a gas turbine blade tip with a suction side rail was investigated in a stationary 3-blade rectilinear cascade. Mounted at the end of a blow-down facility the cascade operated at inlet and exit Mach numbers of 0.29 and 0.75, respectively. The rail was marginally offset from the suction side edge of the tip and extended from the leading to the trailing edge. A total of 17 film-cooling holes were placed along the near-tip pressure side surface and 3 on the near-tip leading edge surface with the objective of providing coolant to the tip. The tip surface itself did not carry any film-cooling holes. Relatively high blowing ratios of 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5 and three tip gaps of 0.87%, 1.6%, and 2.3% of blade span made up the test matrix. Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) and Thermo-Chromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) were the experimental techniques employed to measure film-cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient, respectively. Results indicated that when the tip gap was increased, film-cooling effectiveness on the tip surface decreased and heat transfer to the tip surface increased. On the other hand, when the blowing ratio was increased, film effectiveness increased but the effect on heat transfer coefficient was relatively small. The highest heat transfer coefficient levels were found atop the suction side rail, especially in the downstream two-thirds of its length whereas the lowest levels were found on the tip floor in the widest section of the blade.