Effect of jet nozzle geometry on flow and heat transfer performance of vortex cooling for gas turbine blade leading edge

In this paper, 3D viscous steady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are utilized to investigate the influence of jet nozzle geometry on flow and thermal behavior of vortex cooling for gas turbine blades. Comparison between calculation with different turbulence models and the experimental data is conducted, and results show that the standard k-omega model provides the best accuracy. The grid independence analysis is performed to obtain the proper mesh number. First, the mechanism of vortex cooling is further discussed, and the pronounced impact of kinetic turbulence intensity, thin thermal boundary layer, violent radial convection and complex vortices on enhanced heat transfer performance is confirmed. Then, seven jet nozzle aspect ratios and seven jet nozzle to chamber cross section area ratios are selected to research the flow field and thermal characteristics of vortex cooling focusing on the streamline, static pressure ratio, total pressure loss ratio and Nusselt number. It is presented that the jet nozzle aspect ratio and jet nozzle to chamber cross section area ratio both impose a significant effect on the flow and thermal parameters. The averaged Nusselt number decreases at first and then increases with the increasing jet nozzle aspect ratio, reaching highest when aspect ratio equals to 1. The effect of area ratio on averaged Nusselt number is complex. Finally, the heat transfer results in this study are compared with other previous works. Results indicate that good agreement with previous data is achieved, and the enhanced thermal behavior may be acquired by carefully designing and optimizing the vortex chamber geometry. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.