New designs of novel holes based on cylindrical configurations for improving film cooling effectiveness

In modern gas turbines, film cooling technology is the most common and efficient way to provide thermal protection for hot parts. To improve film cooling effectiveness, different kinds of shaped holes have been designed, but most of them are complicated and difficult to machine. In this study, four cases of novel film cooling hole design, all based on cylindrical holes, are numerically studied. One is a single, two-stage cylindrical hole, whose downstreamhalf-length has a diameter D while the upstreamhalf-length has a diameter D/2. A second has a cylindrical primary hole with two smaller secondary holes located symmetrically about the centerline of the primary hole and downstream of the primary hole. The three holes of this second design are then combined to make a single shaped hole, constituting a third case, called the tri-circular shaped hole. The entry part of the third case is replaced by a cylindrical hole with a diameter of half the primary hole diameter, making a fourth case called the two-stage tri-circular shaped hole. Film cooling effectiveness and surrounding thermal and flow fields are numerically investigated for all four cases using various blowing ratios. It is shown from the simulation that the two-stage cylindrical hole cannot improve film cooling effectiveness. The primary hole with two secondary holes can enhance film cooling performance by creating anti-kidney vortex pairs, which will weaken jet lift-off, caused by the kidney vortex pairs,from the primary hole. The tri-circular shaped hole will provide better film cooling effectiveness near the hole area, and is not sensitive to blowing ratio. The two-stage structure for tri-circular shaped hole provides better film coverage because it changes the flow structure inside the channel and decreases jet penetration.