Film cooling effectiveness: Comparison of adiabatic and conjugate heat transfer CFD models

This paper documents a computational investigation of the film cooling effectiveness of a 3-D gas turbine endwall with one fan-shaped cooling hole. The simulations were performed for adiabatic and conjugate heat transfer models. Turbulence closure was investigated using three different turbulence models: the realizable k–ε model, the SST k–ω model, as well as the v2–f turbulence model. Results were obtained for a blowing ratio of one, and a coolant-to-mainflow temperature ratio of 0.54. The simulations used a dense, high quality, O-type, hexahedral grid with three different schemes of meshing for the cooling hole: hexahedral-, hybrid-, and tetrahedral-topology grid. The computed flow/temperature fields are presented, in addition to local, two-dimensional distribution of film cooling effectiveness for the adiabatic and conjugate cases. Results are compared to experimental data in terms of centerline film cooling effectiveness downstream cooling-hole, the predictions with realizable k–ε turbulence model exhibited the best agreement especially in the region for (2 ≤ x/D ≤ 6). Also, the results show the effect of the conjugate heat transfer on the temperature (effectiveness) field in the film cooling hole region and, thus, the additional heating up of the cooling jet itself.