Film Cooling Investigation of a Slot-Based Diffusion Hole

This paper presents a new configuration of discrete film hole, i.e., the slot-based diffusion hole. Retaining the similar diffusion features to a traditional diffusion hole, the slot-based diffusion hole transforms the cross section of circle for the traditional diffusion hole to a flattened rectangle with respect to the equivalent cross-sectional area. Consequently, the exit width of the new hole is effectively enlarged. To verify the film cooling effectiveness, a low speed flat plate experimental facility incorporated with Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) measurement technique was employed to obtain the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. The experiments were performed with hole pitch to diameter ratio p/D=6 and density ratio DR=1.38. The blowing ratio was varied from M=0.5 to M=2.5. A fan-shaped hole and two slot-based diffusion holes were tested and compared. Three-dimensional numerical simulation was employed to analyze the flow field in detail. The experimental results showed that the area averaged effectiveness of two slot-based diffusion holes is significantly higher than that of the fan-shaped hole when the blowing ratio exceeds 1.0. The slot-based diffusion hole demonstrates the great advantage over the fan-shaped hole at hole exit and maintains this to far downstream. The numerical results showed that the ends shape of the flattened rectangular cross section has large influences on film distribution patterns and downstream vortex structures. The semi-circle and straight line ends shapes lead to a bi-peak and a single-peak effectiveness pattern, respectively. The optimal ends shape can regulate the vortex structures and improve the film cooling effectiveness further.