Heat Transfer Performance of a Showerhead and Shaped Hole Film Cooled Vane at Transonic Conditions

An experimental study was performed to measure surface Nusselt number and film cooling effectiveness on a film cooled first stage nozzle guide vane (NGV) at high freestream turbulence, using a transient thin film gauge (TFG) technique. The information presented attempts to further characterize the performance of shaped hole film cooling by taking measurements on a row of shaped holes downstream of leading edge showerhead injection on both the pressure and suction surfaces (hereafter PS and SS) of a first stage NGV. Tests were performed at engine representative Mach and Reynolds numbers and high inlet turbulence intensity and large length scale at the Virginia Tech 2D Linear Transonic Cascade facility. Three exit Mach/Reynolds number conditions were tested: 1.0/1,400,000, 0.85/1,150,000, and 0.60/850,000 where Reynolds number is based on exit conditions and vane chord. At Mach/Reynolds numbers of 1.0/1,450,000 and 0.85/1,150,000, three blowing ratio conditions were tested: BR = 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. At a Mach/Reynolds number of 0.60/850,000, two blowing ratio conditions were tested: BR = 1.5 and 2.0. All tests were performed at inlet turbulence intensity of 12% and length scale normalized by the cascade pitch of 0.28. Film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer results compared well with previously published data, showing a marked effectiveness improvement (up to 2.5×) over the showerhead-only NGV and also agreement with published showerhead-shaped hole data. Net heat flux reduction (NHFR) was shown to increase substantially (average 2.6 × ) with the addition of shaped holes with an increase (average 1.6×) in required coolant mass flow. Based on the heat flux data, the boundary layer transition location was shown to be within a consistent region on the suction side regardless of blowing ratio and exit Mach number.