HEAT TRANSFER AND FILM COOLING ON A CONTOURED BLADE ENDWALL WITH PLATFORM GAP LEAKAGE

Turbine blade components in an engine are typically designed with gaps between parts due to manufacturing, assembly, and operational considerations. Coolant is provided to these gaps to limit the ingestion of hot combustion gases. The interaction of the gaps, their leakage flows, and the complex vortical flow at the endwall of a turbine blade can significantly impact endwall heat transfer coefficients and the effectiveness of the leakage flow in providing localized cooling. In particular, a platform gap through the passage, representing the mating interface between adjacent blades in a wheel, has been shown to have a significant effect. Other important turbine blade features present in the engine environment are non-axisymmetric contouring of the endwall, and an upstream rim seal with a gaspath cavity, which can reduce and increase endwall vortical flow, respectively. To understand the platform gap leakage effect in this environment, measurements of endwall heat transfer and film cooling effectiveness were performed in a scaled blade cascade with a non-axisymmetric contour in the passage. A rim seal with a cavity, representing the overlap interface between a stator and rotor, was included upstream of the blades and a nominal purge flowrate of 0.75 % of the mainstream was supplied to the rim seal. Results indicated that endwall heat transfer coefficients increased as platform gap net leakage increased from 0 % to 0.6 % of the mainstream flowrate, but net heat flux to the endwall was reduced due to high cooling effectiveness of the leakage flow