Effects of Rotation at Different Channel Orientations on the Flow Field inside a Trailing Edge Internal Cooling Channel

Abstract EN

The flow field inside a cooling channel for the trailing edge of gas turbine blades has been numerically investigated with the aim to highlight the effects of channel rotation and orientation.

A commercial 3D RANS solver including a SST turbulence model has been used to compute the isothermal steady air flow inside both static and rotating passages.

Simulations were performed at a Reynolds number equal to 20000, a rotation number (Ro) of 0, 0.23, and 0.46, and channel orientations of γ=0∘, 22.5°, and 45°, extending previous results towards new engine-like working conditions.

The numerical results have been carefully validated against experimental data obtained by the same authors for conditions γ=0∘ and Ro = 0, 0.23.

Rotation effects are shown to alter significantly the flow field inside both inlet and trailing edge regions.

These effects are attenuated by an increase of the channel orientation from γ=0∘ to 45°.