Influence of leading-edge lateral injection angles on the film cooling effectiveness of a gas turbine blade

Typical film-cooling configuration of a symmetrical turbine blade leading edge is investigated using a three-dimensional finite volume method and a multi-block technique. The computational domain includes the curved blade surface as well as the coolant regions and the plenum. The turbulence is approximated by a two layer k– model. The computations have been performed using the TLV two-layer and the TLVA models. However, the utilization of the TLV and TLVA models has not improved the prediction of the lateral averaged film cooling effectiveness of gas turbine blades when compared with those obtained using wall function strategy.The general features of film cooling such as jet blow-off, high turbulence intensity in the shear layer, and secondary rotating vortices are captured in the present study. Comparison between predicted and experimental results indicates that the trends of the thermal field are well predicted in most cases. In the second part of this study, the influence of lateral injection angle on lateral averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness is investigated by varying the lateral injection angle around the experimental value ( = 25°, 30°, 35° and 60° spanwise to the blade surface). It was found that the best coverage and consequently, the maximum film cooling effectiveness are provided by the most extremely inclined injection angle, which is 25° in this investigation.