Abstract

The ever-increasing combustor exit temperature in modern turbine engine designs raises challenges for the nozzle guide vane cooling. Due to the complexity of NGV cooling design, the cooling effect from the upstream combustor cooling features can prove valuable. This study investigates, experimentally and numerically, the cooling effect of a louver cooling scheme near the combustor exit on the NGV endwall. The wind tunnel testing and CFD simulation are carried out with engine-representative conditions of an exit Mach number of 0.85, an exit Reynolds number of 1.5 × 106, an inlet turbulence intensity of 16%, and a density ratio of 2.1. Various coolant mass flow ratios from 1% to 4% are tested to demonstrate the effect of the coolant rate. For the geometry studied, the results found a critical mass flow ratio between 1%~2%. The coolant forms a uniform film only by exceeding this value to provide good coverage upstream of the NGV passage inlet. As for the cooling of the NGV passage, the mass flow ratio of the range investigated is insufficient for desirable cooling performance. The pressure side endwall proves most difficult for the coolant to reach. In addition, the fishmouth cavity at the combustor-NGV passage causes a three-dimensional cavity vortex that transports the coolant in the pitch-wise direction. The transport pattern is dependent on the coolant mass flow ratio. Therefore, the authors propose combining this louver scheme with the upstream jump cooling scheme for a desirable NGV cooling system.

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