Increasing adiabatic film-cooling effectiveness by using an upstream ramp

A new design concept is presented to increase the adiabatic effectiveness of film cooling from a row of film-cooling holes. Instead of shaping the geometry of each hole; placing tabs, struts, or vortex generators in each hole; or creating a trench about a row of holes, this study proposes a geometry modification upstream of the holes to modify the approaching boundary-layer flow and its interaction with the film-cooling jets. Computations, based on the ensemble-averaged Navier-Stokes equations closed by the realizable k-e turbulence model, were used to examine the usefulness of making the surface just upstream of a row of film-cooling holes into a ramp with a backward-facing step. The effects of the following parameters were investigated: angle of the ramp (8.5 deg, 10 deg, 14 deg), distance between the backward-facing step and the row of film-cooling holes (0.5D,D), blowing ratio (0.36, 0.49, 0.56, 0.98), and "sharpness" of the ramp at the corners. Results obtained show that an upstream ramp with a backward-facing step can greatly increase surface adiabatic effectiveness. The laterally averaged adiabatic effectiveness with a ramp can be two or more times higher than without the ramp by increasing upstream and lateral spreading of the coolant.