Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis of a Test Configuration for a Film-cooled Blade

The conjugate calculation technique is used for the threedimensional thermal load prediction of a film-cooled test blade of a modern gas turbine. The comparison with thermal index paint experiments shows that with respect to regions with high thermal load a qualitatively good agreement of the conjugate results and the measurements can be found although the numerical models contain several simplifications for the internal cooling. In particular, the tip region of the trailing edge is exposed to a high thermal load, which requires further improvement of the cooling arrangement. Altogether the achieved results demonstrate that the conjugate calculation technique is applicable for reasonable prediction of three-dimensional thermal load of complex cooling configurations for blades. Furthermore, the conjugate approach permits the calculation of the specific heat transfer rate distribution on the blade surface without prescribing heat transfer boundary conditions. The results show a distinctly inhomogeneous distribution of the heat transfer rate in the leading edge region of the blade.