Study on Film Cooling Performance of Round Hole Embedded in Different Shaped Craters and Trenches

Film cooling effectiveness can be improved significantly by embedding a round hole in trenches or craters. In this study, film cooling performances of a transverse trench, W-shaped trench and elliptic trench were compared and analyzed in detail. The CFD models for trench film cooling were established and validated via the experimental results. Inside the transverse trench, a pair of recirculating vortices is formed, which promotes the coolant spreading in a lateral direction. The decrease of trench width and increase of trench depth both improve the film cooling effectiveness of the transverse trench. For the W-shaped trench, the guide effect of the corner angle further improves the lateral spreading capability of coolant and generates higher cooling effectiveness than a transverse trench with the same depth and width. The flow characteristics of the elliptic trench are similar to that of the round hole, and the kidney vortex pair takes a dominant role in the flow fields downstream of the coolant exit. Accordingly, the elliptic trench generates the worst cooling performance in these shaped trenches. The increase of trench depth and decrease of trench width both result in an increase of the discharge coefficient for trench film cooling. For the W-shaped trench, the increase of the corner angle causes a decrease of the discharge coefficient. For the elliptic trench, the discharge coefficient increases with the decrease of the elliptic aspect ratio (major axis/minor axis).