Abstract

Ongoing research strives to optimize gas turbine blade film cooling so that it achieves maximum performance while using a minimum amount of coolant. The feasibility of an advanced impingement/film cooling scheme will be numerically investigated in this thesis. This scheme combines both the advantages of traditional film cooling with those of impingement cooling. The hole that transports the coolant fluid from the inside to the outside of the blade in this scheme is designed in such a way that the coolant must go through a bend before exiting into the mainstream, thus impinging onto the blade material. Furthermore, flow turbulators, or pedestals, are located on the path of the coolant before it exits from the hole, minimizing aerodynamic losses. Turbulence was modeled using the standard k-[varepsilon] turbulence model and two of its variants, namely the realizable and Renormalization Group k-[varepsilon] turbulence models with enhanced wall treatment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)