Effects of endwall film coolant flow rate on secondary flows and coolant mixing in a first stage nozzle guide vane

Modern gas turbines are subjected to very high thermal loading. This leads to a need for aggressive cooling to protect components from damage. Endwalls are particularly challenging to cool due to a complex system of secondary flows near them that wash and disrupt the protective coolant films. This highly three-dimensional flow not only affects but is also affected by the momentum of film cooling flows, whether injected just upstream of the passage to intentionally cool the endwall, or as combustor cooling flows injected further upstream in the engine. This complex interaction between the different cooling flows and passage aerodynamics has been recently studied in a first stage nozzle guide vane. The present paper presents a detailed study on the sensitivity of aero-thermal interactions to endwall film cooling MFR (cooling mass flow to mainstream flow ratio). The test section represents a first stage nozzle guide vane with a contoured endwall and endwall film cooling injected just upstream of it. The test section also includes an engine-representative combustor-turbine interface geometry with combustor cooling flows injected at a constant rate. The approach flow conditions represent flow exiting a low-NOx combustor. Adiabatic surface thermal measurements and in-passage velocity and thermal field measurements are presented and discussed. The results show the dynamics of passage vortex suppression and the increase of impingement vortex strength as MFR changes. The effects of these changes of secondary flows on coolant distribution are presented.