Film cooling performances of short fan-shaped-holes under oscillating freestream

Freestream oscillation presents a significant challenge in optimized design of short fan-shaped-hole, a good choice for more promising double-wall cooled blades. An experimental investigation was conducted to understand detailed effects of key geometrical parameters of the fan-shaped hole, freestream oscillating frequency and cooling air-to-mainstream blowing ratio on the unstable film cooling performances. The selected geometrical parameters included the length-to-diameter ratio, the lateral diffusion angle, and the length ratio of cylindrical section-to-diffusion section. Time-resolved planar quantitative light sheet technique was employed to visualize the temporal variations of jet trajectory and transported scalar concentrations. The experimental results indicated that freestream oscillation causes variations in jet mechanisms, changing the trend in film cooling with blowing ratio and reversing the universally-acknowledged harmful influence of non-fully development of cooling air in short tube. The optimized short-hole can achieve an increment up to 40% in film effectiveness under oscillating freestream, in comparison with the long-hole-jet. The primary principle of the optimized design of short shaped-hole is properly enlarging the lateral expansion angle, aiming at the higher steady film effectiveness while the lower unsteadiness due to the transient fluctuations. Further enlarging the length ratio can improve the stability of film cooling in an oscillating cycle.