Numerical Characterization and Modeling of Adiabatic Slot Film Cooling

Abstract

Film cooling is a technique used to protect critical surfaces in combustors, thrust chambers, turbines and nozzles from hot, chemically reacting gases. Accurately predicting the film's performance is especially challenging in the vicinity of the wall and the film injection plane due to the complex interactions of two highly turbulent, shearing, boundary layer flows. Properly characterizing the streams at the inlet of a numerical simulation and the choice of turbulence model are crucial to accurately predicting the decay of the film. To address these issues, this study employs a RANS solver that is used to model a film cooled wall. Menter's baseline model, and shear-stress transport model and the Spalart-Allmaras model are employed to determine the effect on film cooling predictions. Several methods for prescribing the inlet planes are explored. These numerical studies are compared with experimental data obtained in a UMD film cooling wind tunnel.