Heat Transfer Due to Unsteady Effects as Investigated in a High Speed, Full-Scale, Fully-Cooled Turbine Vane and Rotor Stage

Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of film cooling on a gas turbine engine's high-pressure turbine section. The focus for this effort was in the tip/shroud region of a rotor stage and a high pressure turbine vane. A primary goal was to understand the unsteady flow effects. Attempts were also made to characterize the effects as caused by the fully-cooled rotor stage. Data for this investigation was taken at the U.S. Air Force's Turbine Research Facility (TRF), a transient blowdown facility with instrumentation fitted to a full-scale, high-speed, fully-cooled vane and rotor stage of proprietary design. Measurements of pressure, temperature, and heat flux were taken at flow conditions non-dimensionally matched to actual engine operation.