Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of Channel Impingement Cooling Structure at Leading Edge Inside Turbine Blades Using Large Eddy Simulation

As a main part of multichannel wall jet cooling structure, channel impingement cooling is a cooling strategy of great concern at the leading edge inside of the turbine blade. In this paper, heat transfer and flow behavior in the channel impingement cooling structure are investigated by large eddy simulation (LES). The results imply that impingement created by curvature-induced centrifugal instabilities in the turning region of the cooling channel is dominated by a streamwise vortex system containing a counter-rotating Dean vortex, which presents high heat transfer streaks along the streamwise direction on the target wall. The intensely unsteady nature of the cooling jet induced by a lack of equilibrium between the pressure gradient and the centrifugal force is precisely captured herein by LES. An attaching-wall jet formed on the outer wall downstream of the cooling channel has highly three-dimensional characteristics not observed by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANS). Heat transfer augmentation on the target wall of the cooling channel is mainly due to the intensifying streamwise vortex system developing in the turning region as driven by the centrifugal force. This research work will provide a reference for the optimization and application of multichannel wall jet cooling for gas turbine blades.