An experimental investigation on a water-cooled gas turbine with blade coolant-passage diameters ranging from 0.100 to 0.500 inch, corresponding to length-to-diameter ratios of 25.5 to 5.1, in various quadrants of the turbine. The investigation was conducted to determine (1) whether coolant-passage length-to-ratio has a significant effect on natural-convection heat-transfer correlation, and (2) whether turbine blade temperatures could be calculated with reasonable accuracy from a theoretical natural-convection heat-transfer correlation.

A water-cooled turbine was fabricated and tested to determine the effect of a connecting passage at the turbine rotor blade tip between a radial coolant passage 0.10 inch in diameter (length-diameter ratio = 25.5) and radial coolant passages in the legnth-diameter range of 5.1 to 20.4. Coolant flow through the connecting passage is induced by free-convection forces in the radial passages.