This experimental investigation involved the study of gas film cooling from a single row of spanwise angled holes using the stagnation region of a cylinder in cross flow to model the leading edge of a turbine vane. The objective was to obtain data for the local convective heat transfer rates to a highly cooled, curved surface exposed to a turbulent hot mainstream flow and a secondary, film coolant flow. Since the leading edge of the first stage, inlet turbine vane experiences some of the most severe thermal loads found in the turbine engine, effective film cooling is most important in this area. Film cooling of the leading edge area was modeled by making heat transfer measurements on the front stagnation region of a cylinder in cross flow. Experiments were conducted in a rectangular duct using a film cooled cylindrical test surface normal to a two-dimensional freestream flow. A gas turbine combustor provided heated air flow to simulate a Reynolds number typical of a high pressure, high temperature turbine vane. Internal convection cooling of the cylinder allowed a gas-to-wall temperature ratio of 2.1 to be achieved while using a moderate freestream gas temperature (1000R; 555K. The film coolant was chilled to obtain a coolant-to-freestream density ratio of 2.2, representative of the gas turbine environment. The cylindrical test surface was instrumented with miniature heat flux gages, and wall thermocouples to determine the influence of the film coolant blowing ratio and the injection hole geometry on the film cooling performance.

An approximate method for the estimation of laminar heat transfer to blunt bodies with gaseous film cooling i s developed. Attention is focused on the parameters which are important for the design of an attractive heat protection system. Application of the analysis is made to calculate the approximate coolant weight requirement for both a circular and a parabolic entry.