A straight-through labyrinth seal is one of the most popular non-contacting annular seals through which energy dissipation by turbulence viscosity interaction is achieved with a series of teeth and cavities. The geometric parameters of the straight-through labyrinth seal, such as clearance, tooth width, tooth height, cavity width, and tooth inclination angle, affect its performance. The space for installing a labyrinth seal in turbomachinery is limited, and so it is important to optimize its geometry for a fixed axial length in order to minimize the leakage flow rate and the discharge coefficient. The objective of the current study is to understand the effects of changing the geometric parameters of the seal on the leakage flow rate and the discharge coefficient, and to determine the optimized geometry for a fixed axial length. When the whole axial length is fixed, the most effective way to decrease the discharge coefficient is to reduce the cavity width by increasing the number of cavities. However, if the number of cavities is too high, the beneficial effect of more cavities can be reversed. The results of this study will help turbomachinery manufacturers to design a more efficient labyrinth seal. Numerical simulations of leakage flow for the straight-through labyrinth seal were carried out using Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models, and the results for their discharge coefficients and pressure distributions were compared to previously published experimental data.

The effects of bulk flow pulsations on film cooling in gas turbine blades were investigated by conducting large eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation (RANS). The film cooling flow fields under 32 Hz pulsation in the mainstream from a cylindrical hole inclined 35° to a flat plate at the average blowing ratio of M = 0.5 were numerically simulated. The LES results were compared to the experimental data of Seo, Lee, and Ligrani (1998) and Jung, Lee, and Ligrani (2001). The credibility of the LES results relative to the experimental data was demonstrated through a comparison of the time-averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness, time- and phase-averaged temperature contours, Q-criterion contours, time-averaged velocity profiles, and time- and phase-averaged U_rms profiles with the corresponding RANS results. The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness predicted using LES agreed well with the experimental data, whereas RANS highly overpredicted the centerline effectiveness. RANS could not properly predict the injectant topology change in the streamwise normal plane, but LES reproduced it properly. In the case of the injectant trajectory, which greatly influences film cooling effectiveness, RANS could not properly predict the changes in the streamwise velocity peak due to flow pulsation, but they were predicted well with LES. RANS greatly underpredicted the streamwise velocity fluctuations, which determine the mixing of main flow and injectant, whereas LES prediction was close to the experimental data.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of oscillations in the main flow and the coolant jets on film cooling at various frequencies (0 to 2144 Hz) at low and high average blowing ratios. Numerical simulations are performed using LES Smagorinsky–Lilly turbulence model for calculation of the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and using the DES Realizable k-epsilon turbulence model for obtaining the Stanton number ratios (St/St_o). Additionally, multi-frequency inlet velocities are applied to the main and coolant flows to explore the effects of multi-frequency unsteady flows and the results are compared to those at single frequencies. The results show that at a low average blowing ratio (M = 0.5) if the oscillation frequency is increased from 0 to 180 Hz, the effectiveness decreases and the Stanton number ratio increases. However, when the frequency goes from 180 to 268 Hz, the effectiveness sharply increases and the Stanton number ratio increases slightly. If the frequency changes from 268 to 1072 Hz, the film cooling effectiveness decreases and the Stanton number ratio increases slightly. If the frequency goes from 1072 to 2144 Hz, the film cooling effectiveness climbs up and the Stanton number ratio decreases. The results show that at high average blowing ratio (M = 1.0) the trends of the film cooling effectiveness are similar to those at low blowing ratio (M = 0.5) except from 0 to 90 Hz. If the frequency goes from 0 to 90 Hz at M = 1.0, the film cooling effectiveness increases and the Stanton number ratio decreases. It can be said that it is important to include the effects of oscillating flows when designing film cooling systems for a gas turbine.

A large eddy simulation (LES) was performed for film cooling in the gas turbine blade involving spanwise injection angles (orientation angles). For a streamwise coolant injection angle (inclination angle) of 35°, the effects of the orientation angle were compared considering a simple angle of 0° and 30°. Two ratios of the coolant to main flow mass flux (blowing ratio) of 0.5 and 1.0 were considered and the experimental conditions of Jung and Lee (2000) were adopted for the geometry and flow conditions. Moreover, a Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes simulation (RANS) was performed to understand the characteristics of the turbulence models compared to those in the LES and experiments. In the RANS, three turbulence models were compared, namely, the realizable k-ε, k-ω shear stress transport, and Reynolds stress models. The temperature field and flow fields predicted through the RANS were similar to those obtained through the experiment and LES. Nevertheless, at a simple angle, the point at which the counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) collided on the wall and rose was different from that in the experiment and LES. Under the compound angle, the point at which the CRVP changed to a single vortex was different from that in the LES. The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness could not be accurately determined through the RANS but was well reflected by the LES, even under the compound angle. The reattachment of the injectant at a blowing ratio of 1.0 was better predicted by the RANS at the compound angle than at the simple angle. The temperature fluctuation was predicted to decrease slightly when the injectant was supplied at a compound angle.

This study investigated the effect of adding two sister holes placed downstream the main hole on film cooling by employing large eddy simulation. Here, film-cooling flow fields from a triple-hole system inclined by 35° to a flat plate at blowing ratios of M = 0.5 and unity were simulated. Each sister hole supplies a cooling fluid at a flow rate that is a quarter of that for the main hole. The simulations were conducted using the Smagorinsky–Lilly model as the subgrid-scale model, and the results were compared with those for a single-hole system for the same amount of total cooling air and same cross-sectional area of the holes. Relative to the single-hole system, the spanwise-averaged film-cooling effectiveness in the triple-hole configuration at M = 1.0 increased by as much as 345%. The subsequent proper orthogonal decomposition analysis showed that the kinetic energy of a counter-rotating vortex pair in the triple-hole system dropped by 30–40% relative to that of the single-hole system. This indicates that the additional sister holes promoted the suppression of the mixing of the coolant jet with the mainstream flow, thus keeping the temperature of the latter low. Cross-sectional views of the root-mean-square temperature contours were also analyzed; with the results confirming that the effect of the sister holes on the jet trajectory greatly contributes in promoting film-cooling effectiveness as compared to the effect of the reduced mixing.