Effect of Blowing Ratio on Mist-Assisted Air Film Cooling of a Flat Plate: An Experimental Study

A novel mist-assisted air film cooling scheme is proposed by Li and Wang (2006, “Simulation of Film Cooling Enhancement With Mist Injection,” ASME J. Heat Transfer, 128, pp. 509–519) to increase the film cooling effectiveness of a gas turbine cooled vane/blade. This scheme is further investigated experimentally in this article to determine the effect of the blowing ratio. The coolant is made to pass through the film holes on a flat plate mounted in a test facility. Tiny water droplets, characterized by Rosin-Rammler mean diameter of about 36.7 μm measured with a phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) system is introduced into the cooling air. The effectiveness values are evaluated by measuring the plate surface temperature with the infrared (IR) camera. The maximum percentage of the mist-assisted film cooling effectiveness is 26% more than air film cooling effectiveness when 2.1% of mist is added to the air. In addition, the coolant coverage on the plate is found to be much better with mist cooling in both the streamwise and the spanwise directions. The net enhancement due to the mist-assisted air film cooling effectiveness (Δη) decreases with the increasing values of the blowing ratio in the range of 0.55–2.58 at a density ratio of 2.2.