Geometrical Parameter Effects

on Film-Cooling Effectiveness of
Bai-Tao An1
Industrial Gas Turbine Laboratory,
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100190, China
e-mail: anbt@mail.etp.ac.cn
Jian-Jun Liu
Industrial Gas Turbine Laboratory,
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100190, China
Si-Jing Zhou
Industrial Gas Turbine Laboratory,
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100190, China
Rectangular Diffusion Holes
This paper presents an experimental investigation of the rectangular diffusion hole. The
effects of rectangular aspect ratio and lateral diffusion angle on film-cooling effective-
ness were studied at a low-speed flat-plate experimental facility. The pressure-sensitive
paint (PSP) measurement technique was employed to determine the adiabatic effective-
ness. The experiments were performed at a density ratio of DR ¼ 1.38 and a mainstream
turbulence intensity of Tu ¼ 3.5%. The blowing ratio was varied from M ¼ 0.5 to
M ¼ 2.5. Three aspect ratios and three lateral diffusion angles were chosen to match the
semicircle and straight-line sidewall shape of the rectangular cross section. A compara-
tive investigation was performed among a typical fan-shaped hole and ten rectangular
diffusion holes. The experimental results exhibited diversified film distribution patterns of
the rectangular diffusion hole, including single-, bi-, and tripeak patterns. The overall
cooling effectiveness increased with the increase of rectangular aspect ratio. The
improved magnitude was amplified as blowing ratio increased. The holes with semicircle
sidewall were shown to be more suitable for high blowing ratio conditions. The maximum
increase of cooling effectiveness was over 70% compared to the fan-shaped hole. The
reduction of the lateral diffusion angle affected the film distribution pattern significantly,
thereby influencing the cooling effectiveness. To obtain a fixed coverage ratio of film hole
row, the rectangular diffusion hole with a larger cross-sectional aspect ratio and a
slightly smaller lateral diffusion angle is a preferred scheme. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4036007]

Keywords: film cooling, rectangular diffusion hole, flat plate, PSP, experimental
investigation

1 Introduction may be based on the mature manufacture process of simple cylin-

drical hole. However, some of the shaped hole structures are still
In recent years, the turbine inlet temperature of gas turbine
too complicated for the realization in the real turbine blade.
shows a rapidly increasing trend for the purpose of improved ther-
Among these shaped holes, the expanded exit holes have been
mal efficiency. However, due to the slow development of the tem-
widely accepted and used in the current advanced gas turbine due
perature resistance capability of the blade material, turbine
to the excellent cooling effectiveness as well as the easy manufac-
cooling technology performs more tasks to maintain the vane/
ture processing. The exit expansion structure can effectively
blade at acceptable temperatures for the required stress and life.
reduce the exit momentum of coolant, thereby improving the film
The research and development of advanced cooling technology
attachment. Therefore, a number of studies focused on the innova-
has become extremely urgent. Film cooling is an essential cooling
tion of exit diffusion structure [13–16].
manner of turbine components in high-thrust aero-engine and
In contrast, the study of square/rectangular cross-sectional holes
heavy duty land-based gas turbine. The further enhancement of
is rare. Haven et al. [17] investigated the film-cooling effective-
film-cooling performance is still an effective way to cope with the
ness difference of three-shaped holes with the rectangular cross
increased turbine inlet temperature.
section. Three different diffusion forms including both lateral and
A major focus of film-cooling research is to improve cooling
streamwise diffusion, conical diffusion, and lateral diffusion were
performance through the development of novel hole structure.
tested and compared. The experimental results showed that the
Thus, many novel film-cooling configurations have been recently
cooling effectiveness of the lateral diffusion hole was far superior
proposed. Bunker [1] comprehensively summarized the efforts in
to the others, in which the kidney and antikidney vortex pairs
shaped hole film cooling. These shaped film-cooling holes can be
were found to cancel each other, leading to the improved jet
classified in many different ways, such as the cross-sectional
attachment. Licu et al. [18] developed a technique through using a
shape. Undoubtedly, most of the existing shaped holes are circular
thermochromic liquid crystal coating to measure film-cooling
cross-sectional hole. These holes retain a round hole on the inlet
effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient. To illustrate and vali-
side, and structural optimization or modification is mainly per-
date this technique, the flow from compound-angle square jets in
formed at the exit side of the hole. The typical structure includes
a crossflow was examined. Takahashi et al. [19] measured the
expanded exit hole or diffusion hole [2–4], trenched hole [5] and
temperature field and film-cooling performance for a row of holes
cratered hole [6], downstream vortex generator [7], upstream
with various hole shapes including square and rectangular holes.
ramp [8], hybrid scheme [9], etc. Or, the main body of hole is a
It was proved that the rectangular shape holes could provide better
round hole as well as the arrangement and combination of circular
cooling performance than the circular hole and the film-cooling
holes, such as antivortex hole [10], sister hole [11], and double jet
performance increased with the aspect ratios. Cho et al. [20] con-
hole [12]. The emergence of these circular cross-sectional holes
ducted an experiment to investigate the heat/mass transfer charac-
teristics within film hole of rectangular cross section. The results
1
Corresponding author. demonstrated that for the film-cooling hole with rectangular cross
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF TURBOMACHINERY. Manuscript received September 17,
section, heat/mass transfer on the leading edge side of hole had
2016; final manuscript received February 9, 2017; published online April 4, 2017. two peak regions due to split flow reattachment. Gartshore et al.
Assoc. Editor: Dr. David G. Bogard. [21] measured the film-cooling effectiveness of a round hole and a

Journal of Turbomachinery Copyright V

C 2017 by ASME AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-1

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 square hole which had the same cross-sectional area. The results
presented that two holes performed quite differently. The square
hole was slightly superior in the region which is very close to the
injection point and only at low blowing ratio. Koc [22] experimen-
tally investigated the film-cooling effectiveness of a rectangular
injection hole. The highest effectiveness was noticed at a blowing
ratio of 0.5. Okita and Nishiura [23] presented the experimental and
numerical study of film-cooling effectiveness for a novel
arrowhead-shaped hole. The cross section of the hole changes from
a rectangular shape at inlet section to an arrowhead-like shape at
exit section. According to the demonstrated results, the cooling
effectiveness was improved on both suction and pressure surface of
a generic turbine airfoil. The existing studies of rectangular hole
indicated that the flow difference between circular cross-sectional
hole and rectangular cross-sectional hole is very significant. The
rectangular cross section combined with exit expansion structure
has great potential to improve the film-cooling performance.
Essentially, to achieve the optimal film-cooling performance,
the ideal film-cooling configuration should be slot type holes, in
which its cross section tends to be a more flattened rectangle. The
converging slot-hole [24] attempted to construct an exit structure
similar to the continuous slot. However, its cross section changes
from a circular inlet to a slot exit. The experimental results
showed a more uniform exit film distribution than most of the
shaped holes. Bruce-Black et al. [25] investigated several slotlike
designs which extended only a partial distance through the simu-
lated turbine vane wall and were fed with impinging cylindrical
hole. Rows of discrete round and shaped holes were also tested
for comparison with the slots. The experimental results presented
that decreasing the slot height could lead to a substantial increase
in adiabatic effectiveness. Shalash et al. [26] proposed two holes
based on the theoretically perfect continuous slot film cooling;
however, these slots were not continuous. The first was the rectan-
gular divergent slot, and the second was the Aeroslot, which is a
discrete aerodynamically shaped slot. The Aeroslot showed a
large increase in film-cooling effectiveness for the same blowing
ratio. Bunker [27] conducted flat-plate, warm wind tunnel tests to
investigate the improvement in adiabatic film effectiveness
achieved through using mesh-fed surface slot film cooling. This
internal wall cooling methods can also be applied to feed airfoil
slot film-cooling regions in an analogous manner to trailing edge
cooling. Based on the experimental results, the film effectiveness
from the mesh-fed geometry at the same blowing ratio is essen-
tially uniformly distributed laterally, excepting end point effects.
The rectangular diffusion holes studied in this paper were based
on the structure proposed by An et al. [28]. The rectangular diffu-
sion hole aims at replacing the traditional circular diffusion hole
directly through providing higher cooling effectiveness and simi-
lar manufacturing technology. Compared with the existing rectan-
gular holes, the present rectangular hole has a larger cross-
sectional aspect ratio in between the ordinary rectangular hole and
the slot type hole. Combined with the exit diffusion structure, the
rectangular diffusion hole can achieve a large exit width and
decreases the exit momentum appropriately. The previous study
[28] demonstrated that the adiabatic cooling effectiveness of rec-
tangular diffusion hole with an aspect ratio of AS  3.5 and a lat-
eral diffusion angle of c ¼ 14 deg is significantly higher than that
of fan-shaped hole. To investigate the effects of geometrical
parameters on film-cooling effectiveness, the variation of rectan-
gular aspect ratio and the lateral diffusion angle was studied in
this paper. Similarly, the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness mea-
surement was conducted on a flat-plate model in a low-speed
wind tunnel test device through using PSP technique. The detailed
result analysis and structure design suggestions about this rectan-
gular diffusion hole are presented in this paper.
2 Experimental Facilities and Conditions
Experiments were carried out in the flat-plate film-cooling
experimental rig at the Industrial Gas Turbine Laboratory,
081010-2 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sci-
ences, Beijing, China. Figure 1 presents the schematic diagram of
the experimental facilities. The experimental rig is a low-speed
wind tunnel test device using PSP measurement method. The low-
speed wind tunnel is composed of the mainstream part, coolant
supply part, and data-acquisition part. The mainstream was pro-
vided by a 7.5 kW blower with a flow rate of 4600 m3/h. The
mainstream sequentially flows through the transition section, a
settling section, and a contraction section, and eventually enters
into the test section. A butterfly valve was arranged on the side
wall of the transition section to regulate the mainstream velocity
through venting excess flow. The screen and honeycomb were
installed inside the settling section to ensure the uniformity of the
flow. The contraction section consists of two segments. The first
segment is a circle to square contraction with a contraction ratio
of 1.48, and the second segment is a square to rectangle contrac-
tion with a contraction ratio of 4.44. Figure 2 shows the geome-
tries of the test section. The test section was made of Plexiglas in
order to produce an approximate adiabatic condition. The cross-
sectional size of the test section was 400 mm  90 mm, and the
length of the test section was 800 mm. The top of the test section
was made of Plexiglas, which allows optical access for the
pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurement. In the test section,
there was a rectangular central opening for the mounting of test
plate.
Below the test plate, a plenum was mounted to allow entry of
coolant into the film holes. The cross-sectional size of the plenum
was 200 mm  140 mm. A screen was mounted inside the plenum
to make the coolant flow uniform. According to the principle of
PSP measurement, the coolant was provided either through the air
tank or through the argon tank, respectively, both of which are
controlled by a valve. To obtain different blowing ratios, the cool-
ant flow rate was setup by a mass flow controller. PSP measure-
ment requires the same mainstream and coolant temperature.
Thus, an electric heater was applied to heat the coolant to assure
the same temperature condition. Above the test section, two light-
emitting diode (LED) lights were placed for PSP measurements.
Besides, a CCD camera was also placed above the test section to
acquire images of the test surface. A total pressure probe was
positioned at the inlet of the test section. The static pressure was
measured through the pressure tap on the test section side wall.
The mainstream inlet velocity was obtained after calculating the
measured total pressure and static pressure. In addition, the cool-
ant temperature in the plenum and the mainstream temperature in
the test section were monitored by thermocouples. All the signals
were collected with the application of a data-processing computer.
The geometries of the test flat plate and the coordinate system
are shown in Fig. 3(a). The test plate was fabricated with the
three-dimensional (3D) printing technology based on additive
manufacturing technologies, which provides a precision of
60.1 mm. The test plate was made of photosensitive resin with a
thermal conductivity of 0.18 W/m K. Five-film holes were printed
in one row on the test plate. The build layer thickness was 16 lm.
The surface roughness of the outer surface of the printed flat plate
was removed by minor sanding, but the roughness of the hole wall
was not processed. Due to lack of actual measurement, the rough-
ness of hole wall was Ra < 10 lm according to the technical data
provided. A close-up photo of the 3D-printed film hole is shown
in Fig. 3(b). The recent study by Aghasi et al. [29] showed the
effects of the roughness of 3D-printed holes on film-cooling effec-
tiveness using a diffusion hole geometry on a flat-plate model and
oxygen sensitive paint (OSP) measurement techniques. The hole
geometry was constructed by four techniques with build layer
thicknesses from 0.001D (25 lm) to 0.12D (300 lm) as well as
traditional machined metal. The experimental results demon-
strated that at high blowing ratios, the rougher surface exhibited
delayed blow off and higher film-cooling effectiveness compared
to geometries with lower surface roughness. Note that the cooling
effectiveness distribution of all the 3D-printed holes showed visi-
ble asymmetry, which the reason was ascribed to the effects of
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of experimental facilities

Fig. 2 Geometries of the test section

throat roughness. Although the layer thickness of the 3D-printed

flat plate for the present experiment was smaller than the flat plate
used in Ref. [29], the influence of roughness cannot be ignored. In
the present test, all the test flat plates were printed using the same
material and build layer thickness.
The adiabatic cooling effectiveness was measured using the
PSP technique [30]. Many recent investigations of film-cooling
effectiveness [31–34] have used this measurement technology.
This method is based on turbulent Lewis number assumption,
which is the ratio of thermal diffusivity to the mass diffusivity, as
defined in formula (1). If the Lewis number is approximately 1.0,
then it allows the use of mass transfer over an impermeable wall
as a description of heat transfer over an adiabatic wall [35]. There-
fore, the Lewis number was assumed to be close to 1.0 for the
present study

Sc lk
Le ¼ ¼ (1)
Pr CpDq
In the present study, the tested surface was sprayed with the
model of FIB PSP single coat supplied by Innovative Scientific
Solutions (ISSI), Inc., Dayton, OH. The excitation wavelength
range of the coat was 380–520 nm, and the emitting wavelength
range was 620–750 nm. The PSP was excited by two 400 nm
light-emitting diode (LED) lights located at a 45 deg incidence
angle to the tested surface. The power of each LED light was
21 W. A 670 nm filter was mounted in front of the camera lens to
prevent any reflected light from the illumination source from fil-
tering into it. A 1392  1040 light-sensitive pixel 14-bit CCD
camera with a 16 mm/F1.4 fixed focus lens was employed to
Fig. 3 Geometries of the test flat plate and hole: (a) coordinate
system and geometries of the 3D-printed flat plate and (b)
close-up photo of 3D-printed film hole
record the intensity emitted by the PSP. According to the optical
setup, a spatial resolution of 0.1 mm  0.1 mm per pixel was
achieved and the frame rate of the CCD camera was 10.9 fps. A
total of 100 images were captured and averaged to obtain the
emitted light intensity of each pixel.
Through measuring the emitted light intensity, the oxygen par-
tial pressure in different locations can be obtained by using the
relationship between light intensity and pressure. The content of
argon can be obtained by using the relation of pressure and con-
centration, and the film-cooling effectiveness can be obtained

Journal of Turbomachinery AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-3

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 according to the analogy of heat and mass transfer. In the current
experiments, air and argon were used alternately as coolant. The
mix of argon and oxygen molecules in the mainstream causes a
change in the emitted light intensity of PSP and the film-cooling
effectiveness g can be determined as follows:
Tm  Taw Cair  Cair
g¼ ¼ (2)
Tm  Tc Cair  Car
where Cair denotes the oxygen concentration in the air (21%), Car
denotes the oxygen concentration in the argon (0%), and Cmix
denotes the oxygen concentration of the mixture gas. Therefore,
the above formula can be converted to
Cair  Cmix ðPO2 Þair  ðPO2 Þmix
g¼ ¼ (3)
Cair  Car ðPO2 Þair
The emitted light intensity obtained from the PSP by the CCD
camera was normalized with a reference intensity (Iref) taken
under no-flow condition. Background noise in the optical setup
can be removed when the intensity is obtained under no-flow con-
ditions and without light excitation (Iblk) which is subtracted from
the reference intensity (Iref). The resulting intensity ratio can be
converted to pressure ratio (Pratio) through using a predetermined
calibration curve
! the method of Coleman and Steele [38]. The experimental results
Iref  Iblk ðPO2 Þair
¼f ¼ f ðPratio Þ (4)
I  Iblk ðPO2 Þref
where I denotes the intensity obtained for each pixel, and f (Pratio)
is the relationship between the intensity ratio and the pressure
ratio obtained through calibration.
The key of PSP technique is to achieve the partial pressure of
different positions by measuring the light intensity. Therefore, the
calibration of PSP is a very important step. The PSP was cali-
brated through placing a 50  50 mm copper sheet into a vacuum
chamber. By changing the pressure in the vacuum chamber, the
relationship between the pressure ratio and the light intensity ratio
was obtained. The copper sheet was sprayed with the PSP on one
side and was coated with electric heating film on the other. The
heating film produced different temperature conditions by means
of altering the input electric power. The light intensity and pres-
sure curve of PSP will be affected by the temperature, and thus, it
is required to be calibrated under several different temperature
conditions. Figure 4 shows the PSP calibration curves of the cur-
rent experiments. The calibration was conducted at three tempera-
tures, which were 23.0  C, 35.4  C, and 47.8  C, respectively.
Temperature changes will inevitably affect the accuracy of the
measurement. Thus, some methods were proposed to eliminate
the influence of temperature [36,37]. In the present study, three
calibration curves were fitted as a quadratic equation. The inten-
sity value of all the calibration points in Fig. 4 was normalized by
a fixed referenced value obtained at 23.0  C and 101.3 kPa. The
calibration curve of binomial fitting can obtain the intensity ratio
and pressure ratio function, as shown below
     2
Iref PO2 P O2 PO2
¼f ¼ AðT Þ þBðT Þ  þCðT Þ 
I ðPO2 Þref ðPO2 Þref ðPO2 Þref
(5)
where A, B, and C are the undetermined coefficients, related to
temperature. Fitting the undetermined coefficients at different
temperatures to obtain the function of the undetermined coeffi-
cients with the temperature can reflect the influence of the two
parameters of the pressure and temperature on the light intensity.
Theoretically, the pressure ratio can be obtained using formula (5)
by treating the acquired images into the light intensity ratio.
081010-4 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
Fig. 4 PSP calibration curves
Afterward, the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness can be
obtained using formula (3). This temperature treatment method
can obtain consistent results if the test temperature changes.
Experimental uncertainties were estimated based on analyzing
of Natsui et al. [39] showed that the uncertainty varies spatially
over the test surface and high effectiveness conforms to low
uncertainty. The noise floors can be as high as 0.04 at effective-
ness levels of 0. As for the present experiments, the composited
uncertainty was about 2% and 11% for cooling effectiveness mag-
nitude of 0.5 and 0.1, respectively. The cumulative uncertainty
involves the uncertainties in calibration (4%), image capture
(1%), and blowing ratio (4%).
Table 1 summarizes the operating conditions of this experi-
ment. The mainstream velocity was set at Vm ¼ 25 m/s, producing
a tunnel Reynolds number of about ReD ¼ 7200. The mainstream
temperature was about Tm ¼ 310 K. The free-stream turbulence
intensity at the inlet of the test section was Tu ¼ 3.5%, as meas-
ured by a hot wire anemometer. The momentum thickness of the
turbulent boundary layer was about d2 ¼ 0.27 mm. The density
ratio of the coolant to the mainstream was DR ¼ 1.38 because
argon was used as the coolant. In a real gas turbine blade, the
commonly used density ratio range is about DR ¼ 1.5–2.0, which
is slightly higher than that in the present experiments. According
to the experimental results of Pedersen et al. [40], a higher density
ratio leads to better attachment of the coolant under the same
blowing ratio, and the peak cooling effectiveness occurs at a rela-
tively low blowing ratio. The present test blowing ratios were
M ¼ 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5, corresponding to a momentum flux
ratio range from J ¼ 0.18 to J ¼ 4.5. Due to the same cross-
sectional area, the blowing ratios for all the tested hole geometries
were computed based on the diameter D of a circular hole.
In order to validate the experimental accuracy of film-cooling
effectiveness, a typical fan-shaped hole was also tested using the
same experimental facilities and measurement methods. The
Table 1 Operating conditions
Parameter Range
Mainstream velocity, Vm 25 m/s
Mainstream temperature, Tm 310 K
Turbulent intensity of mainstream, Tu 3.5%
Density ratio, DR 1.38
Blowing ratio, M 0.5–2.5
Momentum flux ratio, J 0.18–4.5
Mainstream Reynolds number, ReD 7200
Momentum thickness, d2 0.27 mm
Transactions of the ASME
 configuration of the typical fan-shaped hole is shown in Fig. 5.
The test flat plate of the fan-shaped hole was constructed by addi-
tive 3D printing technologies with a diameter of D ¼ 4 mm.
Except the difference in diameter D, the geometrical parameters
of the typical fan-shaped hole were identical as those used by
Saumweber and Schulz [41], including L/D, a, Lt/L, c, and p/D.
The experiment in Ref. [41] was performed at a mainstream Mach
number of 0.3. The test density ratio and mainstream turbulence
intensity were DR ¼ 1.75 and Tu ¼ 5.2%, respectively. Figure 6
shows the adiabatic cooling effectiveness contours of the fan-
shaped hole on the whole flat plate sprayed by PSP under blowing
ratio of M ¼ 1.5. The film-cooling effectiveness distribution
downstream of each hole exhibited a slight deviation from the
hole centerline. This phenomenon is similar to the results of Ref.
[29], which considered the effects of 3D printing accuracy.
Although there are some deviations, the data of the center hole
were still used as the final result as indicated by the dashed frame
in Fig. 6. Figure 7 compares the laterally averaged effectiveness
between the results in Ref. [41] and the present test at blowing Fig. 6 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distribution of fan-
ratio M ¼ 1.5. In spite of the differences in the experimental con- shaped hole on whole PSP painted plane under blowing ratio
ditions, two experiments provided very close results. Considering M 5 1.5
the opposite effects of mainstream turbulence intensity and den-
sity ratio, the approximate cooling effectiveness should be cross section. In the previous study [28], at the highest test blow-
resulted by the slightly lower mainstream turbulence intensity and ing ratio M ¼ 2.5, the cooling effectiveness of the rectangular dif-
the slightly lower density ratio. The result comparison demon- fusion hole with straight-line sidewall performed better than that
strated that the cooling effectiveness measurement under the pres- of the hole with semicircle sidewall. However, in the high-
ent experimental conditions is reliable. temperature and high-pressure environment of an actual turbine
vane/blade, the sharp edge shape may cause stress concentration
3 Rectangular Diffusion Hole Schemes and crack, and further, it leads to the premature failure of turbine
blade. The rectangular hole with a semicircle sidewall is the most
Except fan-shaped hole, ten rectangular diffusion hole schemes likely structure for practical turbine vane/blade application. In
were tested. Six-hole geometries were selected to investigate the order to distinguish the difference between two sidewall shapes
effects of rectangular aspect ratio, as shown in Fig. 8. Except the more clearly, the semicircle and straight-line sidewall shapes were
width and height of the rectangular cross section, the other geo- applied to different aspect ratio schemes. So, the six rectangular
metrical parameters of six holes were all the same, such as aspect ratio schemes under three rectangular width of W ¼ 1.7D,
Lt ¼ 2D, L ¼ 6D, a ¼ 30 deg, and c ¼ 14 deg. Although the smaller W ¼ 2.0D, and W ¼ 2.3D were tested and compared. Under the
Lt value has a strong impact on hole inflow [42], it allows the film same cross-sectional area, the rectangular height H has a small
hole which has a larger exit width under a certain lateral diffusion difference for two different sidewall shapes, indicating that the
angle. It should be noticed that D is the circular hole diameter rectangular aspect ratio is not exactly the same for two schemes
which conforms to the equal cross-sectional area. In this experi- with the same rectangular width. For three cases of rectangular
ment, the actual equivalent diameter of round hole or fan-shaped width W ¼ 1.7D, W ¼ 2.0D, and W ¼ 2.3D, the rectangular aspect
hole was D ¼ 4 mm. The geometrical size of rectangular diffusion ratio is about AS  3.5, AS  5.0, and AS  6.7, respectively. For
hole was converted according to the equivalent diameter D. ease of description, a naming rule was established. For an exam-
Figure 9 presents the width and height variation of the rectangular ple, the two schemes of W ¼ 1.7D and c ¼ 14 deg were named
cross section. Six rectangular cross-sectional schemes can be AS3.5-Gamma14-Cir and AS3.5-Gamma14-Str. “AS” denotes the
divided into two groups. The first group has a semicircle sidewall, rectangular aspect ratio, and “Gamma” denotes the lateral diffu-
while the second group has a straight-line sidewall. These two sion angle. The abbreviations “Cir” and “Str” represent the
sidewall shapes represent the typical configuration of rectangular

Fig. 7 Laterally averaged effectiveness comparison of typical

Fig. 5 Geometrical configuration of the typical fan-shaped fan-shaped hole between previous and present experimental
hole results at blowing ratio M 5 1.5

Journal of Turbomachinery AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-5

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 Fig. 8 The cross-sectional aspect ratio schemes of the rectangular diffusion hole: (a) AS3.5-Gamma14-Cir, (b) AS5.0-
Gamma14-Cir, (c) AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir, (d) AS3.5-Gamma14-Str, (e) AS5.0-Gamma14-Str, and (f) AS6.7-Gamma14-Str
semicircle sidewall and straight-line sidewall, respectively. The
detailed geometrical parameters of the rectangular aspect ratio
schemes are listed in Table 2. The selection of the maximum
aspect ratio (AS  6.7) was based on current electrical discharge
machining (EDM) processing technology. The film hole diameter
used in the actual engine blade is usually about D ¼ 1 mm. For
AS  6.7, the cross-sectional height H is about 0.35D, so the mini-
mum size of the rectangular diffusion hole with an aspect ratio of
AS  6.7 is 0.35 mm. This size is greater than the minimum size
(about 0.3 mm) that can be achieved by the current EDM
technology.
Four-hole geometries were used to investigate the effects of lat-
eral diffusion angle, as shown in Fig. 10. Similarly, the variation
of lateral diffusion angle c was also tested for the two different
sidewall shapes. Conforming to the cross-sectional width
W ¼ 2.0D (AS  5.0), the lateral diffusion angle was reduced to
c ¼ 12 deg. Corresponding to the cross-sectional width W ¼ 2.3D
(AS  6.7), the lateral diffusion angle was reduced to c ¼ 10 deg.
Two lateral diffusion angle schemes showed roughly the same
coverage ratio (CR). The coverage ratio, CR, is the ratio of hole
exit width to hole pitch. The coverage ratio of above schemes was
roughly equal to the schemes of W ¼ 1.7D (AS  3.5) and
c ¼ 14 deg. Based on these scheme designs, it will be beneficial to
Fig. 9 The width and height variation of the rectangular cross
section
081010-6 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
distinguish the individual effects of lateral diffusion angle and the
combined effects of aspect ratio and lateral diffusion angle under
the same coverage ratio. The detailed geometrical parameters of
the lateral diffusion angle schemes can be found in Table 2.
4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Effects of Rectangular Aspect Ratio. The measured adi-
abatic film cooling effectiveness contours of six rectangular aspect
ratio schemes are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. Figure 11 shows the
holes of semicircle sidewall, and Fig. 12 shows the holes of
straight-line sidewall. For each tested hole, three blowing ratios of
M ¼ 0.5, M ¼ 1.5, and M ¼ 2.5 were selected to exhibit the basic
film distribution features. Under three selected blowing ratios, the
cooling effectiveness of all the six schemes showed an increasing
trend with the increase of blowing ratio. Furthermore, with the
increase of the rectangular aspect ratio, the cooling effectiveness
of all the six schemes also showed an increasing trend at each
tested blowing ratio. The cooling effectiveness contours exhibited
obvious film width variation with the increase of rectangular
aspect ratio from AS  3.5 to AS  6.7, which can be related to
the increase of the coverage ratio, CR, as shown in Table 2. Under
the same lateral diffusion angle of c ¼ 14 deg, a larger rectangular
aspect ratio corresponds to a larger exit width. Due to the same
cross-sectional area, the amplification of lateral width W implies
the reduction of streamwise height, H. Consequently, the holes
with a bigger cross-sectional aspect ratio produce a relative thin
film, which favors film attachment.
However, the rectangular aspect ratio has significant effects on
the film distribution pattern due to the differentiated effects of
sidewall shape for different rectangular aspect ratios. At the low-
est blowing ratio of M ¼ 0.5, the difference in the film pattern was
not very obvious but it was more easily observed at medium and
high blowing ratios. For the holes with semicircle sidewall, the
film distribution exhibited a bipeak pattern at AS  3.5 under
Transactions of the ASME
 Table 2 Geometrical parameters of the tested holes

Geometrical parameters

Schemes a c Lt/L L/D p/D W H AS CR Sidewall shape

Fan-shaped hole 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 — — — 0.52 —

AS3.5-Gamma14-Cir 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 1.7D 0.50D 3.4 0.62 Semicircle
AS3.5-Gamma14-Str 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 1.7D 0.46D 3.7 0.65 Straight line
AS5.0-Gamma14-Cir 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 2.0D 0.41D 4.9 0.67 Semicircle
AS5.0-Gamma14-Str 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 2.0D 0.39D 5.1 0.69 Straight line
AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 2.3D 0.35D 6.6 0.73 Semicircle
AS6.7-Gamma14-Str 30 deg 14 deg 1/3 6 6 2.3D 0.34D 6.8 0.74 Straight line
AS5.0-Gamma12-Cir 30 deg 12 deg 1/3 6 6 2.0D 0.41D 4.9 0.62 Semicircle
AS5.0-Gamma12-Str 30 deg 12 deg 1/3 6 6 2.0D 0.39D 5.1 0.63 Straight line
AS6.7-Gamma10-Cir 30 deg 10 deg 1/3 6 6 2.3D 0.35D 6.6 0.62 Semicircle
AS6.7-Gamma10-Str 30 deg 10 deg 1/3 6 6 2.3D 0.34D 6.8 0.63 Straight line

Fig. 10 The lateral diffusion angle schemes of the rectangular diffusion hole: (a) AS5.0-Gamma12-Cir, (b) AS5.0-Gamma12-
Str, (c) AS6.7-Gamma10-Cir, and (d) AS6.7-Gamma10-Str

blowing ratio of M ¼ 1.5 and M ¼ 2.5, as shown in Fig. 11(a).
When the aspect ratio increased to AS  5.0, the film distribution
changed to a weak tripeak pattern, where the cooling effectiveness
on hole centerline is significantly higher than that of hole two
sides, as shown in Fig. 11(b). When the aspect ratio increases to
AS  6.7, the film distribution pattern was similar to that of
AS  5.0, but the cooling effectiveness on hole centerline
increased further, as shown in Fig. 11(c). For the holes with
straight-line sidewall, as shown in Fig. 12, the film distribution
showed a single-peak pattern at each blowing ratio regardless of
the variation of rectangular aspect ratio. In contrast, the variation
of cooling effectiveness pattern of the holes with semicircle side-
wall is more diverse.
The film distribution pattern has a close relationship with the
diffusion flow inside the hole and the vortices structure
downstream of the hole. Although the flow field was not measured
directly, the downstream vortices structure of the fan-shaped hole,
the rectangular diffusion hole with semicircle sidewall, and the
rectangular diffusion hole with straight-line sidewall can be sim-
ply depicted as in Fig. 13, based on relevant studies [17,41]. For
the expansion exit hole, the downstream antikidney vortex pair is
a commonly flow field structure that greatly influences the film
distribution pattern. The differences of the antikidney vortex pair
among the three-hole geometries are scale, location, and intensity.
For the circular diffusion hole, i.e., the fan-shaped hole, as shown
in Fig. 13(a), the antikidney vortex pair is relatively strong
because most coolant is involved. But because of the limitation of
hole width, the lateral spacing of the antikidney vortex pair is
very small, so there is no space to form a central effectiveness
peak. For the rectangular diffusion hole with semicircle sidewall,

Fig. 11 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distribution of the holes with semicircle sidewall under different rectangular
aspect ratios and same lateral diffusion angle: (a) AS3.5-Gamma14-Cir, (b) AS5.0-Gamma14-Cir, and (c) AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir

Journal of Turbomachinery AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-7

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 Fig. 12 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness contours of the holes with straight-line sidewall under different rectangular
aspect ratios and same lateral diffusion angle: (a) AS3.5-Gamma14-Str, (b) AS5.0-Gamma14-Str, and (c) AS6.7-Gamma14-Str
as shown in Fig. 13(b), the cross-sectional shape is similar to that
of a big size circle that is pulled laterally into two small size semi-
circles. Under the similar inlet “jetting effect,” the antikidney vor-
tex pair is elongated laterally. Correspondingly, the coolant
amount involved with the antikidney vortex pair is relatively
reduced and the centerline area has sufficient space to form the
third effectiveness peak. This trend greatly relies on the size of
rectangular aspect ratio. For the rectangular diffusion hole with
straight-line sidewall, as shown in Fig. 13(c), the antikidney vor-
tex pair is relatively weak, most coolant will flow through the cen-
terline area of the hole, and the antikidney vortex pair and the
Fig. 13 Schematic diagram of the downstream vortices struc-
ture: (a) fan-shaped hole, (b) rectangular diffusion hole with
semicircle sidewall, and (c) rectangular diffusion hole with
straight-line sidewall
081010-8 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
kidney vortex pair will cancel each other. Obviously, this trend
does not rely too much on the size of the rectangular aspect ratio.
Comparison of the rectangular diffusion holes with different side-
wall shapes showed that the differences in cooling effectiveness
distribution mainly reflect on the hole two sides. The hole with a
semicircle sidewall favors enlargement of the film width due to
the relative strong antikidney vortex pair. In contrast, the hole
with a straight-line sidewall is not conducive to film attachment
due to the relative weak antikidney vortex pair. The coolant on
the hole centerline is easily blown away from the surface. The dif-
ference in vortices structure leads to the evident difference in
cooling effectiveness distribution, especially high blowing ratios.
Figure 14 shows the comparison of the spatially averaged cool-
ing effectiveness among three aspect ratio schemes. The spatially
averaged region is a 30D  6D rectangle downstream of the hole
exit. In order to define the level of overall cooling effectiveness,
the experimental results of the fan-shaped hole are also plotted in
Fig. 14. For the holes with semicircle sidewall, as shown in
Fig. 14(a), the spatially averaged cooling effectiveness increased
with the increase of the rectangular aspect ratio. With the increase
of blowing ratio, the increased magnitude of the spatially aver-
aged cooling effectiveness was amplified. The overall cooling
effectiveness of AS  5.0 was close to that of AS  6.7, which is
much higher than that of AS  3.5. The highest spatially averaged
cooling effectiveness was provided by scheme AS6.7-Gamma14-
Cir at blowing ratio of M ¼ 2.5. The relative improvement was
over 70% compared to the fan-shaped hole. For the holes with
straight-line sidewall, as shown in Fig. 14(b), the spatially aver-
aged cooling effectiveness was also positively correlated with the
increase of rectangular aspect ratio, but the variation trend was
more linear. Figure 15 compares the spatially averaged cooling
effectiveness between the holes with different sidewall shapes. At
aspect ratios of AS  3.5 and AS  6.7, the spatially averaged
effectiveness of the holes with semicircle and straight-line side-
wall was very similar below blowing ratio of M ¼ 2.0. The
obvious difference appeared at blowing ratio of M ¼ 2.5, where
the holes with semicircle sidewall performed better at AS  6.7
while the holes with straight-line sidewall performed better at
AS  3.5. This result can be ascribed to the various influences of
the antikidney vortex pair on different aspect ratios. The intensity
of the antikidney vortex pair under a small aspect ratio is rela-
tively strong, which does not favor film attachment. Evidently, the
holes with a bigger rectangular aspect ratio and the semicircle
sidewall are more suitable for the blowing ratio above M ¼ 2.0. At
aspect ratio of AS  5.0, the spatially averaged cooling effective-
ness of the hole with semicircle sidewall was always higher than
the hole with the straight-line sidewall, especially high blowing
ratios. The nonlinear variation of the cooling effectiveness dem-
onstrated that for the rectangular diffusion hole with semicircle
Transactions of the ASME
 sidewall, the cooling effectiveness can reach a relatively high
level when the aspect ratio exceeds a certain size. Additionally,
the highest cooling effectiveness of the scheme AS5.0-Gamma14-
Cir and AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir appeared at the highest blowing
ratio M ¼ 2.5, but the other schemes reached highest cooling
Fig. 14 Comparison of spatially averaged effectiveness among
three aspect ratio schemes: (a) semicircle sidewall and (b)
straight-line sidewall
Fig. 15 Comparison of spatially averaged effectiveness
between the holes with different sidewall shapes
Journal of Turbomachinery
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
effectiveness at M ¼ 2.0. This result implies a difference in the
adhesion characteristics of the downstream vortices structure. The
rectangular diffusion holes with semicircle sidewall showed better
film attachment.
Figure 16 compares the local film cooling effectiveness at
x/D ¼ 10 under blowing ratio of M ¼ 2.5, which may explain the
Fig. 16 Comparison of local film cooling effectiveness among
six aspect ratio schemes at x/D 5 10 under blowing ratio M 5 2.5
Fig. 17 Comparison of laterally averaged cooling effective-
ness among three different rectangular aspect ratios under dif-
ferent blowing ratios: (a) M 5 1.5 and (b) M 5 2.5
AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-9

Fig. 18 Comparison of laterally averaged effectiveness
between rectangular diffusion hole and mesh-fed slot [27]
cooling effectiveness differences under high blowing ratio condi-
tion. For AS  3.5, the cooling effectiveness distribution obvi-
ously showed a bipeak and a single-peak pattern for the hole with
semicircle and straight-line sidewall, respectively. Due to the
intense lateral expansion of the antikidney vortex pair, the cooling
effectiveness on the hole centerline of the hole with semicircle
sidewall is very low, which leads to a slightly lower overall cool-
ing effectiveness than the hole with straight-line sidewall. For
AS  5.0, the cooling effectiveness distribution of the hole with
straight-line sidewall was still a single-peak pattern, but the cool-
ing effectiveness on the hole centerline increases. However, the
cooling effectiveness distribution of the hole with semicircle side-
wall transformed to a tripeak pattern, with the enhanced cooling
effectiveness on hole centerline without decreasing the cooling
effectiveness on hole two sides. At this aspect ratio, because the
cooling effectiveness difference on the hole centerline disappears,
the advantage of the hole with semicircle sidewall is reflected by
the higher cooling effectiveness on the hole two sides. For
AS  6.7, the holes with different sidewall shapes showed similar
lateral film distribution as AS  5.0, but with the film width
slightly amplified. In conclusion, under a very high blowing ratio,
i.e., M ¼ 2.5, a stronger antikidney vortex pair causes stronger lat-
eral expansion and enhanced coolant attachment on the hole cen-
terline. The cooling effectiveness of the hole centerline is
increased significantly due to the larger lateral spacing. Therefore,
the semicircle sidewall is suitable for a bigger rectangular aspect
ratio, especially the high blowing ratio conditions.
Figure 17 compares the laterally averaged cooling effectiveness
for three different rectangular aspect ratio schemes. Two typical
blowing ratios of M ¼ 1.5 and M ¼ 2.5 were chosen for the com-
parison. First, there was no significant difference in the laterally
averaged cooling effectiveness at the near hole region under two
different blowing ratios. The cooling effectiveness enhancement
Fig. 19 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness contours of the holes with semicircle sidewall under different rectangular
aspect ratios and lateral diffusion angles: (a) AS5.0-Gamma12-Cir and (b) AS6.7-Gamma10-Cir
081010-10 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
caused by the increase of the blowing ratio was mainly reflected
at the far hole region. Second, at the medium blowing ratio, i.e.,
M ¼ 1.5, the magnitude difference of the laterally averaged cool-
ing effectiveness caused by aspect ratio variation was about 0.1,
as shown in Fig. 17(a). At the high blowing ratio, i.e., M ¼ 2.5,
the magnitude difference was amplified to about 0.2, as shown in
Fig. 17(b). The above phenomena demonstrated that the advan-
tages produced by the increase of the rectangular aspect ratio are
more obvious at the high blowing ratio condition.
To further evaluate the level of cooling effectiveness, a compar-
ison of laterally averaged effectiveness between the present rec-
tangular diffusion hole and the mesh-fed slot configuration [27] is
shown in Fig. 18. The flat-plate experiments in Ref. [27] were per-
formed at a density of DR ¼ 1.6 with a mainstream turbulence
intensity of Tu ¼ 4.5%, which is close to the present experimental
conditions. Because the film-cooling configuration is similar to a
continuous slot, the experimental results of the mesh-fed slot can
be treated to a p/D ¼ 6 situation and thus compared with the pres-
ent results. The streamwise distance in Ref. [27] was normalized
using the blowing ratio M and the equivalent actual slot height s
to produce a nondimensional distance. According to the diameter
D used in the present test, the streamwise distance x/D was con-
verted to x/Ms. The results of the “full mesh” case under three
blowing ratios were compared with the present scheme AS6.7-
Gamma14-Cir. The full mesh case of M ¼ 0.21, M ¼ 0.45, and
M ¼ 0.7, respectively, represents the same coolant flow rate as the
M ¼ 0.6, M ¼ 1.29, and M ¼ 2.0 cases of rectangular diffusion
hole. For the mesh-fed slot, the cooling effectiveness showed a
decrease trend from the low blowing ratio to high blowing ratio.
The effectiveness difference under the three blowing ratios mainly
occurred at near downstream, i.e., x/Ms < 50. Conversely, for the
case of AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir, the cooling effectiveness increased
with the increase of blowing ratio. The effectiveness difference
under the three blowing ratios mainly occurred at far downstream.
The differences of cooling effectiveness under different blowing
ratios embody the difference of flow attachment and coolant trans-
port characteristics. The cooling effectiveness at M ¼ 2.0 for
scheme AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir was better than that of the mesh-fed
slot at M ¼ 0.45 and M ¼ 0.7, especially far downstream. Com-
pared with the best cooling effectiveness provided by the mesh-
fed slot at M ¼ 0.21, the cooling effectiveness of scheme AS6.7-
Gamma14-Cir was lower near downstream and was higher far
downstream. The cooling effectiveness at M ¼ 1.5 for scheme
AS6.7-Gamma14-Cir was better than the mesh-fed slot at M ¼ 0.7
and close to the mesh-fed slot at M ¼ 0.45. Overall, the rectangu-
lar diffusion hole with a large cross-sectional aspect ratio provided
high cooling effectiveness at medium and high blowing ratios,
which at far downstream was higher than that of the mesh-fed
slot.
4.2 Effects of Lateral Diffusion Angle. The measured adia-
batic film cooling effectiveness contours of four lateral diffusion
angle schemes are shown in Figs. 19 and 20. Figure 19 shows the
holes of semicircle sidewall, and Fig. 20 shows the holes of
straight-line sidewall. The comparison between Figs. 19 and 11
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 20 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness contours of the holes with straight-line sidewall under different rectangular
aspect ratios and lateral diffusion angles: (a) AS5.0-Gamma12-Str and (b) AS6.7-Gamma10-Str

and between Figs. 20 and 12 shows that under the same rectangu-
lar aspect ratio, the reduction of lateral diffusion angle leads to
visible variation on film distribution pattern, especially medium
and high blowing ratios. However, the variation is obviously dif-
ferent for the holes with various sidewall shapes. For the holes
with semicircle sidewall, when the lateral diffusion angle reduced
to c ¼ 12 deg and c ¼ 10 deg for AS  5.0 and AS  6.7, respec-
tively, the film distribution transformed from a weak tripeak to a
strong tripeak pattern, where three cooling effectiveness peaks
have the similar magnitude. For the holes with straight-line side-
wall, when the lateral diffusion angle reduced to c ¼ 12 deg and
c ¼ 10 deg for AS  5.0 and AS  6.7, respectively, the film distri-
bution tended to form a bipeak effectiveness, where two effective-
ness peaks are close to hole centerline. Figure 21 shows the lateral
cooling effectiveness distribution at x/D ¼ 10 under blowing ratio
M ¼ 2.5, which further exhibits the phenomena observed in Figs.
19 and 20.
The variation of film distribution pattern and diffusion angle
can be explained by the variation caused by diffusion flow inside
the hole and the resultant downstream vortices. The reduction of
lateral diffusion angle leads to two main changes. The first is that
the flow diffusion weakens, which will weaken the lateral expan-
sion trend of the antikidney vortex pair. The second is that the

Fig. 21 Comparison of local film cooling effectiveness among

different lateral diffusion angle schemes at x/D 5 10 under blow- Fig. 22 Comparison of spatially averaged effectiveness
ing ratio M 5 2.5: (a) semicircle sidewall and (b) straight-line between the holes with different lateral diffusion angles: (a)
sidewall semicircle sidewall and (b) straight-line sidewall

Journal of Turbomachinery AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-11

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 hole exit width reduces, which also shortens the lateral spacing of
antikidney vortex pair. And the exit velocity will increase due to
the reduction of exit area. Referring to Fig. 13(b), for the hole
with semicircle sidewall, the lateral spacing reduction of antikid-
ney vortex pair will compress the space of hole centerline, thereby
weakening the cooling effectiveness of hole centerline. Thus, a
strong tripeak pattern forms, as shown in Fig. 21(a). Referring to
Fig. 13(c), for the hole with straight-line sidewall, the relative
weak antikidney vortex pair leads to a weak lateral expansion
under a weak diffusion flow. The antikidney vortex pair tended to
behave as a small spacing and close to hole centerline, further pro-
duced a weak bipeak effectiveness pattern, as shown in Fig. 21(b).
The above variation trend will be slightly different for different
rectangular aspect ratios and lateral diffusion angles.
Figure 22 shows the comparison of spatially averaged effective-
ness between the holes with different lateral diffusion angles. For
the holes with semicircle sidewall, as shown in Fig. 22(a), the
overall cooling effectiveness difference was not significant for the
two lateral diffusion angle schemes with the same rectangular
aspect ratio. Whichever AS  5.0 or AS  6.7 below blowing ratio
M ¼ 1.5, the overall cooling effectiveness of the holes with the
smaller lateral diffusion angle was even slightly increased. How-
ever, at high blowing ratios, i.e., M ¼ 2.0 and M ¼ 2.5, the holes
with the larger lateral diffusion angle exhibited obvious higher
overall cooling effectiveness. It demonstrates that the larger lat-
eral diffusion angle is more favorable for high blowing ratio
Fig. 23 Comparison of laterally averaged effectiveness
between two lateral diffusion angle schemes for aspect ratio
AS  5.0: (a) semicircle sidewall and (b) straight-line sidewall
081010-12 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
conditions and the smaller lateral diffusion angle is more favor-
able for low blowing ratio conditions. The high blowing ratio is
conductive to film attachment for the holes with smaller lateral
diffusion angle, due to the relative high exit velocity. For the holes
with straight-line sidewall, as shown in Fig. 22(b), the reduction
of the lateral diffusion angle improved the overall cooling effec-
tiveness significantly at all the tested blowing ratios for the case
of AS  5.0 due to the change of film distribution pattern.
Comparison of Fig. 20(a) with Fig. 12(b) showed that the bipeak
effectiveness pattern is better than the single-peak effectiveness
pattern, because the coolant can be obviously expanded in the lat-
eral direction. The overall cooling effectiveness varies little for
the case of AS  6.7. Overall, under the appropriate rectangular
aspect ratio, the proper reduction of the lateral diffusion angle is
beneficial for the holes with straight-line sidewall.
Figure 23 shows the comparison of laterally averaged effective-
ness between two lateral diffusion angle schemes at three blowing
ratios for AS  5.0. For the holes with semicircle sidewall, as
shown in Fig. 23(a), the slight reduction of lateral diffusion angle
had little effects on the laterally averaged effectiveness at low and
medium blowing ratio, i.e., M ¼ 0.5 and M ¼ 1.5. At high blowing
ratio, i.e., M ¼ 2.5, the hole with the larger lateral diffusion angle
showed slightly higher lateral-averaged effectiveness, in particu-
lar, the far hole region. The decrease in the overall cooling effec-
tiveness caused by the reduction of lateral diffusion angle at high
blowing ratio results from the reduction of cooling effectiveness
Fig. 24 Comparison of laterally averaged effectiveness
between two lateral diffusion angle schemes for aspect ratio
AS  6.7: (a) semicircle sidewall and (b) straight-line sidewall
Transactions of the ASME
 on the hole centerline, as shown in Fig. 21(a). For the holes with
straight-line sidewall, as shown in Fig. 23(b), the difference in the
laterally averaged effectiveness caused by the lateral diffusion
angle was amplified. The smaller lateral diffusion angle results in
an enhanced lateral-averaged effectiveness at M ¼ 2.5. This is
mainly due to the more uniform and wider lateral film distribution
caused by the bipeak pattern, as shown in Fig. 21(b). Figure 24
shows the comparison of laterally averaged effectiveness between
two lateral diffusion angle schemes at three blowing ratios for
AS  6.7. Due to the larger reduction of the lateral diffusion
angle, the difference for the holes with semicircle sidewall
becomes more obvious, as shown in Fig. 24(a). The hole with a
larger lateral diffusion angle still produced the higher lateral-
averaged effectiveness, especially at high blowing ratio, i.e.,
M ¼ 2.5. Unlike the case of AS  5.0, due to the small change in
film distribution pattern, the variation of lateral diffusion angle
had little effect on the holes with straight-line sidewall. In general,
with the variation of lateral diffusion angle, the holes with
straight-line sidewall are easily influenced under the case of
AS  5.0, while the holes with semicircle sidewall are easily influ-
enced under the case of AS  6.7.
The coverage ratio of film hole row is commonly considered as
an important parameter related to the cooling effectiveness. Figure
25 provides the comparison of spatially averaged effectiveness
among the holes with different aspect ratios and lateral diffusion
angles. Due to the corresponding reduction of lateral diffusion
angle, the schemes AS5.0-Gamma12-Cir, AS5.0-Gamma12-Str,
AS6.7-Gamma10-Cir, and AS6.7-Gamma10-Str have a roughly
equivalent coverage ratio, CR, with the schemes AS3.5-
Gamma14-Cir and AS3.5-Gamma14-Str. The results demon-
strated that to achieve a fixed coverage ratio of film hole row, a
bigger rectangular aspect ratio matching a smaller lateral diffusion
angle favors to obtain a higher overall cooling effectiveness.
However, the schemes of AS  5.0 and c ¼ 12 deg had little differ-
ence in overall cooling effectiveness compared to the schemes of
AS  6.7 and c ¼ 10 deg. That means, it is not necessary to
amplify the aspect ratio excessively to satisfy a smaller lateral dif-
fusion angle. Considering the limitation of minimum machining
size of the current EDM technology, the rectangular aspect ratio
of AS  5.0 matching lateral diffusion angle of c ¼ 12 deg is a
optimal scheme, due to the larger rectangular height.
From another viewpoint, the appropriate reduction of lateral
diffusion angle can achieve a tighter lateral hole arrangement,
which can achieve a higher coverage ratio of film hole. For the
regions with extremely high thermal loads on turbine blades, a
Fig. 25 Comparison of spatially averaged effectiveness among
the holes with different aspect ratios and lateral diffusion
angles
Journal of Turbomachinery
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
tighter hole arrangement is needed to enhance the overall cooling
effectiveness, even if the coolant amount is inevitably increased.
5 Conclusions
Through using the pressure-sensitive paint measurement tech-
nique, a low-speed wind tunnel experiment facility was employed
to investigate the geometrical parameter effects on the film-
cooling effectiveness of rectangular diffusion hole. Three rectan-
gular aspect ratios and three lateral diffusion angles were selected
to match two different rectangular sidewall shapes. A total of six
rectangular aspect ratio schemes and four lateral diffusion angle
schemes were examined and compared. The experiments were
performed with a hole pitch to diameter ratio p/D ¼ 6 and a den-
sity ratio DR ¼ 1.38. The blowing ratio was varied from M ¼ 0.5
to M ¼ 2.5. The conclusions are drawn as follows:
(1) The variation of rectangular aspect ratio and lateral diffusion
angle significantly influenced the film distribution patterns
with obvious differences at medium and high blowing ratios.
For the holes of semicircle sidewall, under smaller aspect
ratio, i.e., AS  3.5, the film distribution showed a strong
bipeak pattern, where two cooling effectiveness peaks are
located at the downstream of the lateral exit zones. Under
bigger aspect ratios, i.e., AS  5.0 and AS  6.7, the film
distribution changed to a weak tripeak pattern, where the
cooling effectiveness peak on hole centerline is significantly
higher at the downstream of the lateral exit zones. With the
decrease of lateral diffusion angle, the film distribution
transformed to a strong tripeak pattern, where three cooling
effectiveness peaks have the similar magnitude. For the
holes with straight-line sidewall, regardless of the aspect
ratio, the film distribution was always a single-peak pattern.
With the decrease of lateral diffusion angle, the film distribu-
tion turned to a weak bipeak pattern, where two cooling
effectiveness peaks are close to hole centerline.
(2) The overall cooling effectiveness increased with the
increase of rectangular aspect ratio. The increased magni-
tude was amplified with the increase of blowing ratio. The
maximum increase of the overall cooling effectiveness was
over 70% compared to the fan-shaped hole. However, the
holes with semicircle and straight-line sidewall behaved
slightly difference. For the case of AS > 5.0, the holes with
semicircle sidewall are more suitable for high blowing ratio
conditions.
(3) The variation of lateral diffusion angle has different effects
on the holes with semicircle and straight-line sidewall.
Also, with the variation of rectangular aspect ratio, the
effects of lateral diffusion angle are different. For the holes
with semicircle sidewall, the larger lateral diffusion angle
provided a higher cooling effectiveness at high blowing
ratios, regardless of the aspect ratio. For the holes with
straight-line sidewall, the reduction of lateral diffusion
angle did not decrease the cooling effectiveness for
AS  6.7 and even improved the cooling effectiveness for
AS  5.0.
(4) To obtain a fixed coverage ratio of film hole row, the design
of a bigger rectangular aspect ratio matching a smaller lat-
eral diffusion angle is more effective than the scheme of a
smaller rectangular aspect ratio matching a bigger lateral
diffusion angle. Considering the limitations of processing
size of the EDM technology, the rectangular diffusion hole
with semicircle sidewall and aspect ratio of AS  5.0 is an
applicable hole structure.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No.
51336007.
AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-13
 [8] Na, S., and Shih, T. I.-P., 2007, “Increasing Adiabatic Film Cooling Effective-
Nomenclature ness by Using an Upstream Ramp,” ASME J. Heat Transfer, 129(4),
AS ¼ aspect ratio of rectangular cross section (W/H) pp. 464–471.
[9] Ghorab, M. G., and Hassan, I. G., 2010, “An Experimental Investigation of a
Cair ¼ oxygen concentration of air New Hybrid Film Cooling Scheme,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 53(21–22),
Car ¼ oxygen concentration of argon pp. 4994–5007.
Cmix ¼ oxygen concentration of mixture [10] Heidmann, J. D., and Ekkad, S., 2008, “A Novel Antivortex Turbine Film-
Cp ¼ specific heat capacity at constant pressure (J/kg K) Cooling Hole Concept,” ASME J. Turbomach., 130(3), p. 031020.
[11] Ely, M. J., and Jubran, B. A., 2009, “A Numerical Evaluation on the Effect of
CR ¼ coverage ratio of film hole row (Wexit/p) Sister Holes on Film Cooling Effectiveness and the Surround Flow Field,” Heat
D¼ round hole diameter of the equivalent cross-sectional Mass Transfer, 45(11), pp. 1435–1446.
area (m) [12] Kusterer, K., Bohn, D., Sugimoto, T., and Tanaka, R., 2007, “Double-Jet Ejec-
DR ¼ density ratio ¼ qc/qm tion of Cooling Air for Improved Film Cooling,” ASME J. Turbomach., 129(4),
pp. 809–815.
H¼ height of the rectangular cross section (m) [13] Dai, P., and Lin, F., 2011, “Numerical Study on Film Cooling Effectiveness
I¼ PSP emission intensity From Shaped and Crescent Holes,” Heat Mass Transfer, 47(2), pp. 147–154.
Iblk ¼ PSP emission intensity with no-flow and no-light [14] Heneka, C., Schulz, A., Bauer, H. J., Heselhaus, A., and Crawford, M. E., 2012,
Iref ¼ PSP emission intensity with no mainstream and “Film Cooling Performance of Sharp Edged Diffuser Holes With Lateral
Inclination,” ASME J. Turbomach., 134(4), p. 041015.
coolant [15] Lee, K.-D., and Kim, K.-Y., 2012, “Performance Evaluation of a Novel Film-
J¼ momentum flux ratio, qcVc2/qm Vm 2
Cooling Hole,” ASME J. Heat Transfer, 134(10), p. 101702.
L¼ hole length (m) [16] Yang, X., Liu, Z., and Feng, Z., 2015, “Numerical Evaluation of Novel Shaped
Le ¼ Lewis number Holes for Enhancing Film Cooling Performance,” ASME J. Heat Transfer,
137(7), p. 071701.
Lt ¼ length of hole straight section (m) [17] Haven, B. A., Yamagata, D. K., and Kurosaka, M., 1997, “Anti-Kidney Pair of
M¼ blowing ratio ¼ qcVc/qmVm Vortices in Shaped Holes and Their Influence on Film Cooling Effectiveness,”
p¼ hole pitch (m) ASME Paper No. 97-GT-45.
P¼ pressure (Pa) [18] Licu, D. N., Findlay, M. J., Gartshore, I. S., and Salcudean, M., 2000,
“Transient Heat Transfer Measurements Using a Single Wide-Band Liquid
Pr ¼ Prandtl number Crystal Test,” ASME J. Turbomach., 122(3), pp. 546–552.
Pratio ¼ pressure ratio [19] Takahashi, H., Nuntadusit, C., Kimoto, H., Ishida, H., Ukai, T., and Takeishi,
Pref ¼ reference pressure with no mainstream and coolant K., 2001, “Characteristics of Various Film Cooling Jets Injected in a Conduit,”
(PO2 )air ¼ partial pressure of oxygen with air as coolant Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 934, pp. 345–352.
[20] Cho, H. H., Kang, S. G., and Rhee, D. H., 2001, “Heat/Mass Transfer Measure-
(PO2 )mix ¼ partial pressure of oxygen with argon as coolant ment Within a Film Cooling Hole of Square and Rectangular Cross Section,”
Ra ¼ averaged surface roughness height (m) ASME J. Turbomach., 123(4), pp. 806–814.
ReD ¼ mainstream Reynolds number [21] Gartshore, I., Salcudean, M., and Hassan, I., 2001, “Film Cooling Injection
s¼ equivalent 2D slot width for hole flow area Hole Geometry: Hole Shape Comparison for Compound Cooling Orientation,”
AIAA J., 39(8), pp. 1493–1499.
Sc ¼ Schmidt number [22] Koc, I., 2007, “Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Film Cooling
Tc ¼ coolant temperature (K) Effectiveness for Rectangular Injection Holes,” Aircr. Eng. Aerosp. Technol.,
Tm ¼ mainstream temperature (K) 79(6), pp. 621–627.
Taw ¼ adiabatic wall temperature (K) [23] Okita, Y., and Nishiura, M., 2007, “Film Effectiveness Performance of an
Arrowhead-Shaped Film-Cooling Hole Geometry,” ASME J. Turbomach.,
Tu ¼ turbulence intensity (%) 129(2), pp. 331–339.
Vm ¼ mainstream velocity (m/s) [24] Sargison, J. E., Guo, S. M., Oldfield, M. L. G., Lock, G. D., and Rawlinson,
W¼ width of the rectangular cross section (m) A. J., 2002, “A Converging Slot-Hole Film-Cooling Geometry—Part 1: Low-
Wexit ¼ width of hole exit (m) Speed Flat-Plate Heat Transfer and Loss,” ASME J. Turbomach., 124(3),
pp. 453–460.
x, y, z ¼ streamwise, lateral, vertical distance (m) [25] Bruce-Black, J. E., Davidson, F. T., and Johns, D. R., 2011, “Practical Slot Con-
X, Y, Z ¼ Cartesian coordinates figurations for Turbine Film Cooling Applications,” ASME J. Turbomach.,
a¼ hole incline angle (deg) 133(3), p. 031020.
c¼ lateral diffusion angle of hole (deg) [26] Shalash, K. M., El-Gabry, L. A., and El-Azm, M. M. A., 2014, “Investigations
of a Novel Discrete Slot Film Cooling Scheme,” ASME Paper No. GT2014-
d2 ¼ momentum thickness (m) 26019.
g¼ adiabatic effectiveness ¼ (Tm  Taw)/(Tm  Tc) [27] Bunker, R. S., 2011, “A Study of Mesh-Fed Slot Film Cooling,” ASME J. Tur-
gS ¼ spatially averaged effectiveness bomach., 131(1), p. 011022.
gLat ¼ lateral-averaged effectiveness [28] An, B. T., Liu, J. J., Zhou, S. J., Zhang, X. D., and Zhang, C., 2016, “Film Cool-
ing Investigation of a Slot-Based Diffusion Hole,” ASME Paper No. GT2016-
k¼ thermal conductivity (W/m K) 56175.
q¼ density (kg/m3) [29] Aghasi, P., Gutmark, E., and Munday, D., 2016, “Dependence of Film Cooling
qc ¼ coolant density (kg/m3) Effectiveness on 3D Printed Cooling Holes,” ASME Paper No. GT2016-56698.
qm ¼ mainstream density (kg/m3) [30] Zhang, L. J., and Jaiswal, R. S., 2001, “Turbine Nozzle Endwall Film Cooling
Study Using Pressure-Sensitive Paint,” ASME J. Turbomach., 123(4),
pp. 730–738.
[31] Wright, L. M., McClain, S. T., and Clemenson, M. D., 2011, “Effect of Density
References Ratio on Flat Plate Film Cooling With Shaped Holes Using PSP,” ASME J.
Turbomach., 133(4), p. 041011.
[1] Bunker, R. S., 2005, “A Review of Shaped Hole Turbine Film Cooling Tech-
[32] Caciolli, G., Facchini, B., Picchi, A., and Tarchi, L., 2013, “Comparison
nology,” ASME J. Heat Transfer, 127(4), pp. 441–453.
Between PSP and TLC Steady State Techniques for Adiabatic Effectiveness
[2] Goldstein, R. J., Eckert, E. R. G., and Burggraf, F., 1974, “Effects of Hole
Measurement on a Multiperforated Plate,” Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci., 48,
Geometry and Density on Three-Dimensional Film Cooling,” Int. J. Heat Mass
pp. 122–133.
Transfer, 17(5), pp. 595–607.
[33] Johnson, B., Tian, W., Zhang, K., and Hu, H., 2014, “An Experimental Study
[3] Gritsch, M., Schulz, A., and Wittig, S., 1998, “Adiabatic Wall Effectiveness
of Density Ratio Effects on the Film Cooling Injection From Discrete Holes by
Measurements of Film-Cooling Holes With Expanded Exits,” ASME J. Tur-
Using Ply and PSP Techniques,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 76, pp. 337–349.
bomach., 120(3), pp. 549–556.
[34] Rezasoltani, M., Lu, K., Schobeiri, M. T., and Han, J. C., 2015, “A Combined
[4] Thole, K., Gritsch, M., Schulz, A., and Wittig, S., 1998, “Flowfield Measure-
Experimental and Numerical Study of the Turbine Blade Tip Film Cooling
ments for Film-Cooling Holes With Expanded Exits,” ASME J. Turbomach.,
Effectiveness Under Rotation Condition,” ASME J. Turbomach., 137(5),
120(2), pp. 327–336.
p. 051009.
[5] Baheri, S., Tabrizi, S. P. A., and Jubran, B. A., 2008, “Film Cooling Effective-
[35] Jones, T., 1999, “Theory for the Use of Foreign Gas in Simulating Film Cool-
ness From Trenched Shaped and Compound Holes,” Heat Mass Transfer, 44(8),
ing,” Int. J. Heat Fluid, 20(1), pp. 349–354.
pp. 989–998.
[36] Woodmansee, M. A., and Dutton, J. C., 1998, “Treating Temperature-
[6] Lu, Y. P., Dhungel, A., Ekkad, S. V., and Bunker, R. S., 2009, “Film Cooling
Sensitivity Effects of Pressure-Sensitive Paint Measurements,” Exp. Fluids,
Measurements for Cratered Cylindrical Inclined Holes,” ASME J. Turbomach.,
24(2), pp. 163–174.
131(1), p. 011005.
[37] Gao, Z., Narzary, D., and Han, J. C., 2009, “Turbine Blade Platform Film Cool-
[7] Rigby, L. D., and Heidmann, J. D., 2008, “Improved Film Cooling Effective-
ing With Typical Stator-Rotor Purge Flow and Discrete-Hole Film Cooling,”
ness by Placing a Vortex Generator Downstream of Each Hole,” ASME Paper
ASME J. Turbomach., 131(4), p. 041004.
No. GT2008-51361.

081010-14 / Vol. 139, AUGUST 2017 Transactions of the ASME

Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab

 [38] Coleman, H. W., and Steele, W. G., 1989, Experimentation and Uncertainty
Analysis for Engineers, Wiley, New York, Chaps. 3 and 4.
[39] Natsui, G., Little, Z., Kapat, J. S., Dees, J. E., and Laskowski, G., 2016, “A
Detailed Uncertainty Analysis of Adiabatic Film Cooling Effectiveness Meas-
urements Using Pressure-Sensitive Paint,” ASME J. Turbomach., 138(8),
p. 081007.
[40] Petersen, D. R., Eckert, E. R. G., and Goldstein, R. J., 1977, “Filming Cooling
With Large Density Differences Between the Mainstream and Secondary Fluid
Journal of Turbomachinery
Downloaded From: http://turbomachinery.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/jotuei/936123/ on 04/27/2017 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/ab
Measured by Heat-Mass Transfer Analogy,” ASME J. Heat Transfer, 99(4),
pp. 620–627.
[41] Saumweber, C., and Schulz, A., 2012, “Effect of Geometry Variations on the
Cooling Performance of Fan-Shaped Cooling Holes,” ASME J. Turbomach.,
134(6), p. 061008.
[42] Lutum, E., and Johnson, B. V., 1999, “Influence of the Hole Length-to-
Diameter Ratio on Film Cooling With Cylindrical Holes,” ASME J. Turbom-
ach., 121(2), pp. 209–216.
AUGUST 2017, Vol. 139 / 081010-15