Patent — available for licensing
New Concepts in Film Cooling for Turbine Blades
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
To run at maximum efficiency, turbine engines often experience temperatures of more than 2000 degrees Kelvin, and these elevated temperatures can lead to compromised integrity and failure of the blades. One method for addressing this problem is film cooling, in which cool air is bled from the compressor, ducted to one or more internal chambers of the turbine blades, and discharged through one or more cooling holes to form cooling jets. As a result of the cooling jets, convective heat transfer to the surface of the turbine blade can be reduced. Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed two new ways to improve the effectiveness of film cooling. One involves using a shaped recess to create a counter-rotating vortex pair, splitting the incoming flow to a high-energy and a low-energy stream. The other innovation employs various techniques to mitigate the aerodynamic losses that sometime accompany film cooling. These novel approaches make film cooling a much more efficient and successful means of keeping turbine blades operable.