Control of squealer-tip leakage flow with perforated-rib coolant injection in an axial turbine cascade

A novel perforated-rib configuration is proposed for controlling the tip leakage flow at the rotor tip of an axial turbine. Three perforated-rib layouts are considered, wherein a perforated rib is installed at (A) the Suction-Side squealer (SS-rib), (B) the Pressure-Side squealer (PS-rib), and (C) the additional squealer along the blade Camber Line (CL-rib). A numerical method is used to show how the novel rib layouts affect the aerodynamic performance of the tip leakage flow. Results show that the coolant jets issuing from the perforated-rib injection holes penetrate deeper into the tip clearance than those in the baseline squealer-tip case, and how the perforated-rib coolant injection affects the tip leakage flow depends strongly on the rib layout. The PS-rib and CL-rib layouts appear promising for controlling the tip leakage flow, playing a significant role in reducing the total pressure loss and improving the turbine blade’s isentropic efficiency. In particular, under an injection mass flow ratio of 1% and a tip clearance of 1% blade span, the PS-rib layout reduces the leakage mass flow rate by 27% and increases the isentropic efficiency by 1.25% compared with those in the baseline squealer-tip case. Meanwhile, the advantages of the PS-rib layout in tip leakage control are confirmed under small and large tip clearances.