Numerical simulation of combustor effusion cooling flow based on source term method

A numerical method based on single-sided source term has been developed to investigate the effects of the effusion cooling air on the temperature distribution in a combustor. The principle of this method is to replace the cooling holes with uniform mass, momentum, energy and turbulence sources on the hot side of the combustor liner. A resolved model that comprises cooling holes and a simplified model based on single-sided source term method have been both numerically computed. The flow and temperature fields attained from the simplified model have been found to be in good agreement with those from the resolved model. Experimental tests of a tri-sector model combustor have been conducted, mainly focusing on its outlet temperature distribution profile. Comparison results showed that the numerical results about the trend of temperature distribution fit well with the experimental data. Furthermore, the single-sided source term method has been employed onto a simplified model combustor to investigate the design variables of the cooling hole on the temperature distribution. It has been found that as the blowing ratio increases, the wall adiabatic film cooling effectiveness would increase. But the higher blowing ratio affects the formation of corner vortex zone and primary recirculation zone, which results in a higher exit core temperature. The inclination angle of injection flow has little effect on the temperature distribution. The simulation of effusion cooling flow based on the single-sided source term method significantly reduces computational costs without compromising the accuracy. It is expected to be applied in the multi-parameter optimization of the cooling structure in a combustor liner.