Measurement of Heat Flux and Pressure in a Turbine Stage

Selected portions of the first-stage stationary inlet nozzle, shroud, and rotor of the AiResearch TFE 731-2 turbine were instrumented with thin-film heat-transfer gages and heat-flux measurements were performed using a shock tunnel as a source of high-temperature, high-pressure gas. Experiments were performed over a range of Reynolds numbers, based on mid-annular stator chord, from 1.6 × 10⁵ to 3.1 × 10⁵ and corrected speeds from approximately 70 to 106 percent. The full-stage heat-flux results are compared to our previous measurements obtained with a stator only, in the absence of a rotor. The previous results are in good agreement with the full-stage data for the tip end-wall region, but they are significantly less than the full-stage results for the stator airfoil. Pressure measurements were obtained throughout the model and these results are shown to be in excellent agreement with the steady-state rig data supplied to us by AiResearch for this turbine. Heat-flux measurements are also presented for the stationary shroud as a function of rotor mid-annular chord. The shroud heat flux data are shown to be in excess of the rotor blade results. Rotor-tip heat flux measurements are likewise shown to be slightly greater than the shroud results.