Inlet flow incidence effects on the thermal performance of showerhead cooling in a nozzle vane cascade

In the present paper, the influence of inlet flow incidence on the thermal performance of a film cooled linear nozzle vane cascade is assessed. Tests have been carried out on a cooled cascade, featuring a showerhead cooling system made of 4 rows of cylindrical holes. The cascade was tested by varying the inlet flow angle in the range ±20° at a high inlet turbulence intensity level (Tu1 = 9%) and at a constant inlet Mach number of 0.12. The thermal characterization of vane leading edge region was obtained through adiabatic film cooling effectiveness measurements. Vane load distributions supported the discussion of the results. Varying the incidence angle in either positive or negative angles, the thermal protection on the vane is reduced while the maximum protection happened at 0° incidence case.