Abstract

The secondary air system of modern gas turbine engines consists of numerous stationary or rotating passages to transport the cooling air, taken from the compressor, to thermally high loaded components that need cooling. Thereby the cooling air has to be metered by orifices to control the mass flow rate. Especially the discharge behavior of rotating holes may vary in a wide range depending on the actual geometry and the operating point. The exact knowledge of the discharge coefficients of these orifices is essential during the design process in order to guarantee a well adapted distribution of the cooling air inside the engine. This is crucial not only for a safe and efficient operation but also fundamental to predict the component’s life and reliability. In this paper two different methods to correlate discharge coefficients of rotating orifices are described and compared, both in the stationary and rotating frame of reference. The benefits of defining the discharge coefficient in the relative frame of reference will be pointed out. Measurements were
conducted for two different length-to-diameter ratios of the orifices with varying inlet geometries. The pressure ratio across the rotor was varied for rotational Reynolds numbers up to ReF58.63105. The results demonstrate the strong influence of rotation on the discharge coefficient. An analysis of the complete data shows significant optimizing capabilities depending on the orifice geometry.