Abstract
The flow and heat/mass transfer characteristics on the squealer tip surface of a high-turning turbine rotor blade have been investigated at a Reynolds number of $2.09{\times}10^5$, by employing the oil-film flow visualization and naphthalene sublimation technique. The squealer rim height-to-chord ratio and tip gap height-to-chord ratio are fixed as typical values of $h_{st}/c$ = 5.5% and h/c = 2.0%, respectively, for turbulence intensities of Tu = 0.3% and 15%. The results show that the near-wall flow phenomena within the cavity of the squealer tip are totally different from those over the plane tip. There are complicated backward flows from the suction side to the pressure side near the cavity floor, in contrast to the plane tip gap flows moving toward the suction side after flow separation/reattachment. The squealer tip provides a significant reduction in tip surface thermal load with less severe gradient compared to the plane tip. In this study, the tip surface is divided into six different regions, and transport phenomena at each region are discussed in detail. The mean thermal load averaged over the squealer cavity floor is augmented by 7.5 percents under the high inlet turbulence level.