Dr Jeremy Basley: Effusion cooling of turbine blades
Large-scale experiments that model the surface of an idealised scaled-up turbine blade are carried out in the 10x5 Wind-tunnel. In the framework of the EPSRC grant Transpiration Cooling Systems for Jet Engine Turbines and Hypersonic Flight, the project is led by Professor Jonathan Morrison. The large dimensions of the facility, combined with its well-controlled operating conditions, are necessary to study in detail the underpinning physics of a highly turbulent boundary layer injected with an effusion film. This allows us to investigate the interaction mechanisms at play between the film and the incoming flow with laser-based optical techniques.