Film cooling is a key technology for keeping parts like jet engine turbine blades safe from extremely hot gases. It works by injecting a thin film of cool air onto the blade’s surface. A common problem, however, is that this protective cool air can lift off the surface and get blown away by the fast-moving hot gas, reducing its effectiveness. To solve this, engineers use vortex generators (VGs). These are very small, smart devices placed just before the cooling holes. A Vortex Generator CFD analysis shows that these VGs create tiny, organized swirls of air. This flow control pushes the cooling film down, forcing it to stick to the blade surface much better. Using a Film Cooling Improvement By Vortex Generator CFD simulation allows engineers to perfect this method, leading to better thermal protection and higher engine efficiency. This CFD study is based on the methods in an experimental paper [1].

• Reference [1]: Zheng, Kuan, et al. “An experimental study on the improvements in the film cooling performance by an upstream micro-vortex generator.” Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science127 (2021): 110410.

Figure 1: Schematic showing the setup for the Vortex Generator CFD study, with VGs placed upstream of the cooling hole [1].

Simulation Process: CFD Setup, Meshing the Blade and Defining Flow Conditions

To simulate this advanced cooling system, we first modeled the turbine blade’s suction side, including the cooling hole and the upstream vortex generator. Using ANSYS Meshing, we created a high-quality, structured grid with 1,401,636 cells to capture the flow details accurately. In the ANSYS Fluent solver, we set up the simulation to mimic engine conditions. The main flow of hot gas was set to a temperature of 600K. The cooling system injects a stream of cool air at 300K through the hole on the blade’s surface. This setup for our Film Cooling Improvement By Vortex Generator Fluent analysis allows us to precisely measure how well the VG improves the cooling.

Post-processing: CFD Analysis, Visualizing Enhanced Thermal Protection and Flow Control

The temperature contour provides a powerful professional visual of the vortex generator’s benefit. Without the VG, the blade surface gets very hot, reaching 545K. After adding the micro-vortex generator, the professional contour shows a dramatic improvement. The blade temperature drops all the way down to 520K. This is a significant temperature reduction of 25K, proving how much better the cooling works with this simple device. This happens because the swirling air created by the VG helps the cool air spread out and form a more effective protective blanket, shielding a larger area of the blade from the hot 600K gas.

Figure 2: Temperature distribution from the Film Cooling Improvement By Vortex Generator Fluent simulation, showing a temperature drop to 520K.

The velocity contour reveals the clever physics behind this improvement. The cool air exits the hole at high speed, up to 1.7 m/s, and would normally lift off the surface. However, the VG creates a special flow structure known as a counter-rotating vortex pair. These swirls act like invisible hands, grabbing the cooling jet and actively pushing it back down toward the blade surface. This action keeps the protective cool air attached to the surface where it is needed most, preventing it from being wasted. This improved flow attachment means the cooling system is far more efficient. The most important achievement of this simulation is the successful visualization of the vortex pair’s ability to suppress coolant jet liftoff, directly validating the CFD model as a tool for designing and optimizing flow control devices to achieve superior thermal protection in modern gas turbines.

Figure 3: Velocity field from the Vortex Generator Fluent analysis, showing the flow control mechanism that improves cooling effectiveness.