Application of formal optimization procedures to film cooling design

Results are presented from a study conducted to explore the feasibility of applying formal optimization procedures to the design of film cooled components exposed to high temperature gases. A constrained parameter optimization approach was utilized to minimize coolant flow requirements by optimizing injection hole location in multiple injection hole arrays. This optimization approach was found to be compatible with a formulation of the problem involving solution of the cooled wall conduction problem in conjunction with calculation of film cooling effectiveness as a function of array geometry through superposition methods. The results indicate that significant reduction in coolant requirement can be achieved through the use of optimal injection array configurations, and these configurations tend to be highly irregular.