Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2020), 33(4): 1119–1136

Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics

& Beihang University
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cja@buaa.edu.cn
www.sciencedirect.com

REVIEW ARTICLE

Recent advances in film cooling enhancement:

A review
Jingzhou ZHANG *, Shengchang ZHANG, Chunhua WANG, Xiaoming TAN

Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Aerospace Power System, College of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University
of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Received 15 March 2019; revised 13 May 2019; accepted 10 November 2019

Available online 19 March 2020

KEYWORDS Abstract Film cooling is an indispensable scheme in the design of highly-efficient cooling config-
Active strategy; urations to satisfy the thermal protection requirement of turbine hot section components. During
Cooling capacity; the last few decades, vast efforts have been paid on the discrete-hole film cooling enhancement.
Discrete-hole film cooling; In this paper, some of the recent literatures related to the passive strategies (such as shaped film
Film cooling enhancement; cooling holes, upstream ramps, shallow trenches, mesh-fed slots) and the active strategies (such
Jet-in-crossflow; as the use of pulsation modulating device or plasma actuator) for film cooling enhancement are sur-
Passive strategy veyed, with the aim at presenting an updated overview about the state of the art in advanced film
cooling. In addition, some challenging issues are also outlined to motivate further investigations in
such a broad topic.
Ó 2020 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction ating temperature of most substrate materials without signifi-

In a common sense, the limitations of today’s gas turbines are
tightly defined by the current cooling technologies as applied
to the hot-section components.1 As a result of pursuing high
operational efficiency and high thrust-to-weight ratio, the tur-
bine inlet temperature is continuously prompted in the
advancement of aero-engines. For the next generation of
aero-engines, the turbine inlet gas temperature is expected to
beyond 2200 K, which is extremely higher than the limit oper-
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhangjz@nuaa.edu.cn (J. ZHANG).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Committee of CJA.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
cant deterioration. Meanwhile, the coolant usage for the
cooling purpose will be more limited. Thus, in the development
of advanced aero-engines, the thermal protection of hot sec-
tion components is one of the most critical challenges, without
a shade of doubt.
Film cooling technique plays a major role in the thermal
protection of turbine hot-section components (e.g. guide vane
and blade,2–4 turbine casing,5,6 combustor liner,7–9 exhaust
nozzle,10–12 etc.). As the cooling air used for film cooling pur-
pose is extracted from the compressor stage, vast coolant con-
sumption will undoubtedly lead to engine performance
penalties. Therefore, the film cooling enhancement is a crucial
necessity for satisfying the serious thermal protection require-
ment of hot-section components with a more limited cooling
air usage. Thus, motivated by this quite challenging subject,
from both scientific viewpoint (providing a deep understanding
of the fundamental dynamic and heat transfer features) and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2019.12.023
1000-9361 Ó 2020 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1120 J. ZHANG et al.

Nomenclatures

I momentum flux ratio q1 density of the primary flow

M blowing ratio qc density of the coolant flow
T temperature u1 velocity of the primary flow
T1 primary flow temperature uc velocity of the coolant flow
Tc coolant flow temperature H dimensionless temperature

technical viewpoint (achieving a highly-efficient film cooling

scheme design in practical applications), vast efforts have been
devoted during the past decades.13–15
It is well known that the two-dimensional slot film cooling is
an ideal state of the art. Although it has been really applied in
some hot-section components of the turbine engine, such as tur-
bine endwalls and combustor liners,16,17 in many situations the
two-dimensional slot is generally restricted because it is hard to
satisfy the thermal-mechanical constraints. For this cause, the
use of discrete film holes is the primary focus in the practical
applications. With regards to the film cooling of discrete holes,
vast researches have revealed clearly that this cooling scheme
generally produce a poor film coverage over the protected sur-
face due to its native geometric feature. Therefore, vast Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of vortical structures of jet-in-
researches are motivated on the exploration of effective strate- crossflow.
gies (both in passive and in active) for discrete-hole film cooling
improvement during past decades. This challenging subject in
the film cooling enhancement remains so far, with an ultimate
goal to approach ideal film cooling.
In this paper, some of the recent literatures related to the
film cooling enhancement are summarized and reviewed, with
the aim at presenting an updated overview and illustrating fur-
ther needs of research in such a broad topic. The current sur-
vey is outlined in the following sections: (A) fundamental flow
dynamics of jet-in-crossflow; (B) passive strategies for film
cooling enhancement; (C) active strategies for film cooling
enhancement; (D) some challenges in future researches.

2. Fundamental flow dynamics of jet-in-crossflow

The art of film cooling concerns the flow dynamics of the jet-
in-crossflow. Vast investigations illustrate that the mutual
interaction between the discrete jet and the mainstream result
in complex coherent vortical structures, as displayed in
Fig. 1. They are Windward Vortices (WV) at the leading edge
of jet, Counter-rotating Vortex Pair (CVP) or kidney vortices
in the jet, Horseshoe Vortices (HV) around the jet, and Lee-
ward Vortices (LV) at the trailing edge of jet.
To present the detailed physical mechanisms involved in the
film cooling, a significant amount of researches had been car-
ried out early.18–23 In particular as demonstrated in Fig. 218 the
main flow features of a single jet in crossflow are tightly asso-
ciated with the blowing ratio (M ¼ ðqc uc Þ=ðq1 u1 Þ) or the
momentum flux ratio (I ¼ ðqc u2c Þ=ðq1 u21 Þ). At a low blowing
ratio (Fig. 2(a)) the mainstream covers the upstream part of
the hole and lifts over the jet, helpful for pushing the jet
towards the film-cooled wall. While at a high blowing ratio
(Fig. 2(b)) the jet is only weakly affected by the mainstream
and shows a strong penetration into the mainstream before it Fig. 2 Difference of jet-in-crossflow structures at low and high
is bent over. In both instances, a complicated three- blowing ratios.18
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review
dimensional separation region is identified immediately down-
stream of the jet, which promotes the core of the coolant jet far
away from the surface and entrains the mainstream into the
wake of jet. Due to the different behaviors of mutual interac-
tion between the flows, three states of the coolant jets are iden-
tified, as shown in Fig. 321 where D represents the film-hole
diameter and the dimensionless temperature is defined as
H ¼ ðT1  TÞ=ðT1  Tc Þ: namely, fully attached coolant jet
at a low blowing ratio or momentum flux ratio (Fig. 3(a)),
detached and reattached jet at a moderate blowing ratio or
momentum flux ratio (Fig. 3(b)), and fully detached jet at a
high blowing ratio or momentum flux ratio (Fig. 3(c)). Clearly,
whether or not the coolant jets are attached to the film-
protected surface strongly affects the cooling performance.
As the coolant jets begin to detach from the protected surface
the temperature of the mixed flow nearby the wall decreases
because the core of the coolant jet travels above the surface
and the hot primary flow invades beneath the coolant jet. Once
a serious coolant jet detachment occurs, the surface is rarely
protected by the film cooling layer.
Naturally, among these vortical structures, the Counter-
rotating Vortex Pair (CVP) is confirmed to be the dominant
mechanism affecting discrete-hole film cooling. As seen in
Fig. 4(a), the coolant jet is lifted to travels above the surface.
Meanwhile, hot mainstream entrainment follows the CVP to
make the temperature of the mixed flow nearby the wall
increase. According to the fundamental flow structures of the
jet-in-crossflow, the key mechanism of film cooling enhance-
ment lies in the suppression of counter rotating vortices.24–27
Of particular, if an additional anti-kidney vortex pair could
be presented, the jet lift-off due to the mutual induction would
be effectively reduced and the jet lateral coverage would be
effectively increased, as illustrated in Fig. 4(b). Following this
acceptance of the mechanism on improving film cooling effec-
tiveness, a huge amount of investigations had been directed
towards eliminating the adverse effect of the kidney vortices.
3. Passive strategies for film cooling enhancement
3.1. Shaped film cooling holes
One of the most inspiring achievements in the discrete-hole
film cooling enhancement is the use of shaped holes.28,29 Early
Fig. 3 Dimensionless temperature profiles along film-hole
centerline.21
1121
Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of kidney and anti-kidney vortices.25
in 1970s, Goldstein et al.30 first demonstrated and quantified
that fan-shaped hole produces better film cooling performance
when compared to the cylindrical hole. Further detailed flow
visualization and measurements identify that the fan-shaped
hole could lead to less penetration and wider lateral-coverage
of the coolant jet due to its diffused exit.31,32 Being a mostly
common shaped hole, the fan-shaped hole achieves much
attention during the past few decades.33–38 These investigations
provide deeper understandings on the comprehensive perfor-
mances of fan-shaped hole film cooling.
When compared to the cylindrical hole, the fan-shaped hole
involves more geometric parameters, such as forward diffusion
angle, lateral diffusion angle, orientation positions corre-
sponding to forward and lateral expansions, etc. Such a com-
plicated multi-parameter influence presents an extreme
complicity in the accurate correlations for predicting the adia-
batic film cooling effectiveness of fan-shaped hole, even on a
simply flat surface, making it still attractive to the researchers
recently.39–41 Of particular is the multi-parameter optimization
of the fan-shaped hole by using optimization schemes, which
could effectively bring out the latent potentiality of the existing
fan-shaped holes by considering the film cooling performance
and aerodynamic performance together.42–46 For instances,
Lee et al.43 performed a multi-objective optimization investiga-
tion for a specific fan-shaped hole on a flat surface, as shown in
Fig. 5(a), by taking the spatially averaged adiabatic film cool-
ing effectiveness and the aerodynamic loss as the objective
functions. Three typical varieties of the optimal solutions are
deduced, in accordance with the option of the highest
spatially-averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness (Opt-A
at M = 0.5 and Opt-D at M = 2.0), the lowest aerodynamic
loss (Opt-C at M = 0.5 and Opt-F at M = 2.0), and the com-
promise of both aspects (Opt-B at M = 0.5 and Opt-E at
M = 2.0) respectively, as shown in Fig. 5(b). Huang et al.46
performed a multi-objective optimization for the laidback
fan-shaped hole on the suction surface of a turbine vane at
M = 1.5. Two independent objective functions that are simul-
taneously optimized are selected as the spatially-averaged adi-
abatic film cooling effectiveness (gad,av) and the discharge
1122 J. ZHANG et al.

coefficient (Cd). From the optimization, the Pareto front of

optimal solutions is obtained (seen in Fig. 646), which provides
a variety of options for seeking the maximum spatially-
averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness (Opt-A), the max-
imum discharge coefficient (Opt-B), or the compromise of both
aspects (Opt-C). As displayed in Fig. 746 where s represents the
streamwise distance along curved surface, the optimal fan
shapes are very distinct under different optimal options. For
Opt-A, the optimal fan-shaped hole is of a large inclination
angle and a moderate forward expansion angle. The fan-
shaped hole in Opt-B needs a small inclination angle and a
moderate forward expansion angle. While for seeking the com-
promise of both aspects, a small inclination angle and also a
small forward expansion angle seem to be more favorable. In
general, the improvement in film cooling effectiveness and
the reduction in aerodynamic loss show a competing nature.
How to balance them is a quite essential topic worthy of fur-
ther assessment. In addition, as the optimal fan shape is tightly
associated with the blowing ratio, the multi-objective opti-
mization considering certain ranges of parameters is also very
necessary.
Fig. 7 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions.46

Recently, the newly innovative shaped film cooling holes

are continually proposed. A partial catalogue of the explo-
ration relating to the typical shaped-hole film cooling holes
is presented in Table 1.47–89 Evidently, this list is not complete,
because the shaped-hole film cooling is a board topic over the
last decade. However, such a partial catalogue does constitute
the majority of the advanced shaped holes.
Most of the novel shaped holes are evolved from the orig-
inal fan-shaped and Double-Jet Film Cooling (DJFC) con-
cepts. Naturally, the DJFC is a simple ant-vortex
configuration, by using the secondary injection jet to establish
the anti-rotating vortices with respect to the primary injection
one.90 Although the DJFC configuration is simple, the addi-
tional cylindrical holes are generally conjectured to be detri-
mental to the mechanical strength of the cooling structure.
By an appropriate merging of the two holes, a NEKOMIMI-
type hole is evolved while maintaining the geometric features
of DJFC configuration, as shown in Fig. 867. Fig. 9 shows a
comparison of the local flow fields between a NEKOMIMI-
Fig. 5 Fan-shaped hole geometric optimization.43 type hole and a fan-shaped hole, which is derived from Kus-
terer et al.69 It is confirmed that the NEKOMIMI-type hole
is more advantageous for the formation of the anti-vortex
structure. Due to the anti-vortex pair, the coolant jet shows
a distinctly less penetration in the normal direction but wider
coverage in the spanwise direction, when compared to the
fan-shaped hole. As seen in Fig. 1069, an appropriate NEKO-
MIMI design is capable of achieving more pronounced film
cooling enhancement than that of fan-shaped hole. However,
the geometry of NEKOMIMI hole is more complex when
compared to the fan-shaped hole. Evidently, its geometric opti-
mization needs further concerns.
Cratered hole is regarded as a realistic configuration
because the crater depressions could be realistically fabricated
by the thermal barrier coating. By embedding the film cooling
hole within a crater chamber, the coolant jet could spread
inside such a crater chamber in advance before it is directly
Fig. 6 Pareto front of optimal solutions.46 affected by the oncoming mainstream. It is interesting that a
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review 1123

Table 1 A brief survey of recent literatures on shaped

holes47–89.
Reference study Shaped-hole type
Sargison et al.47,48 CONSOLE
Nasir et al.49 Tabbed hole
Zhang and Hassan50 Louver-hole
Okita and Nishiura51 Arrowhead-hole
Azzi and Jubran52 CONSOLE
Li et al.53 Double-fan hole
Lu et al.54 Cratered hole
Dhungel et al.55 Sister-hole
Liu et al.56 CONSOLE
Yao et al.57,58 CONSOLE
Liu et al.59 Dumbbell, bean-hole
Dai and Lin60 Crescent hole
Liu et al.61 CONSOLE
Yao and Zhang62 CONSOLE
Yang and Zhang63 Tabbed-hole
Han et al.64 Combined-hole
Kim et al.65 Dumbbell, crescent hole
Lee and Kim66 Leaf-hole
Kusterer et al.67–69 NEKOMIMI-hole
Shan and Zhang70 Tabbed-hole
Yao et al.71,72 CONSOLE
Davidson et al.73 Cratered hole
Kalghatgi and Acharya74,75 Contoured crater
Yang et al.76 Bean, clover, wintersweet-hole
Khajehhasani and Jubran77 Sister-hole
Pu et al.78 CONSOLE
Kim JH and Kim KY79 Cratered hole
An et al.80 Y-shaped crater
Ramesh et al.81 Tripod-hole
Chi et al.82 Tripod-hole
Ramesh et al.83 Tripod-hole
Wang et al.84 CONSOLE
Fig. 9 Temperature distribution and flow vectors at sectional
Zhang et al.85 Round-to-slot hole
planes under M = 1.5.69
Huang et al.86 Round-to-slot hole
Zhu et al.87 Round-to-slot hole
Zhu et al.88 Horn-hole
Feng et al.89 Cratered hole

Fig. 10 Laterally-averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness

67 for several holes at M = 1.5.69
Fig. 8 Evolution of NEKOMIMI-type hole.

depth, as shown in Fig. 12.75 Kim JH and Kim KY79 per-

contoured crater design proposed by Kalghatgi and
Acharya74,75 is able to generate strong anti-CVP vortices, as
displayed in Fig. 11.74 Therefore, the near-hole film cooling
effectiveness could be significantly improved. However, due
to the increased turbulence levels and flow separation within
the crater chamber, additional pressure losses is also identified
to generate in the cooling jet with respect to the baseline case
of a cylindrical hole, which is tightly associated with the carter
formed a single-objective optimization investigation of the cra-
tered hole to enhance film cooling effectiveness under a low
blowing ratio of M = 0.5, considering three geometric param-
eters of the crater (major axis length, minor axis length and
depth). Interestingly, as displayed in Fig. 13.79 The optimized
crater alters the relationship of major axis and minor axis in
the reference case. Feng et al.89 also performed a single-
objective optimization on the cratered hole film cooling. Under
1124
Fig. 11 Near-hole flow structures in contoured crater case.74
Fig. 12 Contours of pressure loss coefficient.75
a low blowing ratio, the optimized crater is same as that of
Kim JH and Kim KY.79 But under a high blowing ratio, the
optimized crater remains the relationship of major axis and
minor axis in the reference case. In such a cratered-hole film
cooling scheme, the crater depth and contour need further
optimized.
Of particular, Sargison et al.47,48 presented a novel shaped
hole, namely, CONSOLE (CONverging Slot-hOLE). This
shaped hole has a conventional round inlet but a narrow exit,
mostly close to the ideal 2-D slot configuration among the cur-
rent shaped film cooling holes. As the CONSOLE remains the
geometric feature of discrete hole, it overcomes the main draw-
backs or the thermal-mechanical constraints of 2-D slot in the
real applications. Preliminary experimental studies performed
by Sargison et al.47,48 illustrate that the CONSOLE could
achieve a good lateral uniformity of adiabatic film cooling
J. ZHANG et al.
Fig. 13 Development of streamlines and vectors.79
effectiveness, approaching the 2-D slot film cooling. The fan-
shaped holes produce lower laterally-averaged heat transfer
coefficient than the CONSOLE, thus maybe provide a higher
Net-Heat-Flux-Reduction (NHFR). With respect to the fan-
shaped holes, the CONSOLE is confirmed to have some speci-
fic advantages with greater laterally-averaged film cooling
effectiveness and lower aerodynamic loss. Further investiga-
tions reveal that the CONSOLE changes the inherent
kidney-vortices structure in cylindrical film cooling.52,62,71
Due to the strongly lateral divergence of CONSOLE during
the transition from an initially round inlet to a finally slot out-
let, the coolant jet is forced to flow laterally inside the film
cooling hole, towards both lateral edges of the slot. As a con-
sequence, the lateral coverage of coolant jet on the surface is
tremendously improved. Moreover, the strong lateral flow of
the coolant jet is attributed for generating anti-CVP vortices
at both edges of slot, as displayed in Fig. 14.62 This mutual
interaction of jet-in-crossflow is completely different from that
in the conventional hole, which is of great potential for sup-
pressing the normal penetration of coolant jet into mainstream
and also preventing the lateral incursion of mainstream into
the wake of coolant jet. Yao et al.72 carried out a numerical
study on the film cooling performance of a single row CON-
SOLEs at the blade suction side in an engine-simulated envi-
ronment. Their results confirm that the CONSOLE provides
a significant enhancement of film cooling effectiveness, as dis-
played in Fig. 15.72 With regard to the aerodynamic loss, as
shown in Fig. 16,72 the enthalpy loss coefficient due to CON-
SOLE film cooling is less than the cylindrical-hole film cooling
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review
Fig. 14 Temperature and velocity distribution on a normal
plane downstream of film-hole.62
Fig. 15 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distributions.72
when the film holes are located upstream of the cascade throat.
While when the film holes are located downstream of the cas-
cade throat, the situation is the opposite. As we know, the total
aerodynamic loss involved in film cooling comes from two
aspects, loss in the internal cooling passages and loss in the
mixing process between coolant jet and primary flow.
Although the CONSOLE could minimize the mixing loss due
to a good film layer attachment on the surface, the loss in
the internal cooling passage would be more serious due to its
complicated geometry. Therefore, the CONSOLE shows its
advantage in the aerodynamic loss reduction when the active
role is dominated.
Liu et al.56,61 performed some experimental tests to study
the effect of console geometry variants on the film cooling per-
formance. Their results show that properly changing the geom-
etry parameters of the console could improve the film cooling
performance. Generally, consoles with smaller exit-entry area
ratio produce higher cooling effectiveness but smaller dis-
charge coefficients. Because of a totally converging geometric
feature, a greater pressure drop of coolant jet is paid for the
CONSOLE. More recently, Zhang et al.85 extended the con-
cept of CONSOLE to RTSH (Round-To-Slot Hole). Huang
et al.86 performed a numerical investigation to illustrate the
geometric effects of RTSH on the film cooling over a flat sur-
face, aiming at achieving the maximum adiabatic film cooling
effectiveness through a single-objective optimization. In gen-
eral, a converging round-to-slot hole is more favorable at
low blowing ratios but a diffusing round-to-slot hole seems
more favorable at high blowing ratios. Zhu et al.87 conducted
a numerical study on the geometric effects of RTSH in the
multiple-row film cooling of a turbine guide vane under
engine-representative conditions (as schematically shown in
Fig. 17), by taking five film cooling holes (Cylindrical Hole,
1125
Fig. 16 Enthalpy loss coefficients in a turbine cascade.72
CH; Fan-shaped Hole, FH; converging RTSH, RTSH-1;
equivalent-area RTSH, RTSH-2; diffusing RTSH, RTSH-3)
into consideration, given the same coolant feeding total pres-
sure (pc;in ). In their study, only the alteration of film-hole shape
at Suction Side (SS) and Pressure Side (PS) is concerned while
the showerhead film cooling holes at the Leading Edge (LE)
remain cylindrical or baseline shape. As the converging RTSH
(RTSH-1) has a smallest discharge coefficient of coolant injec-
tion, it reduces the coolant massflow rate while the diffusing
film hole (FH and RTSH-3) increases the coolant massflow
rate in comparison with the baseline case under the same
bleeding pressure of coolant flow. In the viewing of individual
single-row situation, as seen in Fig. 18(a) where s represents
the streamwise distance from the leading edge of turbine blade,
all shaped holes are demonstrated to improve the adiabatic
film cooling effectiveness immediately downstream of respec-
tive row location. However, as seen in Fig. 18(b), converging
RTSH is found to achieve weaker overall film cooling effec-
tiveness than the baseline case because it has the smallest cool-
ant usage. At the same time, the converging RTSH leads to the
smallest enthalpy loss coefficient, as seen in Fig. 18(c). With
regard to the diffusing RTSH, it indeed provides the highest
cooling effectiveness. But it also produces the largest coolant
usage and cascade enthalpy loss coefficient. Therefore, it is
suggested that the equivalent-area transition round-to-slot
hole (RTSH-2) should be the most compromised shape for bal-
ancing the active effect of RTSH on film cooling enhancement
and the adverse effect of RTSH on coolant usage and enthalpy
loss.
1126 J. ZHANG et al.

Fig. 17 Effect of film-hole shape on coolant flow usage for a

multi-row film-cooled guide vane.87
Fig. 18 Effect of film-hole shape on cooling performance of a
multiple-row film-cooled guide vane.87
3.2. Upstream ramps

It is commonly known that the approaching boundary-layer

flow across a backward-facing step will separate to form a
recirculation region immediately behind the rear face of ramp,
as shown in Fig. 19. Due to this flow pattern, the upstream
ramp is also an effective flow-control means for the jet-in-
cross-flow. As the oncoming mainstream deflects upwards by
the presence of an upstream ramp, its impact on the coolant
jet injection is weakened, which is helpful for modifying the
Fig. 19 Schematic diagram of flow field over an upstream ramp.
coolant flow inside the film cooling hole. As demonstrated in
Fig. 20,91 the jetting effect inside the film cooling hole caused
by the separation and flow turning at the inlet is alleviated.
Because of this cause, the pressure drop of coolant jet across pressure zone immediately ahead the film-hole exit, the lateral
the film cooling hole is reduced by the presence of an upstream spreading of cooling jet is thus increased. According to Na and
ramp. Besides, as the upstream ramp forms a local low static Shih,91 the laterally-averaged adiabatic film cooling effective-
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review
Fig. 20 Streamlines in film-hole centerline plane.91
ness in presence of the upstream ramp can be two or three
times higher than the baseline case.
Although the presence of upstream ramp is helpful for
reducing the flow loss inside the film cooling hole, the total
aerodynamic loss involved in film cooling is prompted as a
consequence of the flow separation of oncoming boundary
layer flow.92,93 Evidently, the ramp angle is an important fac-
tor affecting the film cooling performance. Referring Chen
et al.94 a larger ramp angle is more pronounced to the film
cooling enhancement at a high blowing ratio. In accordance
to Fig. 19, the relationship of coolant injection position with
respect to the rear edge of ramp is also an important factor.95
As demonstrated in Fig. 2195 (where du represents the distance
of backward facing step from leading edge of film cooling hole
and h represents the height of upstream step), when the
upstream step is located far ahead the film cooling hole, such
that the coolant injection is just located at the reattachment
zone of the separated shear layer, a negative impact may
occurs in the film cooling effectiveness. Generally, positioning
the ramp immediately upstream of the holes yields significant
enhancement of the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness.
More recently, the shape of upstream ramp receives much
attention. A partial catalogue of the exploration relating to
the shaped ramps is presented in Table 2.96–104 By utilizing
shaped ramps, the approaching boundary layer flow is modi-
fied, and subsequently the mutual interaction between coolant
jet and mainstream. The most inspiring advantage of the use of
shaped ramps is that a good compromise between the film
cooling effectiveness and the aerodynamic loss could be
realized.
Among various upstream ramps, of particular interest is the
novel Sand-Dune-Shaped Ramp (SDSR), which is of a favour-
able aerodynamic contour with respect to the oncoming air-
1127
Fig. 21 Schematic diagram of effect of upstream ramp position
on coolant injection.95
Table 2 A brief survey of recent literatures on shaped ramps.
Reference study Shaped-ramp type
96
Abdala and Elwekeel Curved ramp
Hammami et al.97 Pyramid ramp
Zheng et al.98 Divided ramps
Zheng et al.99 Curved and wave-shaped ramps
Zhang et al.100 Uneven-height ramp
Zhou and Hu101,102 Sand-dune-shaped ramp
Zhou et al.103 Sand-dune-shaped ramp
Zhang et al.104 Sand-dune-shaped ramp
flow. Fig. 22 shows the tested instantaneous vorticity
distributions (taken from Zhou and Hu101) and the computed
local streamlines (taken from Zhang et al.104) behind upstream
ramp. It is found that an additional pair of vortices is gener-
ated in the presence of upstream sand-dune-shaped ramp,
named as anti-Counter-Rotating-Vortex (Anti-CRV), with
respect to the conventional CRV. Evidently, this additional
pair of anti-kidney vortices is resulted from the mixed flow
shedding from the sand-dune-shaped ramp horns. As a conse-
quence, the sand-dune-shaped ramp show pronounced roles on
film cooling enhancement over the entire surface, as demon-
strated in Fig. 23.104 The upstream SDSR remains large vol-
ume of coolant concentrating in the near-field of film-hole
and enlarges the lateral coverage of coolant jet. The improve-
ment of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness with respect to the
cylindrical hole seems to be more pronounced at a larger ramp
height (Hd). However, it is conjectured that a larger ramp
height generally attributed to a higher aerodynamic loss. To
our knowledge, the researches on the effects of contoured
upstream ramp are really insufficient. Especially, most of the
previous investigations relating to the upstream ramp mainly
concern the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness. The additional
flow losses and the Net-Heat-Flux-Reduction (NHFR) are
rarely concerned. Further investigations for addressing more
comprehensive insights into the roles of shaped ramps on film
cooling performance are necessary.
1128 J. ZHANG et al.

3.3. Film cooling holes embedded in trenches

Holes-in-slot geometry is a possible solution roughly close to

2-D slot. Jia et al.105 presented a mixing-slot concept, as shown
in Fig. 24(a). This mixing slot recesses the discrete jets into a
narrow chamber, allowing them to premix inside this narrow
chamber and then merging together to form a slot-like jet at
the exit. By replacing the mixing slot with an overlying trans-
verse trench, as shown in Fig. 24(b)106 trenched film cooling
configuration is achieved. As the transverse shallow trench
could be realistically fabricated by the thermal barrier coating,
therefore, this kind slot-like film cooling configuration is
regarded to be more practical in the engineering applications,
for breaking the limits of diffusion shaped holes.106–108
Straight transverse trench is a common configuration. The
trench width and depth are the two main geometric parameters
tightly associated with the straight transverse trench. Inside the
trenched cavity, lateral flow of the coolant jet is induced due to
the front blockage. Therefore, the coolant distribution along
the spanwise direction could be modified. Earlier investiga-
tions indicates that a narrow and shallow trench performed
better than deeper and wider trenches.109–113 Recently, Ogun-
tade et al.114 conducted a numerical investigation on the
improved-trench film cooling by shaping the trench outlets.
Two modified outlet shapes, namely beveled and filleted trench
outlet shapes, are suggested to be more pronounced to remain
the cooling air attachment to the downstream wall surface, due
to the more effective suppression of vertical jet momentum and
the Coanda effect. Kross and Pfitzner115 proposed a novel
trench configuration by placing tetrahedral elements upstream
Fig. 22 Near-hole flow fields for sand-dune-shaped ramp. of the trench. It is illustrated that upstream tetrahedral ele-
ments modify the approaching flow filed near the trench, lead-
ing to a less mixing but a stronger lateral spreading of the
coolant jet within the trench. When compared to the original
trench configuration, the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness
is effectively enhanced. Of particular interest is the novel con-
toured trench, such as the swept-shaped trench116 and the
wave-shaped trench.117–119 As shown in Fig. 25,114 the swept
shape of the trench yields an obvious film cooling improve-

Fig. 23 Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness at M = 1.0104 Fig. 24 Schematic diagram of holes-in-slot geometry.
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review
Fig. 25 Local adiabatic film cooling effectiveness.114
ment with respect to the conventional straight trench. Due to
the angled trench layout, the coolant could be directed to flow
into this region between adjacent holes, the vortices structures
are different from those observed in the straight trench case, as
illustrated in Fig. 26.118 For the conventional trench, the
kidney-vortex pair is still dominant in the downstream flow
field. While for the contoured trench, the anti-counter-
rotating vortices could be formed. Therefore, the contoured
trench behaves more pronouncedly on enhancing the adiabatic
film cooling effectiveness.
3.4. Mesh-fed slot
Davidson120 and Bruce-Black121 et al. proposed an improved
slot-like film cooling configuration by the incorporation of
internal impinging jets to the angled slot. The coolant jets
are fed through discrete impinging holes and then merged
together inside the angled slot. In comparison with the
trenched-slot geometry, this slot-based interior-feeding cooling
scheme ensures a longer mixing slot before the coolant jet is
ejected into the mainstream and integrates the role of internal
jet impingement. Lee and Bunker122 proposed a novel integrat-
ing film cooling configuration, namely the mesh-fed slot. As
shown in Fig. 27,122 the mesh-fed slot uses in-wall mesh net-
work to fit into a 2-D narrow channel. At least two advantages
are involved in this particular film cooling configuration, in the
view of cooling performance. Firstly, the internal convective
cooling could be enhanced inside the film cooling hole, caused
1129
Fig. 26 Temperature and velocity distributions.118
Fig. 27 Mesh-fed film cooled turbine airfoils.122
by a fairly dense array of pedestals. Secondly, the mesh-fed slot
is mostly close to a 2-D slot, thus nearly perfect film cooling is
achieved. Referring Bunker,123 although it is still unable to
proving the idealistic cooling level like a 2-D slot, the mesh-
fed slot does realize a more significant benefit when compared
to the other shaped holes. Besides, as the compact in-wall mesh
network helps the structural-integrity, the application of mesh-
fed slot film cooling is feasible.
Actually, the in-wall mesh network is the key in such a film
cooling configuration. Firstly, it affects the flow and convective
cooling inside the coolant-fed channel and consequently the
overall cooling effectiveness. Secondly, it also affects the cool-
ant distribution uniformity at the slot exit and consequently
the mutual interaction between coolant jet and mainstream.
Recently, Wei et al.124 experimentally investigated the influ-
ence of in-wall pin-fin arrangement on the mesh-fed slot film
1130
Fig. 28 Temperature and velocity vector for mesh-fed slot
cooling at M = 2.0125
cooling. The in-line pin-fin arrangement is found to form more
uniform film cooling adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distri-
bution than the staggered pin-fin arrangement. Tan et al.125
paid their concerns on the effects of in-wall pin-fin shapes.
Their results illustrate that in the mesh-fed slot film cooling
the kidney vortices also appear, as displayed in Fig. 28125
(where sw represents the slot width and zn represents the span-
wise pitch of pin-fin array), although the jet-off is effectively
suppressed. It is also noted that a pair of anti-kidney vortices
is generated in the mesh-fed slot film cooling, providing a
favorable coolant coverage on the surface. The formation of
kidney vortices is attributed to the ‘‘jetting” effect of coolant
jet injection near the mesh-fed slot exit. In comparison with
idealistic 2-D slot, the in-wall mesh destroys uniformity of
the coolant distribution at the slot exit evidently. By using
an elliptical or drop-like pin-fin shape, the ‘‘jetting” effect of
coolant flow is alleviated a little, which is helpful for improving
the film cooling effectiveness downstream the mesh-fed slot
outlet,125 as seen in Fig. 29.
J. ZHANG et al.
Fig. 29 Tested adiabatic film cooling effectiveness distribution
for mesh-fed slot configurations at M = 1.0.125
4. Active strategies for film cooling enhancement
4.1. Pulsed film cooling
Active film cooling enhancement strategies mostly comprise jet
pulsation. As the coolant flow conditions have a strong influ-
ence on mutual interaction between coolant jet and main-
stream, consequently, the fluidic actuation applied to the
coolant injection is feasible for the active control of jet-in-
crossflow.126–128 Due to its highly-unsteady feature, the pulsed
film cooling is very complex, affected by many operational pul-
sation parameters (e.g. frequency (f) or Strouhal number (Sr),
amplitude (AN), Duty Cycle (DC), etc.). Furthermore, the
effects of pulsation parameters are tightly coupled with the
other factors (such as blowing ratio, momentum flux ratio, tur-
bulence, injection scheme, etc.), making the multi-parameters
influencing roles extremely complicated. For instances, the
coolant pulsation is found helpful to improve film cooling
effectiveness in the cases where obvious jet-detachment occurs
(e.g., at high blowing ratios). While in the cases where the cool-
ant jet fully attaches the surface (e.g., at low blowing ratios),
the pulsation decreases the film cooling effectiveness.129–134
In general, pulsation at high frequency helps to improve film
cooling effectiveness in some but pulsation at low frequency
has the opposite effect. Because the pulsation causes periodic
oscillation in the boundary layer flow, the convective heat
transfer is enhanced with the increase of frequency and duty
cycle, which is generally detrimental to the Net-Heat-Flux-
Reduction (NHFR) with some exception. For instance, Rut-
ledge et al.135 evaluated experimentally the influence of pulsa-
tion on the NHFR of film cooling, over a semi-cylindrical
convex surface. Their results show that the pulsed film cooling
yields worse NHFR than the steady film cooling at moderate
blowing ratios. However, at high average blowing ratios
Recent advances in film cooling enhancement: A review 1131

beyond the optimum blowing ratio in the steady film cooling,

the pulsed film cooling is found more favorable on reducing
the net heat flux. Ke and Wang136,137 numerically investigated
the pulsed film cooling on a turbine guide vane. It is concluded
that the pulsation shows distinct roles at different regions, such
as the leading edge, the pressure surface and the suction sur-
face. At the suction side, the time-averaged adiabatic film cool-
ing effectiveness is found to be increased with the increase of
blowing ratio or Strouhal number. But the convective heat Fig. 31 Active flow control by plasma actuator.140
transfer is also increased. As a consequence, the pulsed film
cooling is suggested not suitable for application at the suction
surface at higher blowing ratios. At the pressure surface, the
pulsed film cooling leads to a less heat transfer when compared
to the steady film cooling. It is suggested more suitable to be
used on the pressure surface.
Babaee et al.138 presented an optimization strategy in the
pulsed film cooling. By constructing a response surface of
the spatially-averaged film cooling effectiveness as a function
of the main operational pulsation parameters, such as Duty
Cycle (DC) and pulsation frequency or pulsation period
(Tp), as demonstrated in Fig. 30,138 both the global optimum
point (such as P1) and local optimum points (P2–P5) are
accordingly obtained.

4.2. Use of plasma actuators

The beneficial effects of the synthetic jet actuators have been

well demonstrated in active flow control. Wang and Roy139–
142
performed a series of numerical investigations to evaluate
the use of plasma actuator on film cooling, as schematically
shown in Fig. 31.140 The dominant structures of the coolant Fig. 32 Effect of SDBD on cylindrical-hole film cooling.143
could be effectively controlled to attach the film-protected sur-
face. As a consequence, the film cooling effectiveness is signif-
icantly improved.
The use of Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge actuators
(SDBD) on enhancing the film cooling effectiveness was exam-
ined numerically by Dai143 and Xiao144 et al., and experimen-
tally by Audier et al.145,146 Upon the impact of the body force
excited by the SDBD plasma actuator, induced flows are

Fig. 33 Distribution of mean velocity magnitude in central

plane.146

generated due to the electro-dynamic mechanism. These

induced flows help the formation of anti-kidney vortices, as
demonstrated in Fig. 32143, and also the attachment of coolant
Fig. 30 Contours of averaged film cooling effectiveness vs duty jet on the surface, as demonstrated in Fig. 33146 (where u and uj
cycle and pulsation period.138 represent the velocity and the jet injection velocity
1132
respectively). Subsequently, the film cooling effectiveness is
improved. Meanwhile, the use of SDBD plasma actuator
shows little influence on the convective heat transfer in the film
cooling.145,146 Of course, as the use of SDBD plasma actuators
increases the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness significantly
but has nearly on influence on the convective heat transfer, it
is surely positive for the reduction of net heat flux.
5. Some challenges in future researches
The present survey attempts to identify recent advances on the
film cooling enhancement. To authors’ opinion, the key mech-
anism of film cooling enhancement is quite well understood.
However, several issues remain deeply investigated.
Firstly, the mutual interaction between the discrete jet and
the mainstream is extremely complicated due to the native
coherent of jet-in-crossflow. Commonly, the roles of the above
film cooling enhancement strategies are tightly affected by the
effects of internal coolant crossflow, streamwise pressure gra-
dient, free-stream turbulence, surface curvature, multi-row
superposition, etc. Of particular, in a highly loaded transonic
turbine cascade, the combined curvature and pressure gradient
effects, together with the other complex flow structures (such
as passage vortex, shock, wake, etc.), make this subject extre-
mely challenging. Therefore, for the advanced film cooling
enhancement schemes, further understanding is needed about
the jet-in-crossflow dynamics and film cooling characteristics
in the really practical situations.
Secondly, most of currently advanced film cooling enhance-
ment schemes is evaluated mainly in the view of film cooling
effectiveness. The heat transfer coefficient, overall cooling
effectiveness, and additional flow loss are rarely concerned.
In the real applications, the Net-Heat-Flux-Reduction
(NHFR) is an important factor. In addition, the use of these
advanced film cooling enhancement schemes will alter the
thermo-mechanical performance. Therefore, conjugated heat
transfer analysis as well as the thermal-mechanical coupling
analysis under representative engine-simulated conditions is
necessary to provide more comprehensive insights into the
advanced film cooling enhancement schemes.
Thirdly, the improvement in film cooling effectiveness and
the reduction in aerodynamic loss generally show a competing
nature. The shaped holes indeed play significantly active roles
on film cooling enhancement. However, whether they are of
advantages over cylindrical holes on the aerodynamic loss
reduction is not convinced. With respect to each advanced film
cooling enhancement scheme, multi-objective optimization is
an effective means to bring out its latent film-cooling enhance-
ment potentiality with a compromise of aerodynamic loss.
Furthermore, the integrated film cooling scheme, such as the
integration of shaped hole and upstream ramp, shaped hole
and shallow trench, the upstream ramp and shallow trench,
need extensively explored to present possible cooling configu-
ration, approaching to the ideal cooling capacity.
Another issue needed concerns in the advanced film cooling
enhancement is the concept of moving from macro to micro
cooling.147 Two main goals by using micro cooling concept
are outlined as the follows: providing better cooling uniformity
and lesser thermal gradients, as well as bring the cooling air
closer to the outer film-protected surface. Possible applications
of micro film cooling are the laminated cooling and the
J. ZHANG et al.
‘‘transpiration-like” cooling. Evidently, for the micro film
cooling, the most serious challenge is the hole plugging prob-
lem, resulted from fine-particles deposition, thermal barrier
coating spallation and imperfect manufacturing.148–150 The
acceptable size in the micro cooling design needs deeply
assessed.
6. Conclusions
Film cooling enhancement is a crucial necessity in the advance-
ment of aero-engines, to satisfy the serious thermal protection
requirement of hot-section components with a more limited
cooling air usage. Motivated by this quite challenging require-
ment, vast efforts have been paid on the exploration of film
cooling enhancement strategies, either in passive or in active.
Although these innovative means maybe have some drawbacks
involved in the real applications (due to the fabrication, addi-
tional aerodynamic losses, integrity strength, etc.), they do
provide possible technological routines for overcoming the
critical challenge faced in the thermal protection of hot section
components.
Evidently, the feasibility of the use of the above advanced
film cooling enhancement schemes in the real applications
needs further assessed. It is noted that the usage of the above
advanced film cooling enhancement schemes faces to some spe-
cial challenges, such as the fabrication and the feasibility, espe-
cially for the active strategies. Nevertheless some of the above
advanced film cooling enhancement schemes will become
viable as manufacturing methods progress further, which is
certainly helpful for breaking the limits of current cooling
technologies.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for
this project from the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Nos. U1508212 and 51706097) and National Science
and Technology Major Project, China (No. 2017-III-0011-
0037).
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