Heat transfer and pressure drop in blade cooling channels with turbulence promoters

Abstract

Repeated rib roughness elements have been used in advanced turbine cooling designs to enhance the internal heat transfer. Often the ribs are perpendicular to the main flow direction so that they have an angle-of-attack of 90 deg. The objective of the project was to investigate the effect of rib angle-of-attack on the pressure drop and the average heat transfer coefficients in a square duct with two opposite rib-roughned walls for Reynolds number varied from 8000 to 80,000. The rib height-to-equivalent diameter ratio (e/D) was kept at a constant value of 0.063, the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) was varied from 10 to 20, and the rib angle-of-attack (alpha) was varied from 90 deg to 60 deg to 45 deg to 30 deg respectively. Two types of entrance conditions were examined, namely, long duct and sudden contraction. The heat transfer coefficient distribution on the smooth side wall and the rough side wall at the entrance and the fully developed regions were measured. Thermal performance comparison indicated that the pumping power requirement for the rib with an oblique angle to the flow (alpha = 45 deg to 30 deg) was about 20 to 50 percent lower than the rib with a 90 deg angle to the flow for a given heat transfer duty