CONVECTION IN SCALED TURBINE INTERNAL COOLING PASSAGES WITH ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ROUGHNESS

Additive manufacturing processes, such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), enable creation of novel turbine cooling internal passages and systems. However, the DMLS method produces a significant and unique surface roughness. Previous work in scaled passages analyzed pressure losses and friction factors associated with the rough surfaces, as well as investigated the velocity profiles and turbulent flow characteristics within the passage. In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of scaled additively manufactured surfaces were measured using infrared (IR) thermography. Roughness panels were CNC machined from plates of aluminum 6061 to create near isothermal roughness elements when heated. Fluid resistance differences between the aluminum roughness panels and roughness panels constructed from ABS plastic using the same roughness patterns from McClain et al. (2020) were investigated. Finally, the overall thermal performance enhancements and friction losses were assessed through calculation of surface averaged “global thermal performance” ratios. The global thermal performance characterizations indicate results in-line with those found for traditional commercial roughness and slightly below traditional internal passage convection enhancement methods such as swirl chambers, dimples, and ribs. The passages investigated in this study do not include compressibility effects or the long-wavelength artifacts and channel geometric deviations observed by Wildgoose et al. (2020). However, the results of this study indicate that, based on the roughness augmentation alone, artificial convective cooling enhancers such as turbulators or dimples may still be required for additively manufactured turbine component cooling.