Heat Transfer and Pressure Loss Characteristics of a Narrow Internal Cooling Passage at Low Reynolds Number

Author(s):  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Nicholas Miller ◽  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

This paper describes a detailed experimental investigation of a narrow rectangular channel based on the double-wall cooling concept that can be applicable to a gas turbine airfoil. The channel has dimensions of 63.5 mm by 12.7 mm, corresponding to an aspect ratio of 5:1. A single pin-fin element, arranged in 9 rows is fitted into the channel. The pin diameter, D, is 12.7 mm, and the ratio of pin-height-to-diameter, H/D is 1. The pins are arranged based on the typical inter-pin spacing of 2.5D in both spanwise and streamwise directions. The Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter of the pin fin and the mean bulk velocity, ranges from 6,000 to 15,000. The experiments employ a hybrid technique based on transient liquid crystal imaging to obtain the distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient over all of the participating surfaces, including the endwalls and all the pin elements. Commercially available CFD software, ANSYS CFX, is used to qualitatively correlate the experimental results and to provide detailed insights of the flow field created by the array.The heat transfer on both the endwall and pin-fin surfaces revealed similar pattern compared to the typical circular pin-fin array, which were conducted at higher Reynolds number. The total heat transfer enhancement of current pin-fin array is approximately five times higher than that of fully developed smooth channel with low pressure loss, which resulted in much higher thermal performance compared to other pin-fin array as reported in the literature.

Author(s):  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Austen D. Fradeneck ◽  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

This paper describes a detailed experimental investigation of a narrow rectangular channel based on the double-wall cooling concept that can be applicable to a gas turbine airfoil. The channel has dimensions of 63.5 mm by 12.7 mm, corresponding to an aspect ratio of 5:1. The pin diameter, D, is 12.7 mm, and the ratio of pin-height-to-diameter, H/D is 1. The inter-pin spacing is varies in both spanwise and streamwise directions to form two inline, and two staggered pin-fin configurations. The Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter of the pin fin and the mean bulk velocity, ranges from 6,000 to 15,000. The experiments employ a hybrid technique based on transient liquid crystal imaging to obtain the distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient over all of the participating surfaces, including the endwalls and all the pin elements. The heat transfer on both the endwall and pin-fin surfaces revealed similar pattern compared to the typical circular pin-fin array, which were conducted at higher Reynolds number. The total heat transfer enhancement of current pin-fin array is approximately four times higher than that of fully developed smooth channel with low pressure loss, which resulted in much higher thermal performance compared to other pin-fin array as reported in the literature.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Tom I.-P. Shih ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

Heat transfer and pressure characteristics in a rectangular channel with pin-fin arrays of partial detachment from one of the endwalls have been experimentally studied. The overall channel geometry (W = 76.2 mm, E = 25.4 mm) simulates an internal cooling passage of wide aspect ratio (3:1) in a gas turbine airfoil. With a given pin diameter, D = 6.35 mm = ¼E, three different pin-fin height-to-diameter ratios, H/D = 4, 3, and 2, were examined. Each of these three cases corresponds to a specific pin array geometry of detachment spacing (C) between the pin tip and one of the endwalls, i.e., C/D = 0, 1, 2, respectively. The Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter of the unobstructed cross-section and the mean bulk velocity, ranges from 10,000 to 25,000. The experiment employs a hybrid technique based on transient liquid crystal imaging to obtain the distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient over all of the participating surfaces, including the endwalls and all the pin elements. Experimental results reveal that the presence of a detached space between the pin tip and the endwall has a significant effect on the convective heat transfer and pressure loss in the channel. The presence of pin-to-endwall spacing promotes wall-flow interaction, generates additional separated shear layers, and augments turbulent transport. In general, an increase in detached spacing, or C/D, leads to lower heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop. However, C/D = 1, i.e., H/D = 3, of a staggered array configuration exhibits the highest heat transfer enhancement, followed by the cases of C/D = 0 and C/D = 2, i.e., H/D = 4 or 2, respectively.


Author(s):  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Tom I.-P. Shih ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

Heat transfer and pressure characteristics in a rectangular channel with pin-fin arrays of partial detachment from one of the endwalls have been experimentally studied. The overall channel geometry (W = 101.6 mm, E = 25.4 mm) simulates an internal cooling passage of wide aspect ratio (4:1) in a gas turbine airfoil. With a given pin diameter, D = 6.35 mm = 1/4 E, three different pin-fin height-to-diameter ratios, H/D = 4, 3, and 2, were examined. Each of these three cases corresponds to a specific pin array geometry of detachment spacing (C) between the pin-tip and one of the endwalls, i.e. C/D = 0, 1, 2, respectively. The Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter of the un-obstructed cross-section and the mean bulk velocity, ranges from 10,000 to 25,000. The experiment employs a hybrid technique based on transient liquid crystal imaging to obtain distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient over all of the participating surfaces, including the endwalls and all the pin elements. Experimental results reveal that the presence of a detached space between the pin-tip and the endwall have a significant effect on the convective heat transfer and pressure loss in the channel. The presence of pin-to-endwall spacing promotes wall-flow interaction, generates additional separated shear layers, and augments turbulent transport. In general, an increase in detached spacing, or C/D leads to lower heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop. However, C/D = 1, i.e. H/D = 3, of a staggered array configuration exhibits the highest heat transfer enhancement, followed by the cases of C/D = 0 and C/D = 2, i.e. H/D = 4 or 2, respectively.


Author(s):  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Sean C. Siw ◽  
Hee Koo Moon

A pin-fin array is a compact heat exchanger and widely used for cooling of turbine airfoils. This study is to experimentally examine the effects of pin height or height-to-diameter ratio (H/D) on the heat transfer from a pin-fin array. The test models are designed to facilitate three different H/D ratios, from 2 to 4, with a staggered pin-fin array of inter-pin spacing 2.5 times the pin diameter (S/D = X/D = 2.5) in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The Reynolds number ranges from 10,000 to 30,000. The experiment uses a hybrid technique based on the transient liquid-crystal imaging to obtain detailed local heat transfer coefficients over both the pin-fin surface and endwalls. Overall array-averaged heat transfer increases with the H/D value or pin height. Most of the heat transfer contribution for H/D>2 comes from the pins rather than the endwall. However, higher H/D leads to a greater pressure loss. As a measure of heat transfer enhancement per pressure loss, H/D = 2 leads to the highest performance index and H/D = 4 is the lowest.


Author(s):  
Sin Chien Siw ◽  
Minking K. Chyu ◽  
Mary Anne Alvin

A systematic experimental study has been conducted to explore the heat transfer behavior of triangular and semicircular shaped pin-fin arrays as compared to the circular shaped pin-fin array, that serve as a baseline case. The main advantage of using triangular and semi-circular shaped pin-fin arrays will results in reduced component weight and potentially increases in heat transfer performance. Three staggered arrays with different inter-pin spacing in both transverse and longitudinal are explored in order to determine the optimal configuration for these three dimensional element. Both semi-circular and circular shaped pin-fin arrays are based on typical inter-pin spacing of 2.5 times the pin diameter. The channel geometry (width, W = 76.2mm, height, E = 25.4mm) simulates an internal cooling passage of wide aspect ratio (3:1) in a gas turbine airfoil. All pin-fin elements are fully bridged from one endwall to the opposite endwall. The Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter of the unobstructed cross-section and the mean bulk velocity, ranges from 10,000 to 25,000. The heat transfer measurement employs a hybrid liquid crystal imaging technique, which combined one-dimensional, transient conduction model and lumped heat-capacitance model. Triangular pin-fin arrays produce the highest heat transfer enhancement, while the semi-circular pin-fin array yields the lowest heat transfer enhancement. Sharp edges at each triangular pin-fin generated more wake and turbulence, resulting in more mixing, induces greater heat transfer enhancement by approximately 10%–20% as compared to the typical pin-fins of circular cross-section. More uniform heat transfer is also observed on the endwall and neighboring pin-fins in all triangular shaped pin-fin arrays. However, triangular pin-fin arrays give the highest pressure loss due to the largest induced form drag among all cases, while circular pin-fin array exhibits the lowest pressure loss.


Author(s):  
W. D. Allan ◽  
S. A. Andrews ◽  
M. LaViolette

A six row pin-fin array was constructed with a spanwise spacing of 2.5 diameters, streamwise spacing of 1.5 diameters and a height to diameter ratio of 1. The streamwise stagger of alternate rows was continuously varied from fully in-line to fully staggered. Tests were carried out at Reynolds numbers of 2.7 × 104 and 2.3 × 104, corresponding to maximum velocities, in the low subsonic range, of 21 m/s and 18 m/s respectively. These results showed that the array averaged heat transfer was greatest from a fully staggered array and had a minimum at a stagger slightly greater than fully in-line. However, with increasing stagger, the array-averaged friction factor grew at a greater rate than the heat transfer. The ensuing analysis of the total array performance, considering both the magnitude of heat transfer and the losses within the array, showed that the fully in-line array had the highest ratio of heat transfer enhancement to friction factor enhancement. Therefore, if pressure loss was a design criterion, the fully in-line array was preferable. However, if pressure loss was not a constraint, then the staggered array was preferable.


Author(s):  
Sam Ghazi-Hesami ◽  
Dylan Wise ◽  
Keith Taylor ◽  
Peter Ireland ◽  
Étienne Robert

Abstract Turbulators are a promising avenue to enhance heat transfer in a wide variety of applications. An experimental and numerical investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop of a broken V (chevron) turbulator is presented at Reynolds numbers ranging from approximately 300,000 to 900,000 in a rectangular channel with an aspect ratio (width/height) of 1.29. The rib height is 3% of the channel hydraulic diameter while the rib spacing to rib height ratio is fixed at 10. Heat transfer measurements are performed on the flat surface between ribs using transient liquid crystal thermography. The experimental results reveal a significant increase of the heat transfer and friction factor of the ribbed surface compared to a smooth channel. Both parameters increase with Reynolds number, with a heat transfer enhancement ratio of up to 2.15 (relative to a smooth channel) and a friction factor ratio of up to 6.32 over the investigated Reynolds number range. Complementary CFD RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) simulations are performed with the κ-ω SST turbulence model in ANSYS Fluent® 17.1, and the numerical estimates are compared against the experimental data. The results reveal that the discrepancy between the experimentally measured area averaged Nusselt number and the numerical estimates increases from approximately 3% to 13% with increasing Reynolds number from 339,000 to 917,000. The numerical estimates indicate turbulators enhance heat transfer by interrupting the boundary layer as well as increasing near surface turbulent kinetic energy and mixing.


Author(s):  
Jin Xu ◽  
Jiaxu Yao ◽  
Pengfei Su ◽  
Jiang Lei ◽  
Junmei Wu ◽  
...  

Convective heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss characteristics in a wide rectangular channel (AR = 4) with staggered pin fin arrays are investigated experimentally. Six sets of pin fins with the same nominal diameter (Dn = 8mm) are tested, including: Circular, Elliptic, Oblong, Dropform, NACA and Lancet. The relative spanwise pitch (S/Dn = 2) and streamwise pitch (X/Dn = 4.5) are kept the same for all six sets. Same nominal diameter and arrangement guarantee the same blockage area in the channel for each set. Reynolds number based on channel hydraulic diameter is from 10000 to 70000 with an increment of 10000. Using thermochromic liquid crystal (R40C20W), heat transfer coefficients on bottom surface of the channel are achieved. The obtained friction factor, Nusselt number and overall thermal performance are compared with the previously published data from other groups. The averaged Nusselt number of Circular pin fins is the largest in these six pin fins under different Re. Though Elliptic has a moderate level of Nusselt number, its pressure loss is next to the lowest. Elliptic pin fins have pretty good overall thermal performance in the tested Reynolds number range. When Re>40000, Lancet has a same level of performance as Circular, but its pressure loss is much lower than Circular. These two types are both promising alternative configuration to Circular pin fin used in gas turbine blade.


Author(s):  
Stephen A. Andrews ◽  
William D. E. Allan

An experiment was conducted on the effects of streamwise stagger on heat transfer and pressure drop in a pin-fin array. The data were analyzed so as to highlight how stagger could be used to design a pin fin array for the lowest possible pressure loss. Design of arrays for low pressure loss is important in electronics cooling applications. They require large amounts of heat to be extracted from fixed areas, using a minimum of power to do so. This analysis found that the minimum friction factor occurred at a streamwise stagger of approximately 12% of the range between fully inline and fully staggered. By fixing the pin diameter, varying the stagger resulted in a 63% reduction in friction factor with only a 18% reduction in the Nusselt number, based on the array footprint. Additionally, it was found that for a fixed Nusselt number, the pin diameter could vary within a finite range, with decreasing diameters permitting arrays with more efficient degrees of stagger which continued to carry the required heating/cooling load.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Ligrani ◽  
G. I. Mahmood

Spatially resolved Nusselt numbers, spatially averaged Nusselt numbers, and friction factors are presented for a stationary channel with an aspect ratio of 4 and angled rib turbulators inclined at 45 deg with perpendicular orientations on two opposite surfaces. Results are given at different Reynolds numbers based on channel height from 10,000 to 83,700. The ratio of rib height to hydraulic diameter is .078, the rib pitch-to-height ratio is 10, and the blockage provided by the ribs is 25% of the channel cross-sectional area. Nusselt numbers are given both with and without three-dimensional conduction considered within the acrylic test surface. In both cases, spatially resolved local Nusselt numbers are highest on tops of the rib turbulators, with lower magnitudes on flat surfaces between the ribs, where regions of flow separation and shear layer reattachment have pronounced influences on local surface heat transfer behavior. The augmented local and spatially averaged Nusselt number ratios (rib turbulator Nusselt numbers normalized by values measured in a smooth channel) vary locally on the rib tops as Reynolds number increases. Nusselt number ratios decrease on the flat regions away from the ribs, especially at locations just downstream of the ribs, as Reynolds number increases. When adjusted to account for conduction along and within the test surface, Nusselt number ratios show different quantitative variations (with location along the test surface), compared to variations when no conduction is included. Changes include: (i) decreased local Nusselt number ratios along the central part of each rib top surface as heat transfer from the sides of each rib becomes larger, and (ii) Nusselt number ratio decreases near corners, where each rib joins the flat part of the test surface, especially on the downstream side of each rib. With no conduction along and within the test surface (and variable heat flux assumed into the air stream), globally-averaged Nusselt number ratios vary from 2.92 to 1.64 as Reynolds number increases from 10,000 to 83,700. Corresponding thermal performance parameters also decrease as Reynolds number increases over this range, with values in approximate agreement with data measured by other investigators in a square channel also with 45 deg oriented ribs.


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