Jet Impingement Heat Transfer Characteristics with Variable Extended Jet Holes under Strong Crossflow Conditions

In this paper, detailed flow patterns and heat transfer characteristics of a jet impingement system with extended jet holes are experimentally and numerically studied. The jet holes in the jet plate present an inline array of 16 × 5 rows in the streamwise (i.e., the crossflow direction) and spanwise directions, where the streamwise and spanwise distances between adjacent holes, which are normalized by the jet hole diameter (xn/d and yn/d), are 8 and 5, respectively. The jets impinge onto a smooth target plate with a normalized distance (zn/d) of 3.5 apart from the jet plate. The jet holes are extended by inserting stainless tubes throughout the jet holes and the extended lengths are varied in a range of 1.0d–2.5d, depending on the jet position in the streamwise direction. The experimental data is obtained by using the transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique for wide operating jet Reynolds numbers of (1.0 × 104)–(3.0 × 104). The numerical simulations are well-validated using the experimental data and provide further insight into the flow physics within the jet impingement system. Comparisons with a traditional baseline jet impingement scheme show that the extended jet holes generate much higher local heat transfer levels and provide more uniform heat transfer distributions over the target plate, resulting in the highest improvement of approximately 36% in the Nusselt number. Although the extended jet hole configuration requires a higher pumping power to drive the flow through the impingement system, the gain of heat transfer prevails over the penalty of flow losses. At the same pumping power consumption, the extended jet hole design also has more than 10% higher heat transfer than the baseline scheme.

Properties and Colorimetric Performance of Screen-Printed Thermochromic/UV-Visible Fluorescent Hybrid Ink Systems

In the present research, properties and performance of special effect printing inks were observed with the aim of obtaining a printed product with dual functional properties. Thermochromic liquid crystal-based printing ink (TLC) and UV-visible (daylight invisible) fluorescent inks (UVF), pure and as hybrid ink systems, were printed using a screen-printing technique on two types of uncoated paper substrates. Characterization of the paper substrates was performed, as well as detailed analysis of printed layers. Thickness, surface roughness, surface free energy, and adhesion parameters of printed layers were analysed. Spectral reflectance of pure UVF and TLC printing inks, as well as the spectral reflectance of the proposed hybrid ink systems were measured. The thermochromic effect of the TLC ink and hybrid systems was analysed. Microscopy was used to display the visual colour play effect and the effect of the fluorescence. Results of the measurements showed high compatibility of used materials in the proposed hybrid ink systems. Since the effect of luminescence and the colour play effect in the hybrid systems were preserved, it can be concluded that TLC/UVF hybrid ink systems can find their application in the development of functional packaging and in all other applications with special requirements for temperature monitoring and hidden information for different products.

Biomimetic chameleon soft robot with artificial crypsis and disruptive coloration skin

Development of an artificial camouflage at a complete device level remains a vastly challenging task, especially under the aim of achieving more advanced and natural camouflage characteristics via high-resolution camouflage patterns. Our strategy is to integrate a thermochromic liquid crystal layer with the vertically stacked, patterned silver nanowire heaters in a multilayer structure to overcome the limitations of the conventional lateral pixelated scheme through the superposition of the heater-induced temperature profiles. At the same time, the weaknesses of thermochromic camouflage schemes are resolved in this study by utilizing the temperature-dependent resistance of the silver nanowire network as the process variable of the active control system. Combined with the active control system and sensing units, the complete device chameleon model successfully retrieves the local background color and matches its surface color instantaneously with natural transition characteristics to be a competent option for a next-generation artificial camouflage.

Multi-spectral imaging for Thermochromic Liquid Crystal based Particle Image Thermometry: A proof of concept

In this contribution, a novel imaging approach for Thermochromic Liquid Crystal (TLC) based Particle Image Thermometry (PIT) is demonstrated. In contrast to state of the art approaches, a multi-spectral camera was used to record the color response of the Thermochromic Liquid Crystals seeding particles. An experiment with a transparent, water-filled, cylindrical cell as the central element was set up to investigate the novel approach. The temperature in the cell can be controlled by adjusting the temperature of the bottom and top plate. Calibration images at eleven different temperatures ranging from 18 ◦C to 21.6 ◦C, as well as images of a stable thermal stratification, were recorded. 90 percent of the calibration data was used to train a neural network (NN) to predict the temperature. The remaining 10 percent of the calibration data and the data of the stable thermal stratification were used to test the NN. The tests show that the deviation between predicted and ground truth temperature is mostly below 0.1 K and that the linear profile of the stable thermal stratification can be predicted with a maximum deviation of ≈ 0.15 K. This shows that multi-spectral imaging with neural networks for data processing is feasible and a promising concept.

Identifying a Unique Communication Mechanism of Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Printing Ink

Thermochromic liquid crystal materials are commonly used in printing inks, opening up a wide range of possible applications. In order to ensure and control the most accurate application, the occurrence of the so-called colour play effect, i.e., the appearance of iridescent (rainbow) colours as a function of temperature, must be determined precisely. For this purpose, the temperature-dependent reflection of a sample must be measured using a spectrometer with an integrating sphere. The same values should be obtained for each sample containing the same thermochromic liquid crystalline material, irrespective of the spectrometer used, integrating sphere, layer thickness and the surface properties of the substrate. To describe this intrinsic property of the thermochromic liquid crystal material, the term communication mechanism might be considered. The research has shown how this mechanism is obtained experimentally.

Heat Transfer in a Rib Turbulated Pin Fin Array for Trailing Edge Cooling

Ribs were added into a pin fin array for a uniquely new cooling concept enabled through additive manufacturing. Both heat transfer mechanisms are highly non-linear; thus, cannot be superimposed. Heat transfer measurements are obtained using the thermochromic liquid crystal technique in a trapezoidal duct with pin fins and rib turbulators. Three pin blockage ratios and four rib heights at Reynolds numbers between 40,000 and 106,000 were tested. The Nusselt number augmentation is generally higher at the longer base of the trapezoidal duct. The same high heat transfer trend is seen at the columns closer to the longer base of the trapezoidal duct than on the shorter base. Through the length of the duct, the flow shifts from the nose region to the larger opening on the opposite wall. Also, it is observed that increasing the blockage ratio as well as increasing the rib height, has a positive impact on heat transfer as ribs act as additional extended surfaces and alter the near-wall flow field. The heat transfer augmentation of pins and ribs is found to not be equal to the sum of both. The observed heat transfer augmentation of the combined cases exceeded over the rib and pin only cases by up to 100%, but the weighted friction factor also doubled. The combination of ribs and pins is an excellent concept to achieve more uniform cooling over an array at higher levels when pressure drop is not of concern.

Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of the Jet Array Impingement

An experimental and numerical study is performed to investigate heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics for impingement. Experimental heat transfer is measured by the thermochromic liquid crystal. The CFD model uses a steady state RANS approach and the shear stress transport (SST). The effect of Reynolds number (5000–25000), the distance between the holes and the distance from the hole to target on the impingement is investigated in the present study. Local Nusselt number as well as area and line average values are gotten experimentally and numerically. Besides, numerical simulations provide the detailed flow characteristics of the problem and complement experimental measurements. The result shows that the heat transfer increases with Reynolds number increasing. But the qualitative distribution of local heat transfer does not change with the increase of Reynolds number, when it is sensitive to P/D and Z/D. The performance of heat transfer is best when Z/D = 2. And the high heat transfer region of Z/D = 1 is closer to the exit than that of Z/D = 2 and Z/D = 3. The main reason is the effect of cross flow and the momentum of the jet reaching the wall. The performance of heat transfer is best when P/D = 5. And the high heat transfer region of P/D = 4 is closer to the exit than that of P/D = 5 and P/D = 6. The main reason is the effect of cross flow and interactions between jets.

Investigation of Endwall Heat Transfer in Staggered Pin Fin Arrays

Arrays of staggered pin fins are a typical geometry found in the trailing edge region of modern airfoils. If coolant is supplied by bleeding from the mid-section of the airfoil instead of provided through the root, the channel length is insufficiently long to reach a fully developed flow which is commonly found from the fifth row downstream. This present study focuses on the developing section (four rows) of a staggered array with a height-to-diameter ratio of 2 and a spanwise and streamwise spacing of 2.5, respectively. Measurements are conducted at Reynolds numbers of 10,000 and 30,000 based on the maximum velocity and pin diameter. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to describe the flow field and turbulence characteristics in the wake of the first and third row pin. It is found that the dominating vortical structures depend highly on the Reynolds number. A transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique is used to obtain local heat transfer coefficients on the endwall which are then discussed in the context with the vortical structures. The structure of the horseshoe vortex and the transient wake shedding behaves differently in the first and third row. The interaction of both vortex systems affects directly the endwall heat transfer. The results are supplemented by a thorough discussion of TLC and PIV uncertainty.

Cooling Mechanisms in a Rotating Brake Disc With a Wire-Woven-Bulk Diamond Cellular Core

Thermofluidic behaviors governing the enhanced cooling performance of the wire-woven-bulk diamond (WBD) cored brake disc in comparison with the conventional pin-finned brake disc used on heavy vehicles were characterized experimentally. For each type of brake disc, detailed internal thermofluidic data of the two rotating brake discs were obtained using transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) for end-wall heat transfer and particle image velocimetry (PIV) for the inflow field. The results demonstrate that the pin-finned brake disc exhibits a circumferentially periodic curved inline-like passage flow and large dead flow regions, with strong recirculation that reduces its thermal dissipation performance. The cooling advantage of the WBD core is primarily attributed to the combination of enlarged heat transfer surface area (both end-wall and core) and greater utilization of the larger surface due to favorable fluidic behavior developed from the WBD topology. The internal WBD core has approximately three times the surface density of the pin-finned disc which, in combination with the smaller and weaker recirculation zones, leads to more effective usage of the available core surface area for thermal dissipation. The aerodynamic anisotropy of the WBD core induced by its topological anisotropy causes a globally irregular thermofluidic distribution in the brake disc.