Comparative Numerical Study of the Influence of Film Hole Location of Ribbed Cooling Channel on Internal and External Heat Transfer

The influence of film-hole position on internal and external heat transfer was investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A simplified geometry of an integrated configuration of a ribbed channel, film hole and mainstream passage is modeled to represent a turbine internal and external cooling scheme. The proposed configurations with nine different positions of film holes are parameterized to conduct a series of CFD calculations at a target blowing ratio of 0.8, 1.1 and 1.7. Since the present study is taking a comparative approach, CFX with SST models is applied as a primary tool and the results are compared with Fluent solver for selected cases (total 36 cases). Among the proposed nine positions, the film holes located in the separated flow region of a ribbed channel showed considerable enhancement in film effectiveness with minimum reduction and potential improvement in internal heat transfer. The finding offers a design opportunity to enhance internal as well as external heat transfer.

Assessment of External Heat Transfer Modeling of a Laboratory-Scale Combustor: Effects of Pressure-Housing Environment and Semi-Transparent Viewing Windows

Many laboratory-scale combustors are equipped with viewing windows to allow for characterization of the reactive flow. Additionally, pressure housing is used in this configuration to study confined pressurized flames. Since the flame characteristics are influenced by heat losses, the prediction of wall temperature fields becomes increasingly necessary to account for conjugate heat transfer (CHT) in simulations of reactive flows. For configurations similar to this one, the pressure housing makes the use of such computations difficult in the whole system. It is, therefore, more appropriate to model the external heat transfer beyond the first set of quartz windows. The present study deals with the derivation of such a model, which accounts for convective heat transfer from quartz windows external face cooling system, free convection on the quartz windows 2, quartz windows radiative properties, radiative transfer inside the pressure housing, and heat conduction through the quartz window. The presence of semi-transparent viewing windows demands additional care in describing its effects in combustor heat transfers. Because this presence is not an issue in industrial-scale combustors with opaque enclosures, it remains hitherto unaddressed in laboratory-scale combustors. After validating the model for the selected setup, the sensitivity of several modeling choices is computed. This enables a simpler expression of the external heat transfer model that can be easily implemented in coupled simulations.