Flow and Heat Transfer Analysis in a Single Row Narrow Impingement Channel: Comparison of PIV, LES, and RANS to Identify RANS Limitations

The present study aims to understand the flow, turbulence, and heat transfer in a single row narrow impingement channel for gas turbine heat transfer applications. Since the advent of several advanced manufacturing techniques, narrow wall cooling schemes have become more practical. In this study, the Reynolds number based on jet diameter was ≃15,000, with the jet plate having fixed jet hole diameters and hole spacing. The height of the channel is 3 times the impingement jet diameter. The channel width is 4 times the jet diameter of the impingement hole. The channel configuration was chosen such that the crossflow air is drawn out in the streamwise direction (maximum crossflow configuration). The impinging jets and the wall jets play a substantial role in removing heat in this kind of configuration. Hence, it is important to understand the evolution of flow and heat transfer in a channel of this configuration. The dynamics of flow and heat transfer in a single row narrow impingement channel are experimentally and numerically investigated. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to reveal the detailed information of flow phenomena. The detailed PIV experiment was performed on this kind of impingement channel to satisfy the need for experimental data for this kind of impingement configuration, in order to validate turbulence models. PIV measurements were taken at a plane normal to the target wall along the jet centerline. The mean velocity field and turbulent statistics generated from the mean flow field were analyzed. The experimental data from the PIV reveals that flow is highly anisotropic in a narrow impingement channel. To support experimental data, wall-modeled Large Eddy Simulation (LES), and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations (SST k-ω, v²–f, and Reynolds Stress Model (RSM)) were performed in the same channel geometry. The Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity SGS mdoel (WALE) [1] is used for the LES calculation. Mean velocities calculated from the RANS and LES were compared with the PIV data. Turbulent kinetic energy budgets were calculated from the experiment, and were compared with the LES and RSM model, highlighting the major shortcomings of RANS models to predict correct heat transfer behavior for the impingement problem. Temperature Sensitive Paint (TSP) was also used to experimentally obtain a local heat transfer distribution at the target and the side walls. An attempt was made to connect the complex aerodynamic flow behavior with results obtained from heat transfer, indicating heat transfer is a manifestation of flow phenomena. The accuracy of LES in predicting the mean flow field, turbulent statistics, and heat transfer is shown in the current work as it is validated against the experimental data through PIV and TSP.