An Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer in an Orthogonally Rotating Channel Roughened With 45 deg Criss-Cross Ribs on Two Opposite Walls

Turbine blade cooling is imperative in advanced aircraft engines. The extremely hot gases that operate within the turbine section require turbine blades to be cooled by a complex cooling circuit. This cooling arrangement increases engine efficiency and ensures blade materials a longer creep life. One principle aspect of the circuit involves serpentine internal cooling passes throughout the core of the blade. Roughening the inside surfaces of these cooling passages with turbulence promoters provides enhanced heat transfer rates from the surface. The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of rotation, aspect ratio, and turbulator roughness on heat transfer in these rib-roughened passages. The investigation was performed in an orthogonally rotating setup to simulate the actual rotation of the cooling passages. Single-pass channels, roughened on two opposite walls, with turbulators positioned at 45 deg angle to the flow, in a criss-cross arrangement, were studied throughout this experiment. The ribs were arranged such that their pitch-to-height ratio remained at a constant value of 10. An aspect ratio of unity was investigated under three different rib blockage ratios (turbulator height/channel hydraulic diameter) of 0.1333, 0.25, and 0.3333. A channel with an aspect ratio of 2 was also investigated for a blockage ratio of 0.25. Air was flown radially outward over a Reynolds number range of 15,000 to 50,000. The rotation number was varied from 0 to 0.3. Stationary and rotating cases of identical geometries were compared. Results indicated that rotational effects are more pronounced in turbulated passages of high aspect and low blockage ratios for which a steady increase in heat transfer coefficient is observed on the trailing side as rotation number increases while the heat transfer coefficient on the leading side shows a steady decrease with rotation number. However, the all-smooth-wall classical pattern of heat transfer coefficient variation on the leading and trailing sides is not followed for smaller aspect ratios and high blockage ratios when the relative artificial roughness is high.