Fluid Flow in a 180 deg Sharp Turning Duct With Different Divider Thicknesses

The effect of divider thickness on fluid flows in a two-pass smooth square duct with a 180 deg straight-corner turn is an important issue to the turbine blade internal cooling but has not been explored in the past. Laser-Doppler velocimetry measurements are thus presented for such a study at a Reynolds number of 1.2 × 10⁴ and dimensionless divider thicknesses (W_d^*) of 0.10, 0.25, 0.50. Results are presented in terms of various mean velocity components in two orthogonal streamwise planes and three cross-sectional planes, the local and regional averaged turbulent kinetic energy and resultant mean velocity distributions, and complemented by the liquid crystal measured heat transfer coefficient contours. The measured velocity data are able reasonably to explain published and present measured heat transfer results. W_d^* is found to have profound effects on the flow features inside and immediately after the turn. The turbulence level and uniformity in the region immediately after the turn respectively decrease and increase with increasing W_d^*.