Aerothermal Investigation of a Two-Pass Rotating Cooling Channel by Means of Particle Image Velocimetry and Liquid Crystal Thermography

Abstract

Heat transfer and aerodynamic measurements are conducted by means of Liquid Crystal Thermography and Particle Image Velocimetry in a two-pass rotating ribbed channel. The channel presents a square cross section, a sharp U-bend connecting the inlet and outlet passes and square ribs placed on two opposite walls, normal to the mean flow. In the heat transfer experimental campaign, the Reynolds (Re) and rotation (Ro) numbers are respectively ranging between 15,000–55,000 and 0–0.26 to investigate their influence upstream and downstream of the bend region. The aerodynamic measurements are taken in the symmetry plane of the channel at Re = 15,000 and Ro = 0 and 0.26, to complement the heat transfer data in the same regions. The results show how the Coriolis forces affect the flow stability and the secondary flow pattern. In the first pass, the behavior with varying Reynolds and rotation numbers is very similar to the one observed in a similar single-pass channel in terms of flow stability, velocity distribution and heat transfer performance. The measurements indicate an increase of the turbulent kinetic energy and the heat transfer downstream of the bend due to the large separation bubble, the high streamline curvature and the Dean vortices. Both the heat transfer and velocity distributions suggest that the interaction of the Dean vortices and Coriolis-induced secondary flows downstream of the bend is also highly dependent on the rotational regime.