Development and application of a novel technique for direct heat flux measurements in turbomachinery flows

Abstract

The high performance and efficiency of modern gas turbines are only possible with temperatures inside the engine exceeding the allowed material temperatures in some areas by several hundred degrees. Therefore effective cooling methods are one of the key factors for the success of these engines. In order to achieve reliable predictions of the heat load of rotor or stator blades numerous research activities were performed to understand the nature of heat transfer in complex unsteady flows. Even numerical methods have made significant progress in recent years detailed experimental data are still necessary for validation and further development of the engines and the design tools. Here a new method to directly measure the heat flux $${\dot q}$$ at the material surface and accurately determine the heat transfer coefficienth is presented. The new sensor is based on the anisotropic characteristics of single crystals and allows the determination of the time varying heat flux on the surface of a model turbine airfoil. This feature is of special interest to study the influence of periodically disturbed flow conditions on the heat transfer characteristics of cooled turbine blades. The working principle of an anisotropic heat flux (AHF) sensor is briefly described together with the design of the actual sensor used in this study. Prior to the application of the sensor in a cascade test rig, comprehensive test of the sensor, the electronics and the data acquisition system were performed using a pulsed laser beam as heat source. To test the sensor under realistic conditions a large number of sensor was installed in a test blade and heat transfer measurements were performed in a cascade test rig equipped with a spoke-wheel wake generator. The results showed good agreement in the time mean results compared with standard techniques. Additionally time resolved data could be extracted from the sensor signals providing detailed information on the unsteady heat transfer characteristics and boundary layer development.