Effect of Channel Orientation in a Rotating Smooth Wedge-Shaped Cooling Channel With Lateral Ejection

Abstract

The effect of channel orientation on heat transfer in a rotating wedge-shaped cooling channel is experimentally investigated in current work. In order to perform a fundamental research, all turbulators are removed away. The classical copper plate technique is employed to measure the regional averaged heater transfer coefficients. The inlet Reynolds number and rotational speed range from 5100 to 21000 and zero to 1000rpm respectively, which results in the inlet Rotation number varies from zero to 0.68. In order to study the effect of channel orientation, five different angles are selected in current study. Furthermore, details such as local bulk temperature calculation and local mass flow rate determination are discussed in current paper. Interestingly, a two-dimensional bulk temperature distribution is observed. Due to the experimental results, the most evident rotation effect on heat transfer happens in 90° configuration. Compared to the non-rotating condition, there is about 35% overall heat transfer enhancement under highest rotation number. However, the greatest leading-to-trailing heat transfer difference happens in 135° or 112.5° configuration which depends on Rotation number. The highest difference is up to 40%. Besides, at the realistic 135° channel orientation, a critical Rotation number is observed after which the decreasing trend of heat transfer is traversed. The inlet Rotation is better than local one to describe this critical point. With the inlet parameter, the critical Rotation number is about 0.3 at all the locations in this channel.