Effect of Variation of Pin-fin Height on Jet Impingement Heat Transfer on a Rotating Surface

Abstract

Abstract Heat transfer over rotating surfaces is of particular interest in rotating machinery such as gas turbine engines. The rotation of the gas turbine disc creates a radially outward flow on the disc surface, which may lead to ingress of hot gases into the narrow cavity between the disc and the stator. Impingement of cooling jet is an effective way of cooling the disc and countering the ingress of the hot gases. Present study focusses on investigating the effect of introducing pin-fins over the rotating disc on the heat transfer. The jet Reynolds number has been varied from 5000 to 18000, and the rotating Reynolds number has been varied from 5487 to 12803 for an aluminum disc of thickness 6.35mm and diameter 10.16 cm, over which square pins have been arranged in an inline fashion. Steady state temperature measurements have been taken using thermocouples embedded in the disc close to the target surface, and area average Nusselt number has been calculated. The effects of varying the height of the pin-fins, distance between nozzle and the disc surface and the inclination of the impinging jet with the axis of rotation have also been studied. The results have been compared with those for a smooth aluminum disc of equal dimensions and without any pin-fins. The average Nusselt number is significantly enhanced by the presence of pin fins. In the impingement dominant regime, where the effect of disc rotation is minimal for a smooth disc, the heat transfer increases with rotational speed in case of pin fins. The effect of inclination angle of the impinging jet is insignificant in the range explored in this paper (0° to 20°).