Heat transfer in cylindrical shrouded cavities

Abstract

The flow field, temperature field and the heat transfer rates in cylindrical shrouded cavities with rotation, recirculation and coolant through-flow have been analyzed numerically. Two cavity configurations are considered. In the first configuration, a heated cylindrical shroud is enclosed by a stationary insulated stator disc and a rotating insulated rotor disc. The coolant air enters the cavity by a central opening in the rotor and exits through an annular gap at the rim of the rotor. The second configuration studies the heat transfer from an air cooled gas turbine disc using the model of a plane disc rotating close to an insulated shrouded stator. The coolant enters centrally through the stator disc and exits radially through a gap between the shroud and the rotor. The flow field and heat transfer rates are computed for several values of coolant flow rate, the rotor swirl speed, the cavity aspect ratio and the exit gap width in the two cavity configurations. The swirl of the rotor changes immensely the flow pattern, recirculating zones and isotherms inside such cavities. In general, increasing coolant flow rate, decreasing swirl and decreasing aspect ratio enhances the heat transfer from the shroud in the first cavity configuration. For the second cavity configuration, the heat transfer rates increase with increasing coolant flow rate, increasing swirl of the rotor, increasing size of the cavity and decreasing exit gap width between the stator and the rotor.