Local Heat Transfer in Enclosed Co-rotating Disks With Axial Throughflow

Abstract

Local heat transfer in enclosed co-rotating disks with axial through flow is investigated. The rotating cavity has two plane disks and a cylindrical rim (shroud). The ratio of the rim span to the disk outer radius is 0.4 and the ratio of the disk inner radius to outer radius is 0.25. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of axial coolant flow rate, rotation speed, and disk surface temperature on the local heat transfer coefficients inside the disk cavity. Both uniform disk surface heat flux and uniform disk surface temperatures are tested for axial flow Reynolds numbers between 2500 and 25,000 rotational Reynolds numbers between 0 and 5.11 × 105, and rotational Grashof numbers between 5 × 106 and 1.3 × 1010. The results show that the local heat transfer coefficients for the nonrotating cavity increase with increasing axial flow Reynolds number. In general, the local Nusselt numbers at large radii of the disks and rim increase with increasing rotational Reynolds number. However, the local Nusselt numbers at small radii of the disks initially decrease and then increase with increasing rotational Reynolds number. The uniform heat flux condition provides slightly higher heat transfer coefficients than those for the uniform wall temperature condition.