The heat transfer and flow structure behaviors in ribbed swirl tubes with a single tangential inlet jet were widely predicted to be applicable for cooling the leading edge of the gas turbine blade. This study tested two cross-sectional areas under the same length of 500 mm. The essential ratios of rib height and pitch were all set to 0.376 and 10. The ribbed angles of attack were 60° and 90°. The realizable turbulent kinetic energy – epsilon model was adopted for the computational study under the Reynolds number varying from 5000 to 30,000. The results demonstrated axial backflow in the middle of the tube and substantial axial flow in the near wall region. While the longitudinal vortex developed in the case of 60° ribs, significant vortex flow at the tube center, accelerated by the ribs and cross-sectional area, appeared in the case of 90° ribs. In all cases, there was an increase in the heat transfer rate as the Reynolds number rose, and the 90° ribs experienced a pressure penalty greater than 37.4%. In addition, the thermal performance in the Type (A) 90° rib case was approximately 21.2% higher than that of the 60° rib case.
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