Heat Transfer in a Rotating Radial Channel With Swirling Internal Flow

This paper presents experimental results for heat transfer in swirling internal flow, obtained in two ways. A test rig simulated a rotating blade’s leading edge internal passage with heated walls and screw-shaped cooling swirl generated by flow introduced through discrete tangential slots. Spatially resolved variations of the surface heat transfer coefficients were measured in the rotating rig using an IR radiometer. A blade tested in the actual engine environment had similar geometry of the leading edge cooling passage. The blade surface temperatures were mapped in the engine with thermal paints and compared with a traditional convective cooling configuration. The data from the rotating rig and engine measurements are also compared with non-rotating heat transfer results obtained in the hot cascade using a traversing pyrometer at a realistic wall-to-coolant temperature ratio. The results are presented for realistic rotational numbers, ranging from 0 to 0.023, and for representative Reynolds number of 20,000 based on the channel diameter. The effect of Coriolis forces is evident with the change of direction of the rotation. A slight negative influence of the crossflow, which increased toward the outer radius of the channel, was recorded in the rig test results. The results presented will assist in better understanding of the screw-shaped swirl cooling technique, providing the next step toward the application of this highly-effective internal cooling method for the leading edges of turbine blades.