Experimental and Computational Investigation of Ribbed Channels for Gas Turbine Thermal Management

<p>This study focuses on the computational benchmarking as well as validation against experimental results of a rib roughed surface in an internal channel of a stationary turbine blade. STAR-CCM+ was utilized to replace a model from a published article, and to analyze the CFD conjugate heat transfer by determining the turbulence model that best matched the published experimental values. Using those computational conditions and CFD results, an in house experimental rig was validated by comparing convective heat transfer coefficients and pressure profiles. This cooling method, when compared to a smooth channel, enhances turbulent mixing my separating and reattaching the boundary layer which increases the heat transfer. The overall goal is to analyze an effective cooling method, studying the flow physics and effective heat transfer rates as well as minimizing the pressure drop across the channel. V²f turbulence model resulted in matching closest to the experimental results, but doe to its unstable nature at high Reynolds number, the EBk-E model was used for preliminary testing. Results for EBk-E showed shorter reattachment lengths giving higher Nusselt number values between ribs. The heat transfer as well as friction factors match within the uncertainty of 6.8% and 6.6% respectively of the published results. Benchmarked computational results will help validate the experimental setup for further optimization and testing different configurations in rib arrangements.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Mehta, Yash T.

• ribbed channels
• gas turbines
• thermal management
• Aerospace Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.erau.edu/edt/227

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.erau.edu:edt-1226