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Virginia Tech

Large Eddy Simulation of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Staggered 45° Ribbed Duct and a Rotating 90° Ribbed Duct

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

For the past several years there has been great effort in the analysis of internal duct cooling. The steady increase in power output and thermal efficiency requirements for gas turbine engines has called for significant advancement in turbine blade internal duct cooling technology. Numerical analysis of turbulent duct flow has been largely limited to Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. This is because of the low computational requirements of such calculations relative to Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). However, the tides have started to turn in favor of LES, partly because of the exponential increase in computer hardware performance in recent years. Three conference papers make up the contents of this thesis. LES is performed for fully developed flow and heat transfer in a staggered 45º ribbed duct in the first paper. The rib pitch-toheight ratio P / e is 10 and a rib height to hydraulic diameter ratio h e / D is 0.1. The Reynolds numberbased on the bulk flow rate and hydraulic diameter is 47,300. The overall heat transfer enhancement obtained was a factor of 2.3, which matched experimental data within 2%. The surfaces of highest heat transfer enhancement were the ribbed walls and the outer wall. Results from LES of an orthogonally rotating 90º ribbed duct are presented in the second paper for rotation numbers: Ro = 0.18, 0.35 and 0.67. The Reynolds number is 20,000. The P / e and h e / D were the same as in the first paper. Turbulence and heat transfer are augmented on the trailing surface and reduced at the leading surface. Secondary flows induced by Coriolis forces, increase heat transfer augmentation on the smooth walls. Finally, the third paper studies the same flow conditions of the second paper and goes further by including effects of centrifugal buoyancy forces using LES. Two buoyancy numbers are studied: Bo = 0.12 and 0.29. Centrifugal buoyancy does not have a large effect on leading side augmentation ratios for all rotation numbers, but increases heat transfer significantly on the trailing side. In all papers, mean flow and heat transfer results compare well with experimental data.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2003

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Abdel-Wahab, Samer
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Tafti, Danesh K.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Vick, Brian L.
  • Thole, Karen A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-12032003-110323
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35919

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Abdel-Wahab, Samer. Large Eddy Simulation of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Staggered 45° Ribbed Duct and a Rotating 90° Ribbed Duct. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35919