Computation of Flow and Heat Transfer in Rotating Rectangular Channels (AR=4:1) With Pin-Fins by a Reynolds Stress Turbulence Model

Abstract

Computations with multi-block chimera grids were performed to study the three-dimensional turbulent flow and heat transfer in a rotating rectangular channel with staggered arrays of pin-fins. The channel aspect ratio (AR) is 4:1, the pin length to diameter ratio (H∕D) is 2.0, and the pin spacing to diameter ratio is 2.0 in both the stream-wise (S1∕D) and span-wise (S2∕D) directions. A total of six calculations have been performed with various combinations of rotation number, Reynolds number, and coolant-to-wall density ratio. The rotation number and inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio varied from 0.0 to 0.28 and from 0.122 to 0.20, respectively, while the Reynolds number varied from 10,000 to 100,000. For the rotating cases, the rectangular channel was oriented at 150deg with respect to the plane of rotation to be consistent with the configuration of the gas turbine blade. A Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method was employed in conjunction with a near-wall second-moment turbulence closure for detailed predictions of mean velocity, mean temperature, and heat transfer coefficient distributions.