Rotating Effect on Fluid Flow in a Smooth Duct With a 180-Deg Sharp Turn

Abstract

Laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurements are presented of turbulent flow in a two-pass square-sectioned duct simulating the coolant passages employed in gas turbine blades under rotating and non-rotating conditions. For all cases studied, the Reynolds number characterized by duct hydraulic diameter (Dh) and bulk mean velocity (Ub) was fixed at 1 × 104. The rotating case had a range of rotation number (Ro = ΩDh/Ub) from 0 to 0.2. It is found that both the skewness of streamwise mean velocity and magnitude of secondary-flow velocity increase linearly, and the magnitude of turbulence intensity level increases non-linearly with increasing Ro. As Ro is increased, the curvature induced symmetric Dean vortices in the turn for Ro = 0 is gradually dominated by a single vortex most of which impinges directly on the outer part of leading wall. The high turbulent kinetic energy is closely related to the dominant vortex prevailing inside the 180-deg sharp turn. For the first time, the measured flow characteristics account for the reported spanwise heat transfer distributions in the rotating channels, especially the high heat transfer enhancement on the leading wall in the turn. For both rotating and non-rotating cases, the direction and strength of the secondary flow with respect to the wall are the most important fluid dynamic factors affecting local heat transfer distributions inside a 180-deg sharp turn. The role of the turbulent kinetic energy in affecting the overall enhancement of heat transfer is well addressed.