Effects of cross ribs on heat/mass transfer in a two-pass rotating duct

Two-pass internal cooling passage with rib turbulators has been investigated for convective heat/mass transfer under rotating conditions. The flow and heat transfer characteristics in the cooling passage are very complicated so that it is required the detail analysis to design more efficient gas turbine blades. A naphthalene sublimation technique is employed to determine detailed local heat transfer coefficients using the heat and mass transfer analogy. The local heat/mass transfer and flow pattern in the cooling passage are changed significantly according to rib configurations, duct turning geometries and duct rotation speeds. Four different rib configurations are investigated to obtain the combined effects of the angled rib, duct turning and rotation. The results show that the duct rotation generates the heat/mass transfer discrepancy between the leading and trailing walls due to the secondary flows induced by the Coriolis force. The angled ribs generate a single rotating secondary flow with the cross-rib arrangement and the duct turning makes a strong Dean-type vortex. These vortices affect significantly the heat/mass transfer on the duct wall. The overall heat transfer pattern on the leading and trailing surfaces for the first and second passes are dependent on the duct rotation, but the local heat transfer trend is affected mainly by the rib arrangements. In addition, the present study observes the rotating effect in the two-pass smooth duct to obtain the baseline data in comparison with the ribbed duct for various rib arrangements.     

Two-phase gas-liquid flow regimes for smooth and ribbed rectangular ducts

In this research, adiabatic two-phase air-water flow was investigated, and results for smooth and ribbed rectangular ducts are presented here. The test fluids were air and water at approximately atmospheric conditions. Three ribs of different heights were used; the rib width and pitch were held constant. The ribs were positioned in the duct at three different locations to establish three different conditions: on the bottom wall (water side), on the top wall (air side) and on both the top and bottom walls. The flow regimes in the smooth and ribbed ducts, which were recorded with a video camera, were classified as plug, stratified, slug and wavy flow. The location of the ribs in the duct did not alter the shape of the flow regimes, but the regime boundaries were considerably changed (repositioned). The effects of using ribs of different heights on regime boundaries are represented with flow map diagrams and discussed in detail. Compared to the smooth duct, the ribbed duct had different regime boundary positions. Increasing the rib height initiated hydrodynamical instability at lower fluid velocities. These findings are relevant for the operation and design of pipes, boilers and heat exchangers.     

Heat/Mass transfer in a two-pass rotating rectangular duct with and without 70°-angled ribs

The present study investigates convective heat/mass transfer and flow characteristics inside a cooling passage of rotating gas-turbine blades. The rotating duct with and without rib turbulators are used. The ribs of 70° attack angle are attached on leading and trailing surfaces in a staggered arrangement. A naphthalene sublimation technique is employed to determine detailed local heat transfer coefficients using the heat and mass transfer analogy. Additional numerical calculations are conducted to analyze the flow patterns in the cooling. The local heat/mass transfer and the flow pattern in the passage are changed significantly according to rib configurations, duct turning geometry and duct rotation speed. The results show that the duct rotation generates the heat transfer discrepancy between the leading and trailing walls due to the secondary flows induced by the Coriolis force. The heat/mass transfer on the ribbed duct shows 80% higher than the smooth duct because the ribs attached on the walls disturb the mainflow resulting in recirculation and secondary flows near the rib with the secondary flow generated by rotation. The overall heat transfer pattern on the leading and trailing walls for the first and second passes depend on the rotating speed and the turning geometry, but the local heat transfer trend is affected mainly by the rib arrangeements.     

Reynolds averaged simulation of flow and heat transfer in ribbed ducts

The accuracy of modern eddy-viscosity type turbulence models in predicting turbulent flows and heat transfer in complex passages is investigated. The particular geometries of interest here are those related to turbine blade cooling systems. This paper presents numerical data from the calculation of the turbulent flow field and heat transfer in two-dimensional (2D) cavities and three-dimensional (3D) ribbed ducts. It is found that heat transfer predictions obtained using the v²–f turbulence model for the 2D cavity are in good agreement with experimental data. However, there is only fair agreement with experimental data for the 3D ribbed duct. On the wall of the duct where ribs exist, predicted heat transfer agrees well with experimental data for all configurations (different streamwise rib spacing and the cavity depth) considered in this paper. But heat transfer predictions on the smooth-side wall do not concur with the experimental data. Evidence is provided that this is mainly due to the presence of strong secondary flow structures which might not be properly simulated with turbulence models based on eddy viscosity.     

Experimental investigation of local heat transfer in a square duct with various-shaped ribs

In the present study, experimental studies are carried out to investigate the heat transfer and friction characteristics in a square duct roughened by various-shaped ribs on one wall. The ribs are oriented transversely to the main stream in a periodic arrangement. Liquid crystal thermography is employed to measure the local and average heat transfer coefficient on the ribbed surface. The rib height-to-duct hydraulic diameter ratio is fixed at 0.1; the rib pitch-to-height ratio varies from 8 to 15 and the test Reynolds number spans from 8,000 to 20,000. The results show that the trapezoidal-shaped ribs with decreasing height in the flow direction (case C) provide the highest heat transfer enhancement factor and are likely to be used to suppress the local hot spot which usually occurs in the region just behind the ribs.     

Flow pattern change in horizontal rectangular laterally ribbed ducts through alteration of the ribs thickness and pitch

Experiments were conducted on two-phase flow in laterally ribbed rectangular ducts. Air–water adiabatic flow at atmospheric pressure and room temperature was driven through a 3.6 m long rectangular ribbed test section with cross-section of 100 × 50 mm. To investigate the effect of rib thickness and pitch on flow pattern diagrams and transition boundaries, nine various rib arrangements were implemented with thicknesses of 2, 4 and 8 mm and pitches of 50, 60, and 80 mm. Unlike non-ribbed rectangular duct, lateral rib arrangement did not allow any stratified flow to occur. However wavy, plug and slug flows were parallel in both flow conditions, rib existence caused explicitly coarser pattern shapes. Increasing the rib thickness, while keeping the pitch constant, results in different flow patterns to occur as well as dramatic changes in boundaries positions and shapes. On the other hand, as pitch shifts up at a constant rib thickness, one can notice the duplication of almost identical flow patterns and their boundaries however, boundary values undergo tangible changes. Consistent attention was paid to conditions under which wavy pattern zone extends while intermittent flow zones were avoided. Studies concerned ribbed duct are of major applicable value to designing and enhancing heat transfer systems.     

Experimental study of developing turbulent flow and heat transfer in ribbed convergent/divergent square ducts

The local heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of developing turbulent flows of air in three stationary ribbed square ducts have been investigated experimentally. These are: ribbed square duct with constant cross-section (straight duct), ribbed divergent square duct and ribbed convergent square duct. The convergent/divergent duct has an inclination angle of 1°. The measurement was conducted within the range of Reynolds numbers from 10 000 to 77 000. The heat transfer performance of the divergent/convergent ducts is compared with the ribbed straight duct under three constraints: identical mass flow rate, identical pumping power and identical pressure drop. Because of the streamwise flow acceleration or deceleration, the local heat transfer characteristics of the divergent and convergent ducts are quite different from those of the straight duct. In the straight duct, the fluid flow and heat transfer become fully developed after 2–3 ribs, while in the divergent and convergent ducts there is no such trend. The comparison shows that among the three ducts, the divergent duct has the highest heat transfer performance, the convergent duct has the lowest, while the straight duct locates somewhere in between.     

Forced convection and friction in triangular duct with uniformly spaced square ribs on inner surfaces

Experimental investigation had been conducted to study the steady-state forced convection heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the hydrodynamic fully-developed turbulent flow in the air-cooled horizontal equilateral triangular ducts, which were fabricated with the same length and hydraulic diameter. Inner surfaces of the ducts were fixed with square ribs with different side lengths of 6.35, 9.525 and 12.7 mm, respectively, and the uniform separation between the centre lines of two adjacent ribs was kept constant at 57.15 mm. Both the triangular ducts and the ribs were fabricated with duralumin. The experiments were performed with the hydraulic diameter based Reynolds number ranged from 3100 to 11300. The entire inner wall of the duct was heated uniformly, while the outer surface was thermally insulated. It was found that the Darcy friction factor of the duct was increasing rather linearly with the rib size, and forced convection could be enhanced by an internally ribbed surface. However, the heat transfer enhancement was not proportional to the rib size but a maximum forced convection heat transfer augmentation was obtained at the smallest rib of 6.35 mm. Non-dimensional expressions for the determination of the steady-state heat transfer coefficient and Darcy friction factor of the equilateral triangular ducts, which were internally fabricated with uniformly spaced square ribs of different sizes, were also developed. Received on 25 May 1999     

Optimization of a buoyancy chimney with a heated ribbed wall

Heat and mass transfer in natural convection vertical channels was investigated by means of two-dimensional CFD simulations aided by optimization algorithms. The channel was immersed in air, enclosed between an adiabatic smooth wall and an isothermally heated ribbed wall. The ribs were perpendicular to the fluid flow and their height, width, pitch, thermal conductivity and lateral wall inclination were variable. Also the smooth heated wall channel was studied and compared with the ribbed one. The existence of an optimal channel width for a given channel height and rib geometry was shown. A sensitivity analysis was carried out for the ribbed and the smooth channels. Optimization was applied to the ribbed channel problem in order to maximize the heat and the mass transfer through a multi-objective genetic algorithm. It was found that the presence of the ribs penalizes the channel performance so that no ribbed channel over-performed the smooth one.     

Heat transfer and flow temperature measurements in a rotating triangular channel with various rib arrangements

In the present study, the regionally-averaged heat transfer coefficients and flow temperature distributions were measured in an equilateral triangular channel with three different rib arrangements (α = 45, 90 and 135°). To measure regionally-averaged heat transfer coefficients in the channel, two rows of copper blocks and a single heater were installed on two ribbed walls. The fluid temperature distributions were obtained using a thermocouple-array. The rotation number ranged from 0.0 to 0.1 with a fixed Reynolds number of 10,000. For the 90° ribs, the heat transfer coefficients on the pressure side surface were increased significantly with rotation, while the suction side surface had lower heat transfer coefficients than the stationary channel. For the angled ribs, rib-induced secondary flow dominated the heat transfer characteristics and high heat transfer rates were observed on the regions near the inner wall for the 45° angled ribs and near the leading edge for the 135° angled ribs.     

Convective heat transfer and fluid flow physics in some ribbed ducts using liquid crystal thermography and PIV measuring techniques

Enhancement of forced convection is important in several engineering applications. Surface modifications like rib-roughening are commonly used in applications such as compact heat exchangers and internal cooling of gas turbine blades and vanes. This paper gives a brief summary of convective heat transfer and fluid flow in some ribbed ducts using liquid crystal thermography and PIV measuring techniques. Details of the flow pattern and the influence of rib configuration and arrangement on the heat transfer are presented. Nevertheless, the understanding of the flow and thermal physics in ribbed ducts is not yet complete and further studies are needed.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements in rib-roughened rectangular ducts

In the present study, the thermal and hydraulic performance of three rib-roughened rectangular ducts is investigated. The aspect ratio of the ducts was 1 to 8, and the ribs were arranged staggered on the two wide walls. Three rib configurations were tested: parallel ribs and V-shaped ribs pointing upstream or downstream of the main flow direction. For all cases, the rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio was 0.06, with an attack angle of 60° and a pitch-to-height ratio of 10. The Reynolds number range was from 1000 to 6000. Liquid crystal thermography was employed in the heat transfer experiment to demonstrate detailed temperature distribution between a pair of ribs on the ribbed surfaces. The secondary flows caused by the inclined ribs create a significant spanwise variation of the heat transfer coefficients on the rib-roughened wall with high heat transfer coefficient at one end of the rib and low value at the other. In the streamwise direction between two consecutive ribs, the temperature distribution shows a sawtooth fashion because of flow reattachment. Based on the local heat transfer coefficients, the average Nusselt numbers were estimated as weighted mean values. Isothermal pressure drop data were taken and presented as Fanning friction factors. The ducts are compared to each other by considering both heat transfer and friction factor performance.     

Comparative studies on the effect of duct height on heat transfer and flow behavior between co-angular and co-rotating type finned surface

This paper presents the comparative studies on the effect of duct height on heat transfer and flow behavior between co-angular and co-rotating type finned surface in duct. Experiments were performed to investigate the effect of duct height on heat transfer enhancement of a surface affixed with arrays (7 × 7) of short rectangular plate fins of a co-angular and a co-rotating type pattern in the duct. An infrared imaging system with the camera of TVS 8000 was used to measure the temperature distributions to calculate the local heat transfer coefficients of the representative fin regions. Pressure drop and heat transfer experiments were performed for both types of fin pattern varying the duct to fin height ratio (H _d/H _f) of 2.0–5.0. The friction factor calculated from the pressure drop shows that friction factor decreases with increasing the duct to fin height ratio (H _d/H _f) regardless of fin pattern and this is expected because the larger friction occurs for smaller duct to fin height ratios. Detailed heat transfer distribution gives a clear picture of heat transfer characteristics of the overall surface as well as the influence of the duct height. In addition, different flow behavior and flow structure developed by both patterns were visualized by the smoke flow visualization technique.     

Flow boiling heat transfer in a vertical spirally internally ribbed tube

 Experiments of flow boiling heat transfer and two-phase flow frictional pressure drop in a spirally internally ribbed tube (φ22×5.5 mm) and a smooth tube (φ19×2 mm) were conducted, respectively, under the condition of 6×10⁵ Pa (absolute atmosphere pressure). The available heated length of the test sections was 2500 mm. The mass fluxes were selected, respectively, at 410, 610 and 810 kg/m² s. The maximum heat flux was controlled according to exit quality, which was no more than 0.3 in each test run. The experimental results in the spirally internally ribbed tube were compared with that in the smooth tube. It shows that flow boiling heat transfer coefficients in the spirally internally ribbed tube are 1.4–2 times that in the smooth tube, and the flow boiling heat transfer under the condition of smaller temperature differences can be achieved in the spirally internally ribbed tube. Also, the two-phase flow frictional pressure drop in the spirally internally ribbed tube increases a factor of 1.6–2 as compared with that in the smooth tube. The effects of mass flux and pressure on the flow boiling heat transfer were presented. The effect of diameters on flow boiling heat transfer in smooth tubes was analyzed. Based on the fits of the experimental data, correlations of flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and two-phase flow frictional factor were proposed, respectively. The mechanisms of enhanced flow boiling heat transfer in the spirally internally ribbed tube were analyzed. Received on 1 December 1999     

Thermal and friction characteristics of turbulent flow through rectangular and square ducts with transverse ribs and wire-coil inserts

The heat transfer and the pressure drop characteristics of turbulent flow of air through rectangular and square ducts with internal transverse rib turbulators on two opposite surfaces of the ducts and with wire-coil inserts have been studied experimentally. Circular duct has also been used. The transverse ribs in combination with wire-coil inserts have been found to perform better than either ribs or wire-coil inserts acting alone. The flow friction and thermal characteristics are governed by duct aspect ratio, coil helix angle and wire diameter of the coil, rib height and rib spacing, Reynolds number and Prandtl number. Correlations developed for friction factor and Nusselt number have predicted the experimental data satisfactorily. It has been found that on the basis of constant pumping power, up to 35% heat duty increase occurs for the combined ribs and wire-coil inserts case compared to the individual ribs and wire-coil inserts cases in the measured experimental parameters space. On the constant heat duty basis, the pumping power has been reduced up to 20% for the combined enhancement geometry than the individual enhancement geometries.     

Heat transfer performance comparison of steam and air in gas turbine cooling channels with different rib angles

Using steam as working fluid to replace compressed air is a promising cooling technology for internal cooling passages of blades and vanes. The local heat transfer characteristics and the thermal performance of steam flow in wide aspect ratio channels (W/H = 2) with different angled ribs on two opposite walls have been experimentally investigated in this paper. The averaged Nusselt number ratios and the friction factor ratios of steam and air in four ribbed channels were also measured under the same test conditions for comparison. The Reynolds number range is 6,000–70,000. The rib angles are 90°, 60°, 45°, and 30°, respectively. The rib height to hydraulic diameter ratio is 0.047. The pitch-to-rib height ratio is 10. The results show that the Nusselt number ratios of steam are 1.19–1.32 times greater than those of air over the range of Reynolds numbers studied. For wide aspect ratio channels using steam as the coolant, the 60° angled ribs has the best heat transfer performance and is recommended for cooling design.     

Temperature statistics in a radiatively heated particle-laden turbulent square duct flow

Radiation absorption by preferentially concentrated particles in a turbulent square duct flow is studied experimentally. The particle-laden flow is exposed to near-infrared radiation, and the gas phase temperature statistics are measured along the wall bisector of the duct. It is found that the instantaneous temperature fluctuations are comparable to the overall mean temperature rise. The temperature statistics at the duct centerline and near the wall are qualitatively different. The former reflects preferential concentration in isotropic flows while the latter displays evidence of particle clustering into streamwise elongated streaks. Comparison of the experimental data to a simplified heat transfer model suggests that the Lagrangian evolution of particle clusters and voids, and turbulent mixing in the vicinity of particle clusters, are important. This work was motivated by particle solar receiver technology, but the findings are also relevant to systems where there is localized heat release or mass transfer from disperse particles or droplets. It shows that obtaining Lagrangian histories of particle trajectories is an important next step towards understanding thermal transport phenomena in particle-laden turbulent flows.     

Heat transfer distribution in rectangular ducts with V-shaped ribs

 Heat transfer distributions are presented for a rectangular duct with two opposite wide walls arranged with V-shaped ribs pointing upstream or downstream relative to the main flow direction. The rectangular duct has an aspect ratio of 1/8. The parallel V-shaped circular ribs are arranged staggered on the two wide walls. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio is 0.06, with an attack angle of 60°. The pitch-to-height ratio equals 10. The tested Reynolds numbers range from 1000 to 6000. The test surface is sprayed with black paint and then liquid crystal, and a steady state method is adopted to obtain the temperature distribution between adjacent ribs. The secondary flow caused by the angled ribs creates different spanwise variation of the heat transfer coefficient on the rib-roughened wall for different V-rib orientations. Interaction between heat transfer and secondary flow is analyzed. In the streamwise direction, the temperature distribution shows a sawtooth behavior between a pair of adjacent ribs. Local Nusselt numbers are presented between a pair of adjacent ribs, and based on these the average Nusselt numbers are calculated to investigate the augmentation of heat transfer by the presence of the V-shaped ribs. Received on 15 May 2000     

Heat transfer and fluid flow analysis of artificially roughened ducts having rib and groove roughness

Artificially roughness is one of the well known methods of enhancing heat transfer from the heat transfer surface in the form of repeated ribs, grooves or combination of ribs and groove (compound turbulators). The artificial roughness produced on the heat transferring surface is used in cooling of gas turbine blades, nuclear reactor, solar air heating systems etc. Solar air heaters have wide applications in low to moderate temperature range, namely, drying of foods, agricultural crops, seasoning of wood and space heating etc. Solar air heaters have low value of convective heat transfer coefficient between the working fluid (air) and the heat transferring surface, due to the formation of thin laminar viscous sub-layer on its surface. The heat transfer from the surface can be increased by breaking this laminar viscous sub layer. Hence, in the present work compound turbulators in the form of integral wedge shaped ribs with grooves are used on the heat transfer surface, to study its effect on the heat transfer coefficient (Nusselt number) and friction factor in the range of Reynolds number 3,000–18,000. The roughness produced on the absorber plate forms the wetted side of upper broad wall of the rectangular duct of solar air heater. The relative groove position (g/p) was varied from 0.4 to 0.8 and the wedge angle (Φ) was varied from 10° to 25°, relative roughness pitch (p/e) and relative roughness height (e/D) was maintained as 8.0 and 0.033 respectively. The aspect ratio of the rectangular duct was maintained as 8. The Nusselt number and friction factor of the artificially roughened ducts were determined experimentally and the corresponding values were compared with that of smooth surface duct. It is observed that wedge-groove roughened surface shows more enhancement in heat transfer compared to only rib roughened surface arrangement. The investigation revealed that Nusselt number increases 1.5–3 times, while the friction factor increases two to three folds that of the smooth surface duct in the range of operating parameters. It is also observed that in rib–groove roughness arrangement with relative groove position of 0.65 shows the maximum enhancement in the heat transfer compared to the other rib-groove roughness arrangements. Statistical correlations for the Nusselt number and friction factor have been developed by the regression method in terms of the operating and roughness parameters. A program was also developed in MATLAB for the calculation of thermal efficiency and thermal effectiveness. It was observed that the thermal efficiency is more for wedge angle of 15° and relative groove position of 0.65 and its value ranges from 42 to 73 %. The uncertainties in the measurements due to various instruments for the Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and friction factor have been estimated as ±3.8, ±4.54 and ±7.6 % respectively in the range of investigation made.     

Flow and heat transfer in the wake of a surface-mounted rib with a slit

An experimental study of flow and heat transfer downstream of a surface-mounted rib with a slit is reported. The open area ratios of the slit rib considered are 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% with respect to the total projected rib area. Experiments were conducted in a wind tunnel, mostly at a hydraulic diameter based Reynolds number of 32,100. The surface Nusselt number distribution was determined by liquid crystal thermography. Results show that the slit inside the rib enhances heat transfer and reduces pressure penalty, with an optimum performance seen at an open area ratio of 20%. To explain this result, a qualitative picture of the flow field behind the rib was obtained by smoke visualization. Time averages and turbulent statistics of the velocity and temperature fluctuations were measured in detail, using hotwire anemometry and cold wire anemometry respectively. For open area ratios less than 30%, measurements show that the flow through the slit modifies the reattaching shear layer from the top of the rib. The resulting reattachment length is smaller, the peak in Nusselt number is higher, and the average heat transfer from the heated surface is enhanced. For the rib with an open area ratio greater than 40%, the lower portion behaves as an independent small rib with its own reattachment region. Simultaneously, the flow downstream of the upper rectangular part shows characteristics of vortex shedding. Thus, the size of the slit is seen to be an additional parameter that can be used to control heat transfer from the solid surface, in comparison to the solid rib.