NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF - HEAT TRANSFER AND PRESSURE DROP IN MATRIX CHANNEL

Abstract

Approach of Matrix cooling about which limited information does exist in the literature has • shown its suitability towards the internal cooling of turbine vanes and blades. Present work provides 3D simulations for different matrix cooling configurations. This includes analysis of rectangular subchannel having aspect ratio ranging from 0.5-1.2. The work is performed for stationary conditions. Computational study of stationary matrix channel having included angle of 451 f or the Reynolds number range of 24,000-80,000 by varying channel aspect ratio is considered. Simulation results show that development of vortices, turning and flow impingement has significant contributions on heat transfer enhancements and pressure loss. The Nusselt number ratio and friction factor ratio is evaluated and validated with experimental results. Validation shows that simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Highest heat transfer enhancement is found at the impingement region and slight enhancement is observed in the turning region. F'Jusselt number ratio for the matrix geometry under stationary conditions is about 3.5-4.5 times higher than that of smooth channel. Channel aspect ratio has less impact on heat transfer enhancement but large effect on pressure drop.