Experimental Study of the Flow and Thermal Development of a Row of Cooling Jets Impinging on a Rotating Concave Surface

The paper reports an experimental study of impingement cooling in a rotating passage of semi-cylindrical cross-section. Cooling fluid is injected from a row of five jet holes along the centerline of the flat surface of the passage and strikes the concave surface. The cooling passage rotates orthogonally about an axis parallel to that of the jets. Tests have been carried out, using water, both within the passage and as the jet fluid, at a fixed Reynolds number of 15,000, for clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation. Local Nusselt number measurements, using the liquid-crystal technique, show that under stationary conditions a high Nusselt number region develops around each impingement point, with secondary peaks half-way between impingement points. Rotation reduces heat transfer, leads to the disappearance of all secondary peaks and also, surprisingly, of some of the primary peaks. Flow visualization tests suggest that these changes in thermal behavior are caused because rotation increase the spreading rate of the jets. LDA and PIV measurements are also presented. They show that under stationary conditions the five jets exhibit a similar behavior, with their cores remaining intact up to the point of impingement at the top dead center. The LDA and PIV studies help explain the rather surprising thermal behavior under rotating conditions.