The Effect of Turning Vanes on Pressure Loss and Heat Transfer of a Ribbed Rectangular Two-Pass Internal Cooling Channel

Gas turbine blades are usually cooled by using ribbed serpentine internal cooling passages, which are fed by extracted compressor air. The individual straight ducts are connected by sharp 180 deg bends. The integration of turning vanes in the bend region lets one expect a significant reduction in pressure loss while keeping the heat transfer levels high. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of different turning vane configurations on pressure loss and local heat transfer distribution. The investigations were conducted in a rectangular two-pass channel connected by a 180 deg sharp turn with a channel height-to-width ratio of H/W=2. The channel was equipped with 45 deg skewed ribs in a parallel arrangement with e/dh=0.1 and P/e=10. The tip-to-web distance was kept constant at Wel/W=1. Spatially resolved heat transfer distributions were obtained using the transient thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Furthermore static pressure measurements were conducted in order to determine the influence of turning vane configurations on pressure loss. Additionally, the configurations were investigated numerically by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations using the finite-volume solver FLUENT. The numerical grids were generated by the hybrid grid generator CENTAUR. Three different turbulence models were considered: the realizable k-ε model with two-layer wall treatment, the k-ω-SST model, and the v2-f turbulence model. The results showed a significant influence of the turning vane configuration on pressure loss and heat transfer in the bend region and the outlet pass. While using an appropriate turning vane configuration, pressure loss was reduced by about 25%, keeping the heat transfer at nearly the same level in the bend region. An inappropriate configuration led to an increase in pressure loss while the heat transfer was reduced in the bend region and outlet pass.