119

CONVENTIONAL
MEASUREMENT
TECHNIQUES
The VKI has continuously pursued the im-
provement of conventional measurement
techniques often used in Turbomachinery
applications. In recent years special efforts
were dedicated to thermocouple probes,
directional probes and hot-wires. Micro-
thermocouple probes with wire diameters
of about 12 m have been developed to en-
hance their frequency response. Regarding
directional probes, substantial efforts were
devoted to the digital compensation of
their signal to allow frequency responses
of the order of 200 Hz using long pneumatic
lines. Recently the work was concentrated
on the development of appropriate data
processing routines for hot-wire probes
that are submitted to large temperature
transients during tests.
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Conventional Measurement Techniques
120 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
SKIN FRICTION MEASUREMENT
TECHNIQUE FOR HYPERSONIC FLOW
For the design of aerospace vehicles, the nature of the
boundary layer flow over control surfaces is a critical
issue. Consequently, considerable effort has been ex-
pended in developing and implementing diagnostic
techniques for surface flow visualization in hyperson-
ic test facilities. One technique, Oil Interferometry Skin
Friction (OISF), offers an efficient and economical ap-
proach to the identification of flow topology and ac-
quisition of quantitative information about the shear
stress distribution. The goal of the present study is to
implement the OISF technique in the VKI H-3 Mach 6,
hypersonic tunnel, and to assess its capabilities.
OISF is based on the fact that the thinning rate of an
oil film submitted to a shear stress is related to that
shear stress. Once the relation between the thinning
rate and the shear stress is known, an optical meas-
urement of the thinning rate of the oil film can provide
a non-intrusive measurement of the local shear stress.
Typically, the thinning rate is measured by illuminat-
ing the thin oil film on a highly reflective surface and
recording the interference pat-tern that results. Since
the transparent oil film is thin with a certain slope,
light impinging on the surface of the test article will
be reflected by the oil film surface and by the model
surface. If the incident light is monochromatic, a fringe
pattern results. The optical arrangement for the gen-
eration of the fringe image is shown in Figure 1, and
an example fringe pattern is shown in Figure 2.
The equation relating the shear stress, , to the tem-
poral evolution of the fringe spacing is
where n
0
is the oil index of refraction,
r
is the re-
fracted light angle through the oil, is the oil viscosi-
ty, is the wavelength of the illuminating light and
ds/dt is the change in fringe spacing with time.
Implementation of OISF in a wind tunnel facility re-
quires a camera (still or video), a light source, and ap-
propriate oil. For these experiments a monochrome
CCD camera (iEC800BC), with 756 x 581 pixel resolu-
tion was used to acquire images at rates ranging from
1 to 25Hz, depending on the experiment. A green lamp
was used to provide quasi-monochromatic illumina-
tion for generation of fringe. Finally, a silicone oil,
Dow Corning 200, was chosen for these experiments
because it has a much lower viscosity variation with
temperature than other oils. Nevertheless, any change
of viscosity had to be taken into account, so viscome-
try tests were conducted at different temperatures for
this oil.
For the test article, the
best results were ob-
tained using a reflective
surface beneath the oil to
provide a specular reflec-
tion of the illumination
towards the camera. A
Mylar film was found to
provide the best fringe
contrast, as it reflects ap-
proximately the same
light intensity as the oil-
air surface.
To obtain information
about the shear stress
levels, the fringe spacing,
s, had to be derived
from the images of the
fringe patterns acquired
at constant time inter-
vals. This was accomplished by selecting an image
window and then averaging the intensity variation
within this window to obtain a smoothed profile.
A simple algorithm was then implemented to deter-
mine the maxima and minima, which were then used
to obtain the fringe spacing. This was repeated for the
successive images to obtain ds/dt.
The VKI hypersonic tunnel H-3 is a blow-down facility
with an axisymmetric nozzle giving a uniform Mach 6
free jet flow of 12cm diameter. Air is supplied from a
pebble-bed heater at stagnation pressures ranging
from 7 to 35 bar and a maximum stagnation temper-
ature of 550K. Reynolds number may be varied from
3 x 10
6
to 30 x 10
6/
m
-1
. A pneumatic injection system is
used to place the test articles in the stream.
To produce and record fringes, the light source and
camera were installed in the facility. The green light
bulb was mounted in a fixture installed in the corner
of the test chamber, and a diffuser (a dulled plate of
Figure 1: Generation of interference pattern from
a thin film of oil responding to a shearing flow
over a test article surface

=
2
0
n d s
dt
r
cos
Figure 2: Fringe pattern re-
sulting from illumination of
oil film with constant slope
on a test article surface
Conventional Measurement Techniques
121 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
plexiglas covered with a white paper sheet) was em-
ployed to produce more uniform illumination over a
larger region.
A flat plate model was chosen for the first tests in the
H-3 facility to provide a geometry suitable for op-
timization of the OISF technique for hypersonic flow
applications. Again, the Mylar sheet was used to im-
prove the fringe contrast, and small pieces were
mounted at various times in several different axial lo-
cations on the model. In addition, different tests were
realized at different stagnation pressures (around 10,
20 and 31 bars). In combination, the results from the
different axial locations and different stagnation pres-
sures covered a large range of shear stress, or skin
friction, values on the plate. As noted above, the sur-
face temperature of the test article changes as a result
of aerothermal heating during the test. To account for
this temperature change, a separate measurement of
the evolution of surface temperature was performed
using an IR camera. The oil temperature was assumed
to be equivalent to the surface temperature at the time
of the fringe spacing measurement, and its viscosity
was adjusted accordingly.
Results from all of the tests are plotted on Figure 3 as
a function of the local value of the Reynolds number.
A theoretical curve for the evolution of the shear stress
for a compressible laminar boundary layer over a flat
plate at Mach 6 is also plotted. The experimental re-
sults follow the trend predicted by theory. In partic-
ular, the results for the test with 31 bar stagnation
pressure follow the trend closely. The reason for this
is that at the higher stagnation pressure, the wall tem-
perature reaches a nearly constant value (typically
around 370K for all tests) sooner than for the lower
stagnation pressure cases. (Near 370K, the change in
oil viscosity is around 1% per degree.) Conversely, it
should be noted that the worst values, especially the
points for the P11 case lying below the theoretical
curve, were derived from tests of shorter duration,
where the oil temperature was still evolving.
Comparisons between the measurement results and
theoretical predictions for the flat plate geometry ex-
hibited good agreement. Trends in the results suggest
that better precision is obtained when the wall tem-
perature, and, hence, the oil film temperature, reach-
es a final value more rapidly. In addition, for hyper-
sonic flow applications it is important to quantify
accurately the variation in surface temperature using
a technique such as IR thermography.
Recently, this technique has
been implemented in the VKI
Longshot Free Piston Wind
Tunnel, for characterizing hy-
personic boundary layer flows.
As shown in Figure 4, the oil is
placed on the surface by a drip
tube just ahead of the tunnel
start. The light source is also
shown in the figure. Current
tests are aimed at finding the oil
whose viscosity best suits the
Longshot test conditions
[MP259].
INVESTIGATION OF CALORIMETRY
FOR PLASMA FLOWS APPLICATIONS
During a re-entry flight, the space vehicle has to with-
stand very severe conditions. In order to evaluate the
quality of its Thermal Protection System (TPS), one has
to study the effect of chemistry in the vicinity of the
vehicle since it deeply influences the thermal load.
For this purpose one has to be able to accurately quan-
tify heat flux rates. Because of its complexity, this
measurement remains one of major difficulty. Heat
flux sensors have to be calibrated and accuracy has to
be carefully checked. This was done performing intru-
sive measurements in both VKI plasma wind tunnels.
The heat transfer rate to the vehicle surface can be al-
tered greatly, depending on the type of surface mate-
rial. A low catalytic surface such as quartz would cause
a significant reduction in heat transfer as compared to
a high catalytic surface such as copper or nickel. In ear-
lier test campaigns, only two types of water-cooled
calorimeters were available at VKI. The first one was
Figure 3: C
f
versus Re
x
for a compressible laminar
boundary layer at Mach 6. C
fth
correspond to
theoretical C
f
, P11, P21 and P31 respectively to
the test realized at 11, 21 and 31 bar
Figure 4: Experimental
set-up of the OISF
technique in Longshot
Conventional Measurement Techniques
122 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
made of copper, supposed to be fully catalytic in air,
designed and built at VKI. The second one came from
The Institute for Problems in Mechanics (IPM) and is
made of quartz, supposed to be non catalytic in the
same gas.
In order to asses the methodology for catalycity de-
termination, it was interesting to measure heat fluxes
obtained with other materials already known and well
documented in the literature and then to compare re-
sults for finite catalytic properties. This was done for
three materials: molybdenum (Figure 1) constantan
and silver.
Based on the stagnation
point heat transfer probe,
new water-cooled calori-
meters were designed in
order to better under-
stand the influence of the
probe design on meas-
ured heat flux rates. Three
different copper calorime-
ters (reference material in
air, supposed to be fully
catalytic) and two differ-
ent silver calorimeters
(reference material in
CO
2
, supposed to be fully catalytic) were successfully
tested and no significant influence of the design was
observed when comparing results with previous cam-
paigns. All results were in good agreement within the
uncertainty band. As expected the monobloc assem-
bling was found to be the more heat-resistant and
should be used as long as its cost is not prohibitive.
Since the catalytic process is a gas/surface interaction,
one can easily understand that copper and quartz (re-
spectively assumed fully and non-catalytic materials
in air) may not be suitable reference materials in oth-
er test gases. For example, it is well known that sim-
ulations of the Martian atmosphere mainly composed
of CO
2
require a silver surface instead of copper, ac-
cording to the literature related to this subject. Hence,
silver calorimeters are designed, manufactured and
employed in both CO
2
and Martian atmosphere mix-
ture plasma flows. The copper and silver calorimeters
are compared to each other both in air and CO
2
plas-
ma flows, verifying their higher catalycities for differ-
ent plasma flows.
While water-cooled calorimeters provide a steady
state heat flux rate, slug calorimeters operate in the
transient regime and represent an alternative means
for heat flux measurements. This technique is based
on the solution of the unsteady 1D heat equation
across a cylindrical part for which the thermophysical
properties are
known. The
technique is
recommend-
ed as a stan-
dard test mea-
surement for
heat-flux cali-
bration by
ASTM. Copper
slug calorime-
ters have been
tested during
the previous
academic year
in order to better understand and minimize radiative and
conductive losses occurring within the probe holder.
Additional studies have been performed to minimise the
side losses and increase the accuracy of heat transfer
measurements.
The most important factor was found to be the length
of the slug: the assumption of 1D conduction in the
cylinder does not remain valid when the ratio
length/diameter decreases. The 3cm long slug (diam-
eter 14mm) provided results in pretty good agreement
with the water-cooled calorimeter (both had a copper
surface). A better insulation around the cylinder (re-
placement of Teflon rings by centering pins for ex-
ample) should decrease conductive losses and im-
prove significantly the agreement between the two
measurement techniques.
Compared with the water-cooled calorimeter, the slug
calorimeter presents many advantages. Among them,
are low cost, the ease of construction and mounting
within the probe holder. But its main advantage lies in
the elimination of the water leaks, which have always
been a major problem with water cooled calorimeters.
On the other hand the required time for cooling the
slug between two consecutive exposures is much
longer. The two types of calorimeter have been used
for calibration in the VKI Plasmatron facilities [MP95].
A recent study has been performed on the effect of the
velocity gradient of plasma flow on heat flux. For this
purpose, two different probe holders were designed
and manufactured. One of the probe holders has a
larger diameter and is supposed to produce equilib-
rium flows whereas the other probe holder has a
smaller diameter and bigger corner radius which is
supposed to generate frozen flow conditions. The tests
and analysis with these probes allow the definition of
the chemical environment by the determination of the
Damkhler number at the stagnation point [MP257].
Figure 1: Molybdenum
calorimeter (intermediate
catalycity)
Figure 2: Copper slug calorimeter
(fully catalytic reference surface)
Conventional Measurement Techniques
123
DATA REDUCTION AND THERMAL
PRODUCT DETERMINATION METHODS
FOR SINGLE AND MULTI-LAYERED
SUBSTRATE THIN-FILM GAUGES
A key parameter to increase the efficiency of a
gas turbine is the augmentation of the turbine
inlet temperature. The intensive cooling of
high-pressure turbine stages allows gas tem-
peratures above the melting temperature of
the super-alloys that constitute the vanes and
the blades. The optimal design of a cooling
scheme requires knowledge of the heat ex-
change coefficient around the considered air-
foil. Not only the mean levels of heat fluxes
should be known but also the variations due to
blade passage events in order to assess their
impact on the thermal fatigue.
Thin-film gauges allow the determination of the sur-
face heat flux when testing in a short duration wind
tunnel. The resistance variation of a thin strip of
highly conductive material deposited onto an insulat-
ing substrate allows monitoring the local surface tem-
perature history during the blow-down of hot gas on
the cold model. The heat flux is derived by solving the
unsteady conduction equation on a semi-infinite
substrate using the wall temperature history as a
boundary condition.
Traditionally, single-layered substrate thin-film
gauges were used at VKI. The platinum sens-
ing element deposited on a ceramic substrate,
typically Macor, that was inserted in slots
milled in a blade (Figure 1). Rotor blades are how-
ever submitted to high levels of centrifugal force
and slots affect their mechanical integrity. For these
reasons, a new type of gauge is investigated.
The two-layered thin-film gauge consists of a
2.5mm long serpentine nickel thin-film painted
onto a 50m thick Upilex-S sheet (the first layer)
that can be glued on the original me-tallic blade
surface (the second layer) with a 76m thick dou-
ble-sided adhesive sheet (Figure 2).
A dedicated numerical data processing tech-
nique was developed in order to evaluate the
heat flux from the surface temperature his-
tory measured on multi-layered substrates.
It solves the unsteady heat conduction
equation with thermal properties that vary
as a function of the substrate thickness using a
Crank-Nicholson finite difference scheme. The ac-
curacy depends on the precision of the thermal
properties for each layer and on the value of the thick-
ness of the insulating layer. Thus, a specific calibra-
tion was performed by rapidly submitting the gauge
to a hot air jet, imposing a well-known convective heat
exchange coefficient. The numerical scheme is coupled
with an optimisation routine that finds the thermal
properties of the different layers as well as the instru-
mented sheet thickness in order to fit the measured data.
Although the uncertainty on absolute values remains
of the order of 10%, the repeatability on the values of
the thermal properties reaches +/- 2%.
Stator vanes and rotor blades have already been in-
strumented with arrays of thin-film gauges (Figure 2).
Tests were carried out in the VKI Compres-sion Tube
facility. The Nusselt number based on the blade chord
is derived from the values of the heat flux according to:
where h is the heat ex-
change coefficient by con-
vection and c the chord of
the blade. The measured
Nusselt number distribu-tion
around a stator vane is com-
pared in Figure 3 with single-
layered measurements. The
repeatability of the measure-
ments was also assessed and
is better in the case of the
two-layered gauges. In rota-
tion, the centrifugal force act-
ing on the sensor produces a
change in its resistance, in-
troducing an spurious shift
in the initial temperature dis-
tribution of the profile before
the blow-down. A calibration of the
thin film sensor is needed in order
to take into account this effect.
Figure 1: Macor insert fitted in a CT-3 rotor blade
Figure 2: Two-layer thin-film array
implemented on a stator blade
n
qc
k T T
hc
k
u
gas gas wall gas
=

( )
=

2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium

Conventional Measurement Techniques
124
DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH TEMPERATURE
COOLED FAST RESPONSE
TOTAL PRESSURE PROBE
Unsteady pressure measurements at high tempera-
ture levels still represent a major challenge in aero-
dynamic research.
Over the last few years, intensive research at the VKI
Turbomachinery and Propulsion Laboratory has led to
the development of several single- and multi-hole fast
response aerodynamic probes [TH7]. These probes are
equipped with miniature piezoresistive pressure sen-
sors placed directly in the probe head, therefore with
small overall probe dimensions, typically of the order
of 2.5mm diameter.
Fast response aerodynamic probes offer the high ana-
logue bandwidth required for the investigation of the
highly unsteady, three-dimensional, compressible
flow inside turbomachines, with a high signal-to-noise
ratio, good reliability and robustness.
Current standard piezoresistive unsteady pressure
sensors are however limited to a temperature range
of 120C. Some new designs may now operate at con-
tinuous temperatures of 270C without being cooled.
Silicon carbide sensors may even go up to 500C but
are still under development. For higher temperature
applications, cooling of the sensor is mandatory.
Some commercial cooled sensors do exist but are re-
stricted to wall pressure measurements.
The aim of this new project is therefore to develop a
cooled fast response total pressure probe for gas path
measurements behind the first HP stage of a gas tur-
bine. In modern aero-engines, at the stage inlet, tem-
peratures are typically between 1600K and 1800K,
sometimes up to 2000K in military or most advanced
commercial engines with a heavily cooled first stage.
Although the temperature levels are extremely high,
the pressure fluctuations are a priori of very low fre-
quency (except for the random fluctuations due to tur-
bulence). This aspect allows a probe design with a re-
mote sensor for which cooling is also easier. On the
contrary, the work at VKI will focus on measurements
of high frequency content in hot flows, such as those
encountered at the exit of the first HP stage. The high
frequency content generated by the turbine rotor
blade passing events and their harmonics requires
placement of the sensor as close as possible to the
measurement location. Any compromise in location
will cause a decrease in bandwidth and the high tem-
perature levels, still of the order of 1100K to 1400K at
The variation of heat flux due to blade row passing
was also analyzed both in a stator and rotor. The dou-
ble layer gauge presents an improved signal to noise
ratio with respect to the single layer one, leading to
higher correlation coefficients and lower levels of
RMS. The RMS traces delivered by the double layered
rotor gauges, shown in figure 4, allow the identifica-
tion of the sweeping of both the vane trail-ing edge
shocks and wakes.
Figure 3: Nusselt number distributions.
Stars: two-layered technique;
Circles: one-layered technique
Figure 4: Rotor RMS traces,
double layer gauge
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Conventional Measurement Techniques
125 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
this location make it mandatory to design a highly ef-
ficient cooling system avoiding any stagnating fluid
regions inside the small probe channels and provid-
ing sufficient cooling to the sensor itself.
This probe will be designed to withstand con-
tinuous gas temperatures of 1100C by using
a water cooling system which will keep a
standard pressure sensor at about 60C.
Beyond mechanical constraints linked to the
fabrication and the assembly of the probe so
as to maintain a small overall probe size
and to withstand the high temperature
environment, one of the most critical de-
sign steps is the cooling water path
which should remain free of recirculation
zones, in particular in the near vicinity of
the sensor.
The VKI design favours a high frequency re-
sponse by placing the sensor in the probe
head, transverse to the probe axis. The cooling
water is brought directly upon the sensor by an
inner tube, cooling the sensor by passing through
a double cylindrical jacket. The annular space be-
tween the probe external tube and the inner tube
serves as the return channel (Figure 1).
In order to study the global performance of this initial
cooling system design, a 1D calculation model was de-
veloped using correlations to determine heat transfer
coefficients and to compute outlet and sen-sor tem-
peratures as a function of the free stream gas flow
temperature (1100C) for different coolant mass flow
rates and for two different values of free stream hot
gas flow Mach number, M= 0.5 and M= 0.7, respective-
ly. Different cooling configurations have been studied
as well: water feeding the probe from the inner cylin-
der and from the outer annular jacket.
Then, in order to study the detailed flow field inside
this cooling geometry and the resulting temperature
distribution, a numerical assessment using a 3D
Navier-Stokes commercial solver (Fluent) has been
carried out. The full 3D geometry of the probe and the
internal cooling channel were computed solving both
momentum and energy equations. For a nominal wa-
ter flow rate of 0.025kg/s (~1.5 l/min), temperature lev-
els on the probe tube and the velocity flow field in the
internal cooling system have been analyzed for the
two cooling configurations mentioned above
(Figure 2).The probe bottom was found to be the most
critical region to be cooled and the most important
heat path from the external hot gas flow to the vul-
nerable transducer. Different coolant mass flow rates
were computed for both cooling scheme configura-
tions. A comparison be-tween the 1D model and 3D
geometry results was done in terms of global cooling
system parameters, showing general agreement.
Figure 1: Tridimensional view
of the probe design
Figure 2: Temperature distributions for water
enter-ing from the outer jacket (left) or from
the inner tube (right). T
gas
= 1100C, M= 0.5,
water mass-flow = 1.5 l/min
Conventional Measurement Techniques
126 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
pressure can be adjusted independently. The velocity
in the jet, measured by the hot-wire, is computed with
and without temperature correction to highlight the
large difference when compared with the pneumatic
measurements (Figure 2).
Experiments in the VKI compression tube were per-
formed to investigate the flow field in a highly loaded
high-pressure turbine stage. At the stage inlet, reli-
able results are obtained regarding the turbulence
Figure 3: Periodic component (left) and random
unsteadiness (right) downstream of the rotor
along the height (% span is indicated above
each curve)
Finally the cooling system geometry has been modi-
fied locally at the probe bottom to improve the cool-
ing efficiency in this region. Different design configu-
rations were computed and the results compared to
the original design. A configuration with a 1mm hole
connecting the bottom of the inner cylinder and out-
er external jacket was computed to provide the lowest
temperature in this region with respect to other
designs.
APPLICATION OF HOT-WIRE ANEMOMETRY
IN A COMPRESSION TUBE FACILITY
Hot-wire anemometry is a well-known measurement
technique to monitor flow velocities with high spatial
resolution, high fidelity and a bandwidth of several
tens of kHz. Compression tube test rigs are used to test
HP turbine stages under engine representative condi-
tions. In these rigs the evolution of gas temperature,
pressure and density is similar to a step function.
Hence, the use of hot-wires, which are sensitive to flow
velocity, density and temperature is more difficult than
in an incompressible flow at constant temperature.
The energy balance applied on the wire implies that
the heat provided to the wire by Joule effect equals
that dissipated into the flow by convection. In flows
with large temperature variations, it is crucial to in-
troduce the gas temperature into the hot-wire rela-
tionship, by means of the Nusselt correlation. Hence,
a direct relationship between the hot-wire voltage and
the flow velocity at various gas temperatures can be de-
rived. The hot-wire probe employed is shown in
Figure 1. The probe carries two hot-wire sensors and
one thermocouple located in between the two hot-
wire heads. The cut-off frequency of the current probe
is about 30kHz.
To validate this procedure, experiments were carried
out in a free jet facility, where temperature and
Figure 1: VKI hot-wire probe
Figure 2: Free jet velocity while the flow
temperature and pressure is varying
Conventional Measurement Techniques
127
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
intensity along the channel height. At the stage exit
the probe is submitted to periodic fluctuations due to
the rotor blade passing events. In order to separate
the periodic component from the random contribu-
tions, a phase-locked averaging technique is applied
on 3 rotor revolutions i.e. 192 rotor passing events.
The results have been plotted in Figure 2 for two ro-
tor pitches. The periodic fluctuations of the flow due
to the rotor wake and shock passage are well-resolved.
The analysis of the random unsteadiness helps to dis-
tinguish the contribution of the rotor wake from the
rotor shock waves (Figure 3).
CONJUGATE HEAT TRANSFER
IN COOLING PASSAGES
Resulting from the ever increasing demand for high-
er thermal efficiency, modern gas turbine engine com-
ponents are exposed to continuously higher turbine
inlet gas temperatures. An efficient internal cooling,
eventually combined with local impingement and a
sophisticated film cooling scheme remains the main
way to guarantee an secure blade life time. The fun-
damental objective of this technology is to obtain the
highest overall cooling effectiveness with the lowest
possible penalty on the aerothermal performance and
to limit the metal temperature gradients. Considering
more specifically rib-roughened internal cooling chan-
nels, a key factor ensuring the accuracy of the heat
transfer (and therefore metal temperature) prediction
is the thermal boundary condition imposed along the
front, upper and rear rib surfaces. A correct under-
standing of the various heat transfer mechanisms is
mandatory, and requests, from a simulation point of
view, an advanced convection/conduction conjugate
approach.
Most of the available heat transfer data are however
only representative of a pure convective process: a
uniform wall heat flux or temperature boundary con-
dition is usually applied, under the rib or along its dif-
ferent faces. Many lessons have been learned from
these contributions [MP6].
They are, however, not
fully representative of the
real transfer phenomena
on a real metallic airfoil.
Conjugate investigations
represent a more appro-
priate way to analyze an
internal cooling channel,
putting in evidence the
thermal pattern across
the blade thickness.
This information is of fundamental importance in a
real design process to be able to take into account
phenomena such as induced thermal stresses.
The objective of the present research [AJ52, MP129,
MP206] is to incorporate in evidence the conjugate
heat exchange process in order to understand how
this would affect the design process. The rib-rough-
ened cooling channel wall is simulated by a metallic
slab with an imposed thickness, in order to correctly
simulate the Biot number. The ribs and flow field are
on one side, a uniform heat flux boundary condition
is applied on the other side, allowing the conduction
pattern to develop across the slab thickness.
A conjugate heat transfer system means a coupling
between heat transfer in the solid and fluid regions,
and therefore a coupling between conduction and
convection. Both mechanisms affect each other, re-
sulting in a measurable complex temperature pattern
along the rib-roughened wall. This surface tempera-
ture field, resulting from the interaction between an
imposed uniform heat flux on the bottom of the metal-
lic slab and the convection mechanism due to the flow
over the upper ribbed surface, is measured by means
of infrared thermography. Both quantities, (wall tem-
perature on one side and wall heat flux on the other
side) are the boundary conditions for a conduction
computation through the slab, leading to the local wall
heat flux determination on the ribbed side. The local
heat transfer coefficient (or the corresponding Nusselt
number) is then calculated from this heat flux, the bulk
flow temperature and the local wall temperature. The
heat transfer data are usually presented in terms of
enhancement factor, by normalizing the Nusselt
number by the value obtained at the same Reynolds
number in a smooth tube.
The investigated channel is a simplified model of a real
blade internal cooling channel scaled-up by a factor
15 (Figure 1). Similarity conditions are respected in
terms of Reynolds number (based on the hydraulic di-
ameter), equal to 40000 and Prandtl number equal
to 0.7.
Figure 1: Test channel
Conventional Measurement Techniques
128 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Figure 2 presents the comparison
(expressed in terms of enhancement fac-
tor) between the results obtained from the
present conjugate approach (closed sym-
bols) to those obtained from a purely con-
vective approach (open symbols, MP6).
Away from the rib both agree quite well.
However, along the front, upper and rear
faces of the rib, the results are completely
different. The conjugate approach reveals
the large pumping effect provided by the
rib, leading to an almost one dimensional
pattern, with most of the exchange
through the rib upper face. It also shows
the relative importance of the contribution
of this obstacle on the overall heat trans-
fer in these cooling channels.
Figure 2: Enhancement factor