Large-Eddy Simulation With Zonal Near Wall Treatment of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Ribbed Duct for the Internal Cooling of Turbine Blades

Large eddy simulations of flow and heat transfer in a square ribbed duct with rib height to hydraulic diameter of 0.1 and 0.05 and rib pitch to rib height ratio of 10 and 20 are carried out with the near wall region being modeled with a zonal two layer model. A novel formulation is used for solving the turbulent boundary layer equation for the effective tangential velocity in a generalized co-ordinate system in the near wall zonal treatment. A methodology to model the heat transfer in the zonal near wall layer in the large eddy simulations (LES) framework is presented. This general approach is explained for both Dirichlet and Neumann wall boundary conditions. Reynolds numbers of 20,000 and 60,000 are investigated. Predictions with wall modeled LES are compared with the hydrodynamic and heat transfer experimental data of (Rau et al. 1998, “The Effect of Periodic Ribs on the Local Aerodynamic and Heat Transfer Performance of a Straight Cooling Channel,”ASME J. Turbomach., 120, pp. 368–375). and (Han et al. 1986, “Measurement of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in Rectangular Channels With Turbulence Promoters,” NASA Report No. 4015), and wall resolved LES data of Tafti (Tafti, 2004, “Evaluating the Role of Subgrid Stress Modeling in a Ribbed Duct for the Internal Cooling of Turbine Blades,” Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 26, pp. 92–104). Friction factor, heat transfer coefficient, mean flow as well as turbulent statistics match available data closely with very good accuracy. Wall modeled LES at high Reynolds numbers as presented in this paper reduces the overall computational complexity by factors of 60–140 compared to resolved LES, without any significant loss in accuracy.