A numerical investigation of dimple effects on internal heat transfer enhancement of a double wall cooling structure with jet impingement

Abstract

Purpose

The dimple is adopted into a double wall cooling structure which is widely used in hot gas components to increase the heat transfer effects with relatively low pressure drop penalty. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of dimple depth and dimple diameter on the target surface heat transfer and the inlet to outlet friction factor.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is carried out by using the numerical simulations. The impingement flow is directly impinging on the dimple and released from the film holes after passing the double wall chamber. The ratio between dimple depth and dimple diameter is varied from 0 to 0.4 and the ratio between dimple diameter and impingement hole diameter is ranging from 0.5 to 3. The Reynolds number is between 10,000 and 70,000. Results of the target surface Nusselt number, friction factor and flow structures are included. For convenience of comparison, the double wall cooling structure without the dimple is considered as the baseline.

Findings

It is found that the dimple can effectively enhance the target surface heat transfer due to thinning of the flow boundary layer and flow reattachment as well as flow recirculation outside the dimple near the dimple rim especially for the large Re number condition. However, the stagnation point heat transfer is reduced. It is also found that for a large dimple depth or large dimple diameter, a salient heat transfer reduction occurs for the toroidal vortex. The thermal performance indicates that the intensity of the heat transfer enhancement depends upon the dimple depth and dimple diameter

Originality/value

This is the first time to adopt a dimple into a double wall cooling structure. It suggests that the target surface heat transfer in a double wall cooling structure can be increased by the use of the dimple. However, the heat transfer characteristic is sensitive for the different dimple diameter and dimple depth which may result in a different flow behavior

Citation

Luo, L., Wang, C., Wang, L., Sunden, B.A. and Wang, S. (2016), "A numerical investigation of dimple effects on internal heat transfer enhancement of a double wall cooling structure with jet impingement", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 2175-2197. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-02-2015-0081