Novel Turbulators to Enhance Turbine Blade Internal Heat Transfer Rates

Turbine blades are driven by hot gases from the combustor. The heat transfer from the hot gases produces substantial thermal load and can affect the performance of the turbine blades. In previous designs, cavities inside the blades were created to pass the coolant. Such cooling designs helped to increase the thermal performance of the blades by taking away the turbine blades’ heat. The cooling effect was further enhanced by increasing the turbulence in the flow of coolant. To increase the turbulence in the cavities, various turbulator designs were proposed. However, most of the designs have also introduced wake area while increasing the turbulence. This reduces the heat exchange between the coolant and the blade. The current paper discusses new designs of tabulators for turbine blades that increase the heat transfer rates of the cooling surface by increasing the turbulence of the coolant flow while minimizing the wake area.