Effects of Pin Shape and Array Orientation on Heat Transfer and Pressure Loss in Pin Fin Arrays

Modern high-performance gas turbine engines operate at high turbine inlet temperatures and require internal convection cooling of many of the components exposed to the hot gas flow. Cooling air is supplied from the engine compressor at a cost to cycle performance and a design goal is to provide necessary cooling with the minimum required cooling air flow. In conjunction with this objective, two families of pin fin array geometries which have potential for improving airfoil internal cooling performance were studied experimentally. One family utilizes pins of a circular cross section with various orientations of the array with respect to the mean flow direction. The second family utilizes pins with an oblong cross section with various pin orientations with respect to the mean flow direction. Both heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics are presented. The results indicate that the use of circular pins with array orientation between staggered and inline can in some cases increase heat transfer while decreasing pressure loss. The use of elongated pins increases heat transfer, but at a high cost of increased pressure loss. In conjunction with the present measurements, previously published results were reexamined in order to estimate the magnitude of heat transfer coefficients on the pin surfaces relative to those of the endwall surfaces. The estimate indicates that the pin surface coefficients are approximately double the endwall values.