On the correlation of heat transfer in turbulent boundary layers subjected to free-stream turbulence
The turbulent flow of a fluid bounded by a heated surface is a wonderfully complex yet derisively mundane phenomenon. Despite its commonness in natural and man-made environments, the authors struggle to accurately predict its behavior in many simple situations. A complexity encountered in a number of flows is the presence of free-stream turbulence. A turbulent free-stream typically yields increased surface friction and heat transfer. Turbulent boundary layers with turbulent free-streams are encountered in gas-turbine engines, rocket nozzles, electronic-cooling passages, geophysical flows, and numerous other dynamic systems. Here, turbulent boundary layers were subjected to grid-generated free-stream turbulence to study the effects of length scale and intensity on heat transfer. The research focused on correlating heat transfer without the use of conventional boundary-layer Reynolds numbers. The boundary-layers studied ranged from 400 to 2,700 in momentum-thickness Reynolds number and from 450 to 1,900 in enthalpy-thickness Reynolds number. Free-stream turbulence intensities varied from 0.1 to 8.0%. The turbulent-to-viscous length-scale ratios presented are the smallest found in the heat-transfer literature; the ratios spanned from 100 to 1000. The turbulent-to-thermal ratios (using enthalpy thickness as the thermal scale) are also the smallest reported; the ratios ranged from 3.2 to 12.3. A length-scale dependence was identified in a Stanton number based on a near-wall streamwise velocity fluctuation. A new near-wall Stanton number was introduced; this parameter was regarded as a constant in a two-region boundary-layer model. The new model correlated heat-transfer to within 7%.
- Research Organization:
- Valparaiso Univ., IN (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20002437
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990805--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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