Investigation of Roughness Effects on Heat Transfer of Upscaled Additively Manufactured Channels in the Turbulent Region Using Infrared Thermography

Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) has largely improved design freedom compared with traditional manufacturing processes such as casting and milling. The layer-by-layer workflow makes it possible to produce objects with much more complex shapes and structures. This feature is of particular interest for turbine blade manufacturing since internal cooling channels with higher thermal efficiency can be achieved toimprove the overall efficiency of a gas turbine. One feature of AM, especially for Laser Power Bed Fusion (LPBF) working on metal powders, is the relatively large surface roughness (SR), which will affect both heat transfer and pressure loss. Its geometry is also unique with the very randomly distributed spherical-shaped structures. This randomness makes the correlations for heat transfer and pressure loss based on sand grain roughness not applicable anymore. More in-depth research is needed to investigate the roughness effects. In this study, the AM roughness is modelled by a statistical distribution of spheres with different diameters using an upscale ratio of 77.4. An infrared (IR) camera was used to record the temperature distribution on the rough plates subjected to heated airflow. Three Re in the turbulent region (15000, 20000, 25000) were tested and the data from the IR camera were used to calculate the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) on the rough plate through a 3D finite element calibration solver. The results of averaged HTC agree well with data of the real Inconel 939 AM channel from which the upscaled rough plates are modelled. Also, the general patterns of HTC distributions matched the fluid dynamics analysis. Moreover, the results of arranging smooth and rough plates together shows that the heat transfer enhancement from SR is due to both the induced turbulent flows and the increased surface area.