Flow and conjugate heat transfer of swirl chamber with micro-ribs in turbine vane leading edge

Swirl cooling can provide effective protection for the turbine vane leading edge (LE). In this paper, a swirl cooling model for improving the turbine vane heat transfer is established. The model includes the high-temperature mainstream region, LE region, and swirl cooling region. The conjugate heat transfer (CHT) method is used to examine the influence of wall structures on swirl cooling. Then, the best surface structure in the studied range is selected to further analyze the impact of the coolant inlet mass flow. The results show that the circumferential micro-ribs structure has a more excellent performance in both fluid flow and cooling performance. The hindering effect of the micro-ribs can effectively avoid the development of axial cross-flow, thus enhancing the heat transfer with a small friction loss increment and providing a lower surface temperature and more uniform temperature distribution. When the inlet mass flow rate improves, the thermal performance factor increases and the LE temperature decreases gradually. Under the same pumping power condition, the circumferential micro-ribs structure has higher heat transfer efficiency. This investigation can provide a new design for further improving the thermal performance of swirl cooling for turbine vanes.