Three-Dimensional Transient Heat Conduction Equation Solution for Accurate Quantification of Heat Transfer Coefficient in Transient Liquid Crystal Experiments

Liquid crystal thermography and infrared thermography techniques are typically employed to measure detailed surface temperatures, where local heat transfer coefficient (HTC) values are calculated by employing suitable conduction models. One such practice, which is very popular and easy to use, is the transient liquid crystal thermography using one-dimensional semi-infinite conduction model. In these experiments, a test surface with low thermal conductivity and low thermal diffusivity (e.g. acrylic) is used where a step-change in coolant air temperature is induced and surface temperature response is recorded. An error minimization routine is then employed to guess heat transfer coefficients of each pixel, where wall temperature evolution is known through an analytical expression. The assumption that heat flow in the solid is essentially in onedimension, often leads to errors in HTC determination and this error depends on true HTC, wall temperature evolution and HTC gradient. A representative case of array jet impingement under maximum crossflow condition has been considered here. This heat transfer enhancement concept is widely used in gas turbine leading edge and electronics cooling. Jet impingement is a popular cooling technique which results in high convective heat rates and has steep gradients in heat transfer coefficient distribution. In this paper, we have presented a procedure for solution of three-dimensional transient conduction equation using alternating direction implicit method and an error minimization routine to find accurate heat transfer coefficients at relatively lower computational cost. The HTC results obtained using 1D semi-infinite conduction model and 3D conduction model were compared and it was found that the heat transfer coefficient obtained using the 3D model was consistently higher than the conventional 1D model by 3-16%. Significant deviations, as high as 8-20% in local heat transfer at the stagnation points of the jets were observed between h(1D) and h(3D).