The influence of pencil pin fins on the enhancement of heat transfer in a wedge channel: an experimental and numerical study

Pin-fin cooling is a significant method for managing high temperatures in gas turbine blades during operation. This study recommends the employment of a pencil-shaped and a circular pin fin to improve the channel's heat transfer efficiency, based on both experimental and computational examinations. Numerical simulations with Reynolds numbers ranging from 10,000 to 80,000 are used to explore and compare the flow and heat transfer properties of a wedge channel with three rows of staggered pencil and circular-shaped pin fins with a diameter of 12 mm. The investigation revealed that staggered arrangement of pencil pin fins affects flow pattern and heat transfer properties differently. Compared to the pencil pin fins, heat transfer is enhanced by 11.72%, and the pressure drop from pencil pin fins is minimized by 72.2%. Furthermore, compared to the smooth channel, the Nusselt number for circular fins shows an increase of 40%. When comparing pencil fins to the smooth channel, the Nusselt number increases by 18%. As a result compared to circular fins, the thermal performance factor increases by 35.2%.