Mist/steam heat transfer with jet impingement onto a concave surface

Internal mist/steam blade cooling technology is proposed for the future generation of Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS). Fine water droplets about 5 mum were carried by steam through a slot jet onto a concave heated surface in a confined channel to simulate inner surface cooling at the leading edge of a turbine blade. Experiments covered Reynolds numbers from 7500 to 22,000 and heat fluxes from 3 to 21 kW/m(2). Results indicate that the cooling is enhanced significantly near the stagnation point by the mist, decreasing downstream. Unlike impingement onto a flat target where the enhancement vanished at six jet diameters downstream, the cooling enhancement over a concave surface prevails at all points downstream. Similar to the results of the flat surface, the cooling enhancement declines at higher heat fluxes. Up to 200 % cooling enhancement at the stagnation point was achieved by injecting approximately 0.5 % of mist.