Forced convection heat transfer enhancement using a self-oscillating impinging planar jet

Impinging jets are widely used in the local enhancement of heat removed from internal passages of gas turbine blades. Arrays of stationary jets are usually impinged on surfaces of internal cooling passages. The current practice is to benefit from the high heat transfer coefficients existing in the vicinity of the jet impingement region on a target wall. The present study shows that a self-oscillating impinging-jet configuration is extremely beneficial in enhancing the heat removal performance of a conventional (stationary) impinging jet. In addition to a highly elevated stagnation line Nusselt number, the area coverage of the impingement zone is significantly enhanced because of the inherent sweeping motion of the oscillating coolant jet. When an oscillating jet (Re=14,000) is impinged on a plate normal to the jet axis (x/d=24 hole to plate distance), a typical enhancement of Nu number on the stagnation line is about 70 percent. The present paper explains detailed fluid dynamics structure of the self-oscillating jet by using a triple decomposition technique on a crossed hot wire signal. The current heat transfer enhancement levels achieved suggest that it may be possible to implement the present self-oscillating-impinging-jet concept in future gas turbine cooling systems, on rotating disks, glass tempering/ quenching, electronic equipment cooling, aircraft de-icing, combustors and heat exchangers.