Conjugate Heat Transfer CFD Predictions of the Surface Averaged Impingement Heat Transfer Coefficients for Impingement Cooling with Backside Cross-flow

A 10 row impingement heat transfer configuration with a single sided exit at the end of the impingement gap was modelled using conjugate heat transfer CFD. The predictions were compared with experimental results for an electrically heated, 6.35mm thick, metal wall of nimonic-75, which was impingement cooled. The geometry investigated was a square array of inline impingement 10 × 10 holes with X/D of 4.66 and Z/D of 3.06, where D = 3.27mm. The use of metal walls enabled the local surface averaged heat transfer coefficient h, to be estimated from an imbedded thermocouple that logged the rate of cooling when the heating was removed. Conjugate heat transfer analysis provided local h values, which were surface averaged for comparison with the measured h. The CFD results also provided velocity, turbulence and Nusselt number distributions on the target and impingement jet surfaces. The aerodynamics data enabled the pressure loss of the system to be predicted, which compared well with experimental measurements. The predicted surface distributions of Nusselt number were similar to the surface turbulence kinetic energy distributions, which demonstrated the importance of turbulence in convective heat transfer. Surface averaged heat transfer coefficients were predicted and are in good agreement with the measurements for five coolant mass flow rates. The predicted and measured results for surface averaged h were similar to measurements of other investigators for similar impingement geometries.