Validation of the Transient Liquid Crystal Thermography Technique for Heat Transfer Measurements on a Rotating Cooling Passage

The transient liquid crystal thermography can be a suitable tool to study heat-transfer performances on internal cooling schemes of gas turbine blades. One of the hot topics related to this methodology is about the level of reliability of the heat-transfer assessments in rotating tests where the fluid experiences time-dependent rotating effects. The present study contribution aims to experimentally validate by cross-comparison of the outcomes obtained by employing the transient technique with those from the steady-state liquid crystal thermography in which the rotational effects occur as time-stable by definition. Heat-transfer measurements have been conducted on a rib-roughened square cross-section channel, with an inlet Reynolds number equal to 20,000 and rotation number up to 0.2. Special attention has been paid to the definition of the more reliable calibration strategy for liquid crystals that are employed in the transient thermography and to the proper estimation of the heat losses in the post-processing of the steady-state experimental data. The results show great accordance between the indications provided by the two techniques both in static and rotating conditions, demonstrating the possibility to exploit the advantages of the transient liquid crystal thermography for the investigation of heat transfer into rotating cooling channels.