Heat transfer characteristics of supercritical pressure hydrocarbon fuels in rotating trapezoidal channels

In order to solve the problem of insufficient power supply for hypersonic vehicles, effective cooling of the power generation turbine blades is required. The air is too hot to act as a coolant, so the hydrocarbon fuel carried by the hypersonic vehicle becomes the only coolant. For the problem of low heat transfer capacity of hydrocarbon fuel inside the U-shaped channel with constant cross-section under high rotational speed conditions, a novel trapezoidal channel structure is proposed to enhance the heat transfer capacity under rotational conditions. The numerical results show that the trapezoidal channel with an inclination angle of 2° has the highest thermal performance considering the inlet temperature and rotation speed. Compared with straight channels, trapezoidal channels with an inclination angle of 2° can improve thermal performance by a maximum of 1.5 times. The Coriolis force causes the offset of the hydrocarbon fuel, which can significantly enhance the heat transfer capacity of the channel. For straight channels, the Coriolis force only has a significant effect on the first flow channel. However, for trapezoidal channels, the Coriolis force has a significant effect on both the first and second flow channels.