Flow and Heat Transfer in an Axial Throughflow Rotating Disk Cavity with Dual Inlets Under Variable Conditions

Jianfei Li, Xueying Li () and Jing Ren
Additional contact information
Jianfei Li: Department of Energy and Power Engineering Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Xueying Li: Department of Energy and Power Engineering Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jing Ren: Department of Energy and Power Engineering Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-23

Abstract: The flow and heat transfer in a rotating disk cavity with dual axial inlets are investigated under a range of operating conditions. A full 360° computational fluid dynamics model is employed, with 40 simulation cases varying the rotational Reynolds number ( Re ω = 1.9 × 10 6 –3.1 × 10 6 ) and axial throughflow Reynolds number ( Re z = 7.3 × 10 5 –1.2 × 10 6 ). The results show that elevated rotation intensifies turbulent mixing and significantly enhances convective cooling on the upstream disk, whereas increasing throughflow improves heat transfer on the downstream disk by promoting deeper coolant penetration. However, an excessive axial flow rate can induce local thermal stratification near the upstream disk, which offsets its heat transfer gains, and strong rotation diminishes the marginal benefits of higher throughflow on downstream cooling. Overall, the study reveals distinct cooling behaviors on the upstream and downstream disk surfaces governed by the interplay between rotation and throughflow. These findings provide insight into optimizing dual-inlet cavity designs and underscore the importance of balancing rotational speed and coolant flow distribution for effective thermal management in gas turbine disk cavities.

Keywords: gas turbine; rotating cavity; axial dual inlets; flow and heat transfer; computational fluid dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/16/4435/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/16/4435/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:16:p:4435-:d:1728708

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().