Journal of Propulsion and Energy ISSN:2734-1887(Print) 2765-0049(Online)

For thermal-structural weakness, the pin-fin arrays have been widely used in the trailing edge of the turbine. In the pin-fin, the heat transfer is concentrated in the front of the pin, but the backside of the pin has lower heat transfer performance. This high heat load leads to the prominent problems, such as thermal stress and thermal fatigue. This present study numerically investigated the flow characteristics and heat transfer performance of the inclined pin-fin arrays in the alternate directions. The flow field and heat transfer of inclined pin-fin arrays were simulated by using commercial software, ANSYS FLUENT with SST k-ω turbulence model. In the inclined pin-fin arrays, the presence of jet-like flow caused by the counter-rotating vortices enhanced the heat transfer performance of the endwalls and the backside of cylinder and reduced the pressure loss. Moreover, the heat transfer uniformity of all inclined pin-fin arrays was superior to that of general pin-fin arrays. At Re=30000, pin inclination θ=30° increased heat transfer performance by up to 11.9% and decreased friction factor by up to 16.7%, which corresponded to an increase in the thermo-hydraulic performance by up to 18.9% compared to the baseline. This research indicates that pin-fin arrays inclined in the alternate directions had a great potential to improve thermo-hydraulic performance and heat transfer uniformity.