Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer Enhancement for Turbine Blade Trailing Edge Cooling With Gyroid-Type Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces

The Gyroid is a type of triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) that has interconnected, perfectly curved topologies and excellent thermomechanical properties. Due to its topological feature to enhance heat transfer and self-support structure, this study presents numerical investigations of the flow, heat transfer, and pressure loss in various Gyroid architectures in a wedge-shaped channel, representing a trailing edge cooling for gas turbine blades. The Gyroid structures are partly arranged near the outlet of the wedged channel or are fully filled within the wedged channel. The local and overall flow and heat transfer mechanisms with different Gyroid configurations are compared to the baseline pin fins within the Reynolds number range of 10,000–30,000. The results show that for the case with partly infilled Gyroid structures, the overall heat transfer enhancement is higher by 39–102%, and the related pressure loss is higher by 93–154% than the baseline pin fins. For the case with fully infilled Gyroid structures, the total heat transfer is superiorly higher by 157–188%, and the related pressure loss is higher by 248–555% than the baseline pin fins. For all the Gyroid configurations, obviously improved cooling uniformity is achieved on the whole trailing edge wall. The significant heat transfer enhancement in the trailing edge channel with Gyroid structures is mainly due to a much increased wetted area, the generated helical and impingement flow through the curved interconnected channels and improved flow distribution within the wedged channel.