Detailed heat and mass transfer of rotor-stator systems with radial rib structures on the rotating disk

Rotating machinery is ubiquitous due to its high energy performance and system miniaturization. In high-speed rotating environments, developments for higher efficiency and longer lifespan require high-level techniques to overcome issues. Rotor-stator systems that inevitably exist in all rotating machinery, such as gas turbine engines, demand challenges for improvement in thermal management. However, the fundamentals of thermal fluid characteristics are still poor according to the geometry. In this study, we investigated the detailed heat/mass transfer and flow of rotor-stator systems with radial rib structures with hub inflow. A high-speed rotating test rig was constructed to measure local heat/mass transfer of both rotor and stator and pressure distributions using naphthalene sublimation methods and a pressure scanner. The effects of introducing ribs, operating conditions, and rib designs on local heat transfer and flow structure were analyzed. Compared to the systems without the rib, heat transfer on the stator was enhanced by up to 161.2 % due to the rib-accelerated flow. The rotor surface had a two-dimensional local heat transfer distribution with a maximum-minimum ratio of 8. We expect that this first report on the thermal fluid in rotor-stator systems with radial ribs will open the door to developing innovative designs.