The present contribution describes the design and realization of a rotating test rig for heat transfer measurements on internal cooling passages of gas turbine blades. The aim is to study the effects of Coriolis and buoyancy forces on the heat transfer distribution inside realistic cooling schemes.
Spatially resolved heat transfer data are obtained by means of transient thermo-chromic liquid crystals (TLC) technique. In order to replicate the same buoyancy effects induced by the Coriolis forces during rotation, the transient measurements are performed with a cold temperature step on the coolant flow. New solutions are adopted to generate the cold temperature step, acquire the experimental data on board of the rotating test model and to control the experimental parameters during tests execution. The main components of the rig will be described in the paper, together with an overview of the data processing methodology that has been developed.
