High-Fidelity Computational Assessment of Aero-Thermal Performance and the Reynolds’ Analogy for Additively Manufactured Anisotropic Surface Roughness

Direct numerical simulations of incompressible turbulent forced convection over irregular, anisotropic surface roughness in a pressure-driven plane channel flow have been performed. Heat transfer was simulated by solving the passive scalar transport equation with Prandtl number Pr = 0.7. The roughness topographies under investigation here are based on an X-ray computed tomography scan of an additively manufactured internal cooling passage, which had an irregular, multiscale and mildly non-Gaussian height distribution. Three different roughness topographies and three different friction Reynolds numbers (Re_τ = 395, 590, 720) were considered, along with reference smooth-wall simulations at matched Re_τ. By systematically varying the roughness topography and flow conditions, a direct computational assessment of aero-thermal performance (pressure losses and heat transfer) and the Reynolds analogy factor, i.e., 2C_h/C_f, where C_h is the heat-transfer coefficient (Stanton number) and C_f is the skin-friction coefficient, was conducted. The results highlight the profound impact that the roughness orientation (relative to the flow direction) has upon the aero-thermal performance of additively manufactured internal passages, with transverse-aligned roughness augmenting heat transfer by as much as 33%, relative to its streamwise-aligned counterpart. An interrogation of velocity and temperature statistics in the near-wall region was also performed, which underlined the growing dissimilarity between heat transfer and drag as fully rough conditions are approached.