Evaluation of a Hue Capturing Based Transient Liquid Crystal Method for High-Resolution Mapping of Convective Heat Transfer on Curved Surfaces

Accurate determination of convective heat transfer coefficients on complex curved surfaces is essential in the aerothermal design and analysis of propulsion system components. The heat transfer surfaces are geometrically very complex in most of the propulsion applications. This study focuses on the evaluation of a hue capturing technique for the heat transfer interpretation of liquid crystal images from a complex curved heat transfer surface. Impulsively starting heat transfer experiments in a square to rectangular transition duct are reported. The present technique is different from existing steady-state hue capturing studies. A real-time hue conversion process on a complex curved surface is adopted for a transient heat transfer technique with high spatial resolution. The study also focuses on the use of encapsulated liquid crystals with narrow color band in contrast to previous steady-state hue based techniques using wide band liquid crystals. Using a narrow band crystal improves the accuracy of the heat transfer technique. Estimated uncertainty for the heat transfer coefficient from the technique is about 5.9 percent. A complete heat transfer map of the bottom surface was possible using only seven liquid crystal image frames out of the 97 available frames during the transient experiment. Significant variations of heat transfer coefficients are quantitatively visualized on the curved surfaces of the transition duct.