International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

Multi-objective optimization of the dimple/protrusion channel with pin fins for

heat transfer enhancement
Lei Luo, Wei Du, Songtao Wang, Weilong Wu, Xinghong Zhang,
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Lei Luo, Wei Du, Songtao Wang, Weilong Wu, Xinghong Zhang, (2018) "Multi-objective optimization
of the dimple/protrusion channel with pin fins for heat transfer enhancement", International Journal of
Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-05-2018-0194
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Pin fins for

Multi-objective optimization of the heat transfer
dimple/protrusion channel with pin enhancement

fins for heat transfer enhancement

Lei Luo
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin,
China, and National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Received 8 May 2018
Revised 20 July 2018
Composites in Special Environments Center for Composite Materials and Accepted 14 August 2018
Structure, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
Wei Du and Songtao Wang
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School of Energy Science and Engineering,

Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
Weilong Wu
Department of Air-cooled Turbine,
Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute, Shenyang, China, and
Xinghong Zhang
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in
Special Environments Center for Composite Materials and Structure,
Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimal geometry parameters in a dimple/
protrusion-pin finned channel with high thermal performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The BSL turbulence model is used to calculate the flow structure and
heat transfer in a dimple/protrusion-pin finned channel. The optimization algorithm is set as Non-dominated
Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). The high Nusselt number and low friction factor are chosen as the
optimization objectives. The pin fin diameter, dimple/protrusion diameter, dimple/protrusion location and
dimple/protrusion depth are applied as the optimization variables. An in-house code is used to generate the
geometry model and mesh. The commercial software Isight is used to perform the optimization process.
Findings – The results show that the Nusselt number and friction factor are sensitive to the geometry
parameters. In a pin finned channel with a dimple, the Nusselt number is high at the rear part of the dimple,
while it is low at the upstream of the dimple. A high dissipative function is found near the pin fin. In the
protrusion channel, the Nusselt number is high at the leading edge of the protrusion. In addition, the
protrusion induces a high pressure drop compared to the dimpled channel.
Originality/value – The originality of this paper is to optimize the geometry parameters in a pin finned
channel with dimple/protrusion. This is good application for the heat transfer enhancement at the trailing side
for the gas turbine.
Keywords NSGA-II, Heat transfer, Dimple/protrusion, Flow structure, Pin fin
Paper type Research paper
International Journal of Numerical
Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
The author acknowledges the financial support provided by the Natural Science Foundation of China © Emerald Publishing Limited
0961-5539
(No. 51706051) and China postdoctoral science foundation funded project (No. 2017M620116). DOI 10.1108/HFF-05-2018-0194
 HFF Nomenclature
Cp = Specific heat capacity (J.kg
1.K
1);
dc = Dimple diameter along the spanwise (mm);
dd = Dimple diameter along the streamwise (mm);
Dh = Hydraulic diameter of the inlet (mm);
f = Friction factor;
f0 = Friction factor in smooth channel;
H = Channel height (mm);
h = Distance between the dimple and pin fin;
L = Distance between the pin fin and dimple/protrusion;
L1 = Inlet extent length (mm);
L2 = Channel length (mm);
L3 = Outlet extent length (mm);
Nu = Nusselt number;
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Nu0 = Nusselt number in smooth channel;

Pr = Prandtl number;
Pin = Inlet pressure (Pa);
Pout = Outlet pressure (Pa);
pc = Pin fin diameter along the spanwise (mm);
pd = Pin fin diameter along the streamwise (mm);
q = Wall heat flux (W·m
2);
QN = QN criterion about the vortex;
Re = Reynolds number;
S1 = Pin fin spanwise spacing (mm);
S2 = Pin fin streamwise spacing (mm);
Tin = Inlet air temperature (°C);
Tw = Endwall temperature (°C);
u = Velocity in x direction (m·s
1);
v = Velocity in y direction (m·s
1);
w = Velocity in z direction (m·s
1);
d = Dimple/protrusion depth (mm);
l = Thermal conductivity of air (W·m
1·K
1);
m = Dynamic viscosity (Pa·s);
U = Dissipation function; and
r = Density of air (kg·m
3).

1. Introduction
The heat transfer enhancement at the trailing edge is essential to the efficiency and service
life improvement of the gas turbine. Viewed from the aerodynamics performance, the
trailing edge should have a thin region to reduce the aerodynamics loss. However, a thin
region is disadvantageous to use a complex cooling structure at trailing region (Martini
et al., 2006). Therefore, dimple/protrusion, which has a simple structure, is introduced to cool
the trailing edge with a slight pressure loss (Shen et al., 2016). The secondary flow induced
by the dimple/protrusion contributes to the heat transfer enhancement in the dimple/
protrusion channel (Mahmood et al., 2001; Luo et al., 2016a).
Many studies had been published to investigate the flow structure and heat transfer in a
dimple/protrusion channel. Ligrani (2013) and Ligrani et al. (2003) had already conducted a
detailed review on the heat transfer in a dimpled channel. It was found that the flow
structure and heat transfer in the dimple/protrusion were sensitive to many parameters,
 such as the dimple/protrusion depth-to-diameter ratios, shape, transverse pitch, longitudinal Pin fins for
pitch and flow parameters. Burgess and Ligrani (2005) revealed the effect of the dimple heat transfer
depth on the heat transfer and flow structure in a dimpled channel by experiment. The
results showed that a deeper dimple depth induced a stronger vortex and shear layer. The
enhancement
stronger vortex and shear layer were beneficial for the heat transfer argumentation on
the endwall surface. Isaev et al. (2016) also reported that the heat transfer augmentation ratio
was increased as the dimple depth increased from moderate-depth to large-depth. Apart
from the dimple depth, the dimple/protrusion shape also had a notable effect on the heat
transfer in the channel with dimple/protrusion. Yoon et al. (2015) numerically compared the
heat transfer between a teardrop-dimpled channel and circular-dimpled channel. The results
showed that the low-speed recirculation was broken in a teardrop-dimpled channel. Thus,
the teardrop-dimpled channel had a higher Nusselt number compared to the circular ones.
Xie et al. (2015a) and Rao et al. (2015b) also acquired similar results that the tear-dimple
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brought a higher heat transfer enhancement compared to the circular ones. Zheng et al.
(2017) used a revolutionary structure that had ridged dimples to enhance the heat transfer.
The Nusselt number increased as the extending ratio increased. The total entropy
generation is decreased after adopting the ridged dimples. Shin et al. (2009) used the
transient liquid crystal technique (TLC) to investigate the effect of the dimple distance on
the Nusselt number distribution in a dimpled channel. The results showed that a small
distance between the dimples induced a higher thermal performance. Wang et al. (2018)
investigated the effect of film cooling on the heat transfer and vortex behavior in a dimpled
channel. It was found that the thermal performance was increased after introducing the film
hole. The reason was that low-speed recirculation weakened and the impingement effect
increased.
Although dimple/protrusion has the advantage to protect the blade at the trailing edge, it
can hardly meet the demand of the increasing inlet temperature in advanced gas turbines.
Therefore, the dimple is combined with other structures to enhance the heat transfer at the
trailing side. The pin fin is one of the most used cooling structures to combine with the
dimple/protrusion to improve the thermal performance in gas turbines. Xie et al. (2017b)
used the pin-fin-dimple/protrusion structure in a U bend channel to protect the blade tip cap.
The results showed that the Nusselt number was increased by 31.2–127.3 per cent while the
pressure loss was only increased by 16.2 per cent compared to the small channel. Rao et al.
(2012a) examined the effect of the dimple depth on the flow structure and heat transfer in a
dimple-pin finned channel. It was found that the dimple was beneficial for the heat transfer
augmentation in the pin finned channel. The Nusselt number was increased by 19 per cent
with a slight friction factor drop. Luo et al. (2016a, 2016b) also investigated the flow
characteristic and Nusselt number distribution in a dimple-pin finned channel. The effect of
the dimple arrangement, dimple depth and converge angle was considered in the literature.
A deeper dimple depth induced a higher heat transfer enhancement, and a larger converged
angle induced a higher-pressure loss. Xie et al. (2017b) combined protrusion and elliptical
pin fin in a rectangular channel to enhance the heat transfer. Numerical results showed that
the pin fin þ protrusion provided a higher heat transfer ratio compared to pure pin finned
channel.
According to the previous studies, dimple with pin fin can increase the heat transfer
performance in a rectangular channel. Many parameters have effects on the thermal
performance. It is difficult to find the best parameter combinations in a dimple-pin finned
channel to obtain the highest thermal performance. Therefore, the optimization was
important to find the optimal parameters in the previous studies. Cooling structure
optimization has been broadly introduced. Kim and Choi (2005) and Kim and Shin (2008)
 HFF adopted the response surface method to obtain the optimal dimple structure. The results
showed that the Nusselt number and friction factor were sensitive to the dimple depth and
print diameter. Kim et al. (2011) used NSGA-II to obtain the Pareto-optimal front in an
elliptic-dimpled channel. The Nusselt number and friction factor were introduced as the
objective function. The Nusselt number was increased by 32.8 per cent at most. Li et al.
(2017) used the multi-island genetic algorithm to optimize the dimple structure to improve
the thermal performance. According to the Pareto plots, the dimple depth had the most
negative influence on the pressure loss and average temperature. Not only the dimpled
channel but also the pin finned channel was optimized. Ping (2008) found the Pareto-optimal
solutions by the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm in a staggered elliptical pin-finned
channel. It was found that the elliptical pin fin had a higher thermal performance than
that of the circular ones. Xie et al. (2015a) chose entropy generation minimization as the
optimization objective to optimize the parameters (length, diameter and shape) of the pin fin.
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It was found that the spanwise spacing had more effect on the heat transfer than that of the
streamwise spacing.
Although many optimizations had been done in the dimpled channel or pin finned
channel to obtain a higher heat transfer performance, a small number of literatures had been
published to investigate the optimal geometry in a dimple/protrusion-pin finned channel.
Therefore, it was necessary to find the optimal dimple/protrusion and pin fin configuration.
According to the previous studies, the dimple/protrusion location, depth, print diameter and
pin fin diameter had significant effects on the flow structure and heat transfer. Thus, the
dimple/protrusion location, depth, print diameter and pin fin diameter were chosen as
the optimization variables. The Nusselt number and friction factor were selected as the
optimization objects. On the other hand, the flow structure, heat transfer and thermal
performance were shown in this paper.

2. Problem description and geometric model

2.1 Problem description
In this study, the optimization of the heat transfer and flow structure in a pin finned channel
with dimple/protrusion is introduced. An in-house code is used to generate the geometrical
model and structure mesh. The commercial software CFX is used to calculate the 3D-
incompressible-steady flow and heat transfer. It acquires a second-order accuracy in the
time and space. Because of the fully implicit algorithm, CFX has a fast convergence speed
and good stability. It has been successfully applied to turbine aerodynamic and cooling
design. In addition, Li et al. (2016), Xie et al. (2017a, 2017b) are also used the CFX to simulate
the heat transfer and flow structure in a pin finned channel. Thus, the CFX is chosen in this
study. The Reynolds number ranges from 8,500 to 36,750. The study is carried out as
follows:
First, the geometric model is determined according to the previous studies. In addition,
the numerical validation and mesh independence are carried out to obtain convincing
results.
Second, the multi-objective optimization is carried out. The optimization processes are
performed at Re = 36,750. The friction factor, which means the energy loss, and the Nusselt
number, which means the heat transfer ability, are chosen as the optimization objects. After
the optimization, the Pareto front is shown in this paper.
Third, five cases that have different friction factors and Nusselt numbers are chosen
from the Pareto front to compare with the baseline. The flow structure, vortex and heat
transfer distribution are analyzed in this section.
 Pin fins for
heat transfer
enhancement
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Figure 1.
A schematic of the
dimple/protrusion
and pin fin in a
rectangular channel

Finally, the thermal performances for these cases are evaluated at Reynolds numbers
ranging from 8,500 to 36,750. The area goodness factor and volume goodness factor are
compared among the different cases. This comparison is beneficial for the heat transfer
design at the trailing edge in a gas turbine.

2.2 Geometric model

In this study, the geometric model is generated by an in-house code which is programmed by
MATLAB. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the geometrical model in this study. To minimize the
computational resource, only a period rectangular channel along the spanwise direction is
adopted in this study. The size for the inlet section is 25 mm in width (s1) and 10 mm in height
(h). The pin fins are staggered arrangement on the endwall surface. The longitude pitch of the
pin fin is s2 = 50 mm. The shape of the pin fin is characterized by pc and pd. The dimple/
protrusion is located at the downstream of the pin fin. The distance between the dimple and pin
fin is controlled by the value of L. The print diameter of the dimple/protrusion is characterized
 HFF by dc and dd. The depth of the dimple/protrusion is decided by d . The dimple has a negative
value of d while the protrusion has a positive value. Five rows of the dimple/protrusion and pin
fin are placed in the rectangular channel, respectively. An extra inlet region with L1 = 150 mm
is adopted to obtain a fully developed turbulent flow. In addition, an extra outlet region with
L2 = 100 mm is used to weaken the outlet boundary influence.

3. Computational details
3.1 Parameter definitions
The Reynolds number based on the channel hydraulic diameter is defined as:

r UDh
Re ¼ (1)
m
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where r is the air density at the inlet; U is the averaged inlet velocity; Dh is the hydraulic
diameter of the wedge duct inlet; and m is the dynamic viscosity.
The Nusselt number is defined as follows:

q Dh
Nu ¼ (2)
Tw
Tb l

where q is the wall heat flux; Tw is the temperature of endwall; Tb is the local bulk
temperature; and l is the thermal conductivity of air.
The friction factor is defined as follows:

2DP Dh
f ¼ (3)
rU2 L

where DP is the pressure drop of the wedge duct; DP = Pin – Pout; and L = 200 mm.
The Q criterion of the vortex is defined as Shuling et al. (2017):
"

2
2 #
2
1 @u @v @w @u @v @u @w @v @w
QN ¼
þ þ


(4)
2 @x @y @z @y @x @z @x @z @y

where u, v, w are the velocities in the x, y, z directions, respectively.

The dissipation function is defined as Schlichting and Gersten (2000):
"

2
2 # "

2
2
@u @v @w @u @v 2 @u @w
log10 U ¼ log10 2 m þ þ þm þ þ þ
@x @y @z @y @x @z @x

2 #
2
@v @w 2 @u @v @w
þ þ
m þ þ (5)
@z @z 3 @x @y @z

3.2 Selection of turbulence model

To choose an appropriate turbulence model to predict the flow structure and heat transfer in
a rectangular channel with pin fin and dimple/protrusion, the numerical results are used to
 compare with the experimental results (Rao et al., 2012a). The geometry used in this study is Pin fins for
similar to that in (Rao et al., 2012a), i.e. both geometry has the parameters of the pin fin heat transfer
height-to-diameter ratio with 1, transverse spacing with 2.5 and the longitudinal spacing enhancement
with 2.5, respectively. Figure 2 shows the comparison of the Nusselt number and friction
factor between the numerical results (five different turbulent model) and experimental
results. It is found that the results obtained by the BSL turbulence model (Menter, 1994) has
better performance to predict the heat transfer and friction factor compared to another
turbulent model. The maximum deviation is 8.6 and 13.0 per cent for the Nusselt number
and friction factor, respectively. Thus, the BSL turbulence model is used in this study to find
the optimum cooling structure.

3.3 Boundary conditions

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In this study, a mass flow rate, which is based on the Reynolds number, is specified as the
inlet condition. The Reynolds number ranges from 8,500 to 36,750. The inlet temperature is
20 C; and the turbulence intensity is 5 per cent. A no-slip wall and constant wall heat flux
(q = 1,000 w/m2) are used on the endwall surface and pin fin surface. The pressure outlet
condition (Pout = 0 Pa) is specified at the outlet condition. On the other hand, the periodic
boundary condition is applied at the periodic side. The second-order scheme is applied to
discretize the governing equation to obtain more accurate results compared to first order.

3.4 Grid details and independent solutions

The structural mesh is generated by the in-house code programmed by MATLAB.
The quality of the mesh is more than 0.5. The first thickness of the mesh is 0.01 mm to
ensure that the Y þ value is approximately 1. To balance the accuracy of the numerical
solutions and computer resources, five different mesh numbers are introduced to
obtain an appropriate mesh number. Table I shows the Nusselt number and friction
factor with the different mesh numbers. The result shows that the Nusselt number
and friction factor remain constant as the mesh number is increased from 3.0 million
to 4.0 million. Therefore, a mesh number of 3.0 million is used in this study. Figure 3
shows the mesh in detail.

Figure 2.
A comparison
between the CFD
results and
experimental results
(Rao et al., 2012a)
 HFF 4. Optimization details
The commercial software Isight is used to perform the optimization process. The
Isight provides a reliable, accurate, robust, fast and abundant optimization algorithm.
Many literatures also use the Isight to optimize the heat transfer and flow structure.
Thus, we choose the Isight as the optimization platform. NSGA-II is chosen as the
multi-objective optimization algorithm in this study. A computation platform that has
an I7 CPU is used to process all of the calculations. After the optimization process,
five different cases that are located at the Pareto front are used to analyze the flow
structure and heat transfer in detail.

Mesh number (million) 1.6 2.0 2.6 3.3 4.0

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Table I. Nu/Nu0 2.51 2.35 2.26 2.48 2.48

Mesh independence f/f0 16.13 16.48 16.57 16.65 16.69

Figure 3.
Detail of the mesh
 4.1 Optimization procedure Pin fins for
Figure 4 shows the optimization procedure in this study. This procedure includes the heat transfer
geometry module, mesh model, CFD model and post process model. All of these models are
coupled by Isight and run automatically activated. An individual case costs 2.0 h in general.
enhancement
To obtain appropriate optimal results, the population size is set as 8 and the number of
generation is set as 14 in Isight. Therefore, 112 cases are calculated in total, corresponding to
10 days. On the other hand, Re = 36,750 is chosen as the operation condition in this section.

4.2 Optimization objectives and variables

According to the previous studies, the dimple and pin fin parameters have significant effect
on the flow structure and heat transfer in a rectangular channel. Therefore, the dimple/
protrusion diameter (dd, dc), pin fin diameter (pd, pc), dimple/protrusion depth (ddd ) and dimple/
protrusion location (L) are chosen as the optimization variables in this study. The ranges of
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the optimization variable are shown in Table II. In the heat transfer exchange design,
designers pursue a high Nusselt number and low-pressure loss. Therefore, the Nusselt
number and friction factor are chosen as the optimization objectives.

Figure 4.
The optimization
procedure
 HFF 4.3 Optimization algorithm
The NSGA-II is chosen to optimize the heat transfer performance in a pin fined
channel with dimple/protrusion channel and get a Pareto front solution. The NSGA-II
is a fast and elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm. It extends from the multi-
objective optimization (MOO) and has a better performance and is widely used in the
optimization process (Foli et al., 2006). In this study, the multi-objective optimization
performed can be written as follows:

8

>
> Nu d
>
> Maximize ¼ f d ; d ; p ; p ; ; L
>
> Nu0
1 d c d c
dd
>
>
>
>

>
>
> Minimize f ¼ f
>
d
dd ; dc ; pd ; pc ; ; L
>
> 2
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>
> f0 dd
>
>
>
< subject to:
10:5 # L # 10:5
>
> 7 # dc # 11 7 # dd # 11
>
>
>
>
>
> 7 # dc # 11 7 # dd # 11
>
>
>
>
>
> d
>
>
0:4 # # 0:4
>
> d
>
> d
>
: Re ¼ 36; 750

5. Results and discussion

5.1 Pareto front
Figure 5 shows the Pareto front according to the optimization process. The low ff0 or
f
low Nu Nu0
Nu region can be found in Figure 5. The results show that f0 and Nu correlate to
0

each other. A higher ff0 value is accompanied with a lower Nu Nu value in general. To
0

analyze the flow structure and heat transfer in detail, five cases that are located at the
Pareto front are chosen, i.e. Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The dimple is closer to the upstream
of the pin fin in Case 1, while it is closer to the downstream of pin fin in Case 2. The
protrusion structures are used in Cases 3, 4 and 5. The shape and location are different
from each other. On the other hand, the case without dimple/protrusion is selected as
the baseline to compare with the other cases. That is, six different cases are shown in
this study. The specific parameters are shown in Table III.

Variables Range minimum Range maximum

dc 7 11
dd 7 11
pc 7 11
pd 7 11
Table II. d
0.4 0.4
Ranges of the dc

10.5 10.5
optimization variable L
 Pin fins for
heat transfer
enhancement
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Figure 5.
Pareto front

5.2 Heat transfer characteristics

Figure 6 shows a comparison of the Nusselt number distribution on the endwall among the
baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Re = 36,750. It is found that the geometry structure has a
significant effect on the Nusselt number distribution. In the baseline which is a pure pin
finned channel, a high Nusselt number value is found near the leg of the horseshoe vortex
(HV). The HV transports the boundary fluid to the main flow and enhances the heat transfer.
However, the area of the high Nusselt number region is decreased with the development of
the HV. The Nusselt number is relatively lower at the wake region, which is located at the
downstream of the pin fin. The wake region which has the low momentum contributes to the
low Nusselt number. It is also found that the Nusselt number is increased slightly at farther
downstream of the pin fin. The Nusselt number distribution characteristics in a pure pin
finned channel are consistent with the discussion in Won et al. (2004). Figure 6 also shows
that the Nusselt number distribution is quite different after adoption of the dimple/
protrusion. In Case 1, the Nusselt number near the HV is clearly decreased. That is, the
elliptical shaped pin fin has a negative effect on the heat transfer enhancement compared to

Variables Baseline Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5

dc – 10.48 9.69 10.45 9.68 9.69

dd – 8.23 10.11 10.40 10.33 10.08
pc 10 7.16 7.22 7.00 9.70 9.86
pd 10 9.80 9.97 9.98 9.97 9.99
d – 0.18 0.26
0.36
0.18
0.18 Table III.
dc Parameters of the
–
6.53 2.66 2.37
3.08 8.63
L different cases
 HFF
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Figure 6.
A comparison of the
Nusselt number
distribution among
the baseline, Cases 1,
2, 3, 4 and 5 at Re =
36,750

circular ones. The length of the low Nusselt number region at the wake region is also
increased compared to the baseline. For the Nusselt number distribution near the dimple, the
Nusselt number is relatively lower at the upstream of the dimple surface while it is relatively
higher at the rear part of the dimple surface. The results are similar with the previous
studies (Luo et al., 2016a, 2016b; Xie et al., 2015a). Further downstream of the dimple, the
Nusselt number continues to maintain a relatively high value. In Case 2, the shape of the pin
fin is similar to Case 1. Therefore, the Nusselt number distribution characteristic near the
pin fin is similar to Case 1. However, the distance (L) and the shape of the dimple are
different from Case 1. Thus, the Nusselt number near the dimple has remarkable changes.
The relatively higher Nusseelt number region moves toward the upstream of the dimple and
the Nusselt number is increased at the downstream of the dimple surface. Further inspection
of Figure 6 shows that Cases 3, 4 and 5 are equipped with the protrusion. The Nusselt
number has a sharp increase on the endwall surface compared to the dimpled channel. In
Case 3, the Nusselt number is high at the leading edge of the protrusion, while it is low at the
trailing edge of the protrusion (Luo et al., 2017). The impingement and separation play an
important role in this Nusselt number distribution characteristics. In addition, it is found
that the protrusion has a slight effect on the Nusselt number near the pin fin. As the
protrusion location changes, the Nusselt number near the protrusion has a remarkable
increase in Case 4 compared to Case 3. The high Nusselt number region near the protrusion
 moves toward the upstream and merges with the other high Nusselt number region which is Pin fins for
near the pin fin. As the distance between the protrusion and pin fin decreases, the Nusselt heat transfer
number near the protrusion is decreased, i.e. Case 5. On the other hand, the area of the low
enhancement
Nusselt number region, which is located at the downstream of the pin fin, is clearly
increased. This increase means that a close distance between the protrusion and pin fin is
harmful to the heat transfer augmentation.

5.3 Flow structure and vortex

To explain the Nusselt number distribution characteristics, the flow structure and vortex are
analyzed in this section. Figure 7 shows a comparison of the streamline and pressure
distribution on the different planes among the baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Re = 36,750.
According to the previous studies, the flow structure in a pure pin finned channel is
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Figure 7.
A comparison of the
streamline
distribution on the
different plane among
the baseline, Cases 1,
2, 3, 4 and 5 at
Re = 36,750
 HFF characterized by the wake and HV (Al-Abidi et al., 2013; Moon and Kim, 2014). The HV is in
favor of the heat transfer enhancement while the wake region is disadvantageous for the
heat transfer enhancement. In the baseline, a wake region with low pressure is found at the
downstream of the pin fin. The low-pressure region is induced by the counter-rotation
vortex. On the other hand, the highest-pressure region is found at the leading edge of the pin
fin because of the flow stagnation. In this region, the energy transforms from kinetic energy
to pressure energy. The highest pressure around the pin fin leads to an inverse pressure
gradient flow. Under the action of the inverse pressure gradient and flow viscosity, an HV is
originated from the stagnation line. The two legs of the HV belong to the longitudinal
vortexes and destroy the boundary layer to increase the heat transfer. Therefore, a high
Nusselt number is found near the HV which has already discussed in Figure 6(a). In Case 1,
which has dimples on the endwall surface, a low-speed recirculation is found within the
dimple and a small impingement region is found at the rear part of the dimple. In addition, a
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reattachment line is induced by the impingement and low-speed recirculation. This physical
phenomenon has been analyzed in detail by Wang et al., 2018 and Won et al., (2004). The
low-speed recirculation is harmful for the heat transfer enhancement while the impingement
is beneficial for the heat transfer enhancement. Through analyzing the pressure distribution
near the pin fin, it is found that the low-speed recirculation induces a high pressure drop
near the dimple. In addition, the inverse pressure gradient is decreased compared to the
baseline. That is, the strength of the HV is decreased in Case 1. The weaker HV leads to a
lower Nusselt number near the pin fin, which is consistent with the discussion in Figure 6. In
Case 2, the low-speed recirculation region is invisible within the dimple surface. However,
the area of the impingement region becomes large compared to Case 1. Thus, Case 2 has a
higher Nusselt number within the dimple surface. After the flow impinges onto the dimple
surface strongly, an up-wash flow is generated at the rear part of the dimple surface. Under
the effect of the pressure in main flow, the up-wash flow reattaches at further downstream
of the endwall surface. Therefore, a small reattachment region is found at the downstream of
the dimple (Wang et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2016; Elyyan and Tafti 2010). For the pressure
distribution in Case 2, it is similar to Case 1. The wake region has a low pressure and the
leading edge of the pin fin has a high pressure. On the other hand, the pressure within the
dimple is increased significantly because of the strong impingement. The flow structure and
pressure distribution in Case 3 are quite different from that in Cases 1 and 2. In Case 3, the
flow impinges onto the protrusion surface and causes a high-pressure region at the leading
edge. Then, the fluid flows through the top of the protrusion and separates at the rear part of
the protrusion (Won et al., 2004; Zhou et al., 2016). A low pressure is found at the separation
region. In addition, a separation line is found on the protrusion surface. The separation
induces a low Nusselt number region because of the low velocity and a thicker boundary
layer. For Case 4, which has a shallow protrusion depth compared to Case 3, the separation
line moves toward the downstream of the protrusion because the inverse pressure gradient
is decreased. The small separation region and large impingement region are beneficial for
the heat transfer enhancement. In Case 5, the protrusion is located near the wake region.
Therefore, the impingement region and separation region are invisible. A reversed flow is
found at the leading edge of the protrusion because of the wake. On the other hand, the
pressure at the leading edge of the pin fin is also increased compared to Cases 3 and 4. It is
beneficial for the HV development and heat transfer enhancement.
To visualize the flow structure, Figure 8 shows a comparison of the vortex distribution
among the baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. It is found that the shape of the iso-vortex is
different. The iso-vortex is acquired by the QN criterion, which is different from the Q and
l 2 criterion. The QN criterion can identify a vortex with more accuracy. In the baseline, a
 Pin fins for
heat transfer
enhancement
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Figure 8.
A comparison of the
iso-vortex among the
baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3,
4 and 5 at Re = 36,750

wake region, corresponding to the low heat transfer enhancement, is clear and can be clearly
observed by the iso-vortex surface. However, the leg of the HV combines with the wake
region. In Case 1, the ellipse shaped pin fin induces a small wake region and a larger leg of
the HV. The large HV is in favor of the heat transfer enhancement. A low-speed recirculation
region is found at the upstream of the dimple. In Case 2, the low-speed recirculation region is
replaced by the impingement within the dimple surface. In addition, a counter-rotating
vortex is generated at the upstream of the dimple. The leg of the counter-rotating vortex,
which is characterized by a “V” shape, advects away toward the downstream and mixes
with the HV further downstream of the dimple. The counter-rotating vortex transports the
boundary fluid to the main flow and increases the heat transfer simultaneously. The vortex
structure is more complicated in Case 3 compared to the other cases. A pair of longitudinal
vortexes is formed at the rear part of the protrusion after the impingement. The longitudinal
vortexes destroy the horseshoe vortex and harmful for the heat transfer. In Case 4, the shape
of the pin fin is close to a circular shape. Therefore, the wake region becomes large again and
decreases the impingement effect at the leading side of the protrusion. The wake region
makes the counter-rotating vortex invisible, which occurs in Case 3. For Case 5, the
protrusion is fully covered by the wake region. The disappeared impingement is harmful for
the heat transfer enhancement.
Figure 9 shows a comparison of the TKE distribution near the endwall surface among
the baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Re = 36,750. The value of the TKE represents the
strength of the mixture between the boundary layer and main flow. Thus, a high TKE
means high heat transfer enhancement. The TKE distribution in this study is different
 HFF
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Figure 9.
A comparison of the
TKE distribution
near the endwall
among the baseline,
Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
at Re = 36,750

from each other. In the baseline, the interaction between the HV and wake induces a high
TKE region, corresponding to a high Nusselt number. The leading edge of the pin fin also
has a higher TKE because of the impingement while the wake region has a low TKE,
corresponding to the low Nusselt number. After adoption of the dimple/protrusion, the
TKE distribution shows significant changes compared to the baseline. In Case 1, the TKE
is high at the rear part of the dimple surface while it is low at the upstream of the dimple.
That is because the low-speed recirculation increases the boundary thickness while the
impingement reduces the boundary thickness. The TKE at further downstream of the dimple
also has a slight increase compared to the baseline. However, the TKE near the pin fin is
decreased because of the weak HV. In Case 2, the TKE near the HV continues to decrease
compared to Case 1. In contrast, the TKE is increased remarkably at the rear part of the dimple
because of the reattachment. As for Case 3, a high TKE is found at the leading edge of the
protrusion because the thickness of the boundary layer is decreased by the impingement. It is
also found that the separation region, which is located at the rear part of the protrusion, has a
low TKE. It is harmful for the heat transfer enhancement, corresponding to the low Nusselt
number. As the protrusion depth decreases and the distance becomes long, the impingement
effect is weakened. Thus, the TKE is decreased at the leading edge of the protrusion while it is
increased at the rear part of the protrusion in Case 4. In Case 5, the area of the low TKE in the
wake region is increased sharply. The TKE is also decreased at further downstream of the
 protrusion compared to the other cases, indicating that a low Nusselt number would be found Pin fins for
at the endwall surface. heat transfer
The pressure drop is also a key parameter in the cooling structure for a gas turbine. It is
interesting and important to understand which structure contributes to the pressure drop
enhancement
the greatest in a dimple/protrusion-pin finned channel. According to the viscous flow, the
dissipative function represents the energy losses. The higher dissipative function means
more mechanical energy is changed into heat energy. Figure 10 shows a comparison of the
dissipative function distribution among the baseline, Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Re = 36,750. In
the baseline, the highest dissipative function is found at the leading edge of the pin fin
because of the high velocity gradient. The high velocity gradient leads to a high wall shear
stress on the pin fin surface. The second highest dissipative function occurs at the junction
of the wake and main flow. In addition, it is found that the wake region induces a low energy
loss because of the small velocity gradient. Therefore, weakening of the impingement effect
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at the leading edge of the pin fin is an important method to reduce the pressure drop. In Case
1, the dissipative function is decreased around the ellipse shaped pin fin. However, a high
dissipative function is found near the dimple, especially at the free shear layer between the
main flow and recirculation. At the downstream of the dimple, the dissipative function also
maintains a high value compared to the baseline. In Case 2, the upstream of the dimple has a
low value of dissipative function compared to Case 1, while the rear part of the dimple has a
high dissipative function because of the impingement. Remarkably, the up-wash and
reattachment region also induces a high dissipative function in the dimple-pin finned
channel. Thus, the pressure drop would be decreased after decreasing the up-wash and
recirculation. In a channel with protrusion, i.e. Cases 3, 4 and 5, a high dissipative function is
found around the protrusion both in the leading and trailing sides. The protrusion in Case 3
has a wider effect range for the dissipative function. Therefore, the pressure drop in Case 3 is
larger than that in the other cases. In Case 4, the dissipative function is increased at the rear
part of the protrusion, while it is decreased at the leading side of the protrusion compared to
Case 3. In Case 5, the protrusion is near the wake region, and the dissipative function is
lower compared to Cases 3 and 4.

5.4 Thermal performance

Figure 11 shows a comparison of the area-averaged Nusselt number and friction factor
versus Reynolds number in the range from 8,500 to 36,750. The Nusselt number is
normalized by Nu0 = 0.023Re0.8Pr0.4 (Kumar et al., 2017). The friction factor is
normalized by f0 = 0.31Re
0.25 (Singh and Ekkad, 2017). The results show that the
Nusselt number is sensitive to the Reynolds number and geometry parameters. As the
Reynolds number increases, the Nusselt number is increased sharply for the baseline,
Cases 3, 4 and 5, while it is increased slightly for Cases 1 and 2. In addition, it is found
that the channel with protrusion has a high Nusselt number compared to the dimple
ones. These results are consistent with the discussion in Figure 6. For the friction
factor, it is found that the friction factor is increased as the Reynolds number increases
for all cases. Cases 1 and 2 have almost the same friction factor versus the Reynolds
number. However, the friction factor in the protrusion channel has a different value
compared to each other. On the other hand, it is found that the protrusion causes a high
pressure drop compared to dimpled channel.
Figure 12 shows a comparison of the thermal performance
for all cases with the Re
   
f
Nu0 = f0
Nu
number ranging from 8,500 to 36,750. The area goodness factor and volume
 HFF
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Figure 10.
A comparison of the
dissipative function
at the middle plane
among the baseline,
Cases 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
at Re = 36,750
 Pin fins for
heat transfer
enhancement
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Figure 11.
A comparison of the
area-average Nusselt
number ratios and
friction factor for Re
number ranges from
8,500 to 36,750
 HFF
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Figure 12.
A comparison of the
thermal performance
for Re number ranges
from 8,500 to 36,750

   13  Pin fins for
goodness factor Nu
= ff0 are used as the evaluation criteria for the thermal
Nu0 heat transfer
performance. A high area goodness factor means a high Nusselt number with the same enhancement
pressure drop, and a high-volume goodness factor means a high heat transfer enhancement
with the same pump power.  Figure
 12 indicates that pin finned channel with dimple/
f
protrusion has a high Nu
Nu0 =compared to the pure pin finned channel. It is also found
f0
   
that the channel with dimple has better thermal performance in terms of Nu Nu
0
= ff0
compared to the protrusion one. Further inspection of Figure 12 shows that the dimple/
protrusion also improves the volume goodness factor compared to the baseline. It is also
found that Case 3 has a better performance compared to the other cases.
A new thermal performance evaluation indicator is proposed by Fan et al. (2009).
The figure is divided into four regions by three lines. Lines 1, 2 and 3 mean that the heat
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transfer configuration has the same heat transfer enhancement ratio with identical
pump power, identical pressure drop and identical flow ratio, respectively. Region 1,
which is under Line 1, means that the heat transfer is deteriorated with the same pump
power. Region 2, located between the Lines 1 and 2, shows that the heat transfer is
improved at the same pump power but deteriorated at the same pressure. The heat
transfer is increased with the same pressure drop while it is deteriorated at the same
flow rate in Region 3. In Region 4, the heat transfer is increased at the same flow ratio.
In general, the pin fin has a high Nusselt number and friction factor compared to the
dimple/protrusion. In this study, the pin fin channel with dimple/protrusion is closer to
Region 3 compared to the pure pin finned channel, which is located at Region 4. That is,
the dimple/protrusion channel with pin fin has better thermal performance. In addition,
Case 3 has better thermal performance, as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13.
A comparison of the
thermal performance
with other sources
 HFF 6. Conclusions
A trailing edge cooling structure with dimple/protrusion and pin fin was optimized using the
BSL turbulence model and NSGA-II multi-objective algorithm. Six geometry parameters were
selected as the objective variables. The pressure drop and Nusselt number were optimized. Five
cases from the Pareto front were analyzed in detail through the flow structure and heat transfer
characteristics. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows:
 The results showed that the pin fin channel with protrusion had a high Nusselt
number and friction factor compared to that in the dimpled channel. The Nusselt
number was high at the leading edge of the protrusion while it was low at the rear
part of the protrusion. In contrast, the Nusselt number was high at the rear part of
the dimple, while it was low at the upstream of the dimple.
 In the pin finned channel with a dimple, the flow structure was dominated by the low-
speed recirculation and impingement. The impingement destroyed the boundary layer
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and induced a high Nusselt number. In the protrusion channel, the flow structure was
characterized by the impingement and separation. The separation is found at the rear
part of the protrusion and induced a low Nusselt number.
 The thermal performance was improved after adopting the dimple/protrusion compared
to the baseline both in terms of the area goodness factor and volume goodness factor. In
addition, the optimization results were closer to Region 3 compared to the baseline.

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channel with teardrop dimple/protrusion”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,
Vol. 84, pp. 486-496.

Corresponding author
Lei Luo can be contacted at: leiluo@hit.edu.cn

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