The performance of many engineering devices from power electronics to gas turbines is limited by thermal management. Pin fins are commonly used to augment heat transfer by increasing surface area and increasing turbulence. The present research is focused on but not limited to internal cooling of turbine airfoils using pin fins. Although the pin fins are not limited to a single shape, circular cross-sections are most common.

The present study examines heat transfer from a single row of circular pin fins with the row oriented perpendicular to the flow. The configurations studied have spanwise spacing to pin diameter ratios of two, four, and eight. Low aspect ratio pin fins were studied whereby the channel height to pin diameter was unity. The experiments are carried out for a Reynolds number range of 5000 to 30,000. Heat transfer measurements are taken on both the pin and on the endwall covering several pin diameters upstream and downstream of the pin row. The results show that the heat transfer augmentation relative to open channel flow is highest for the smallest spanwise spacing for the lowest Reynolds number flows. The results also indicate that the pin fin heat transfer is higher than on the endwall.