Application of temperature-sensitive paint for surface temperature measurement in heat transfer enhancement applications

This paper introduces the use of temperature-sensitive paint (TSP) to obtain the whole-field temperature distributions in heat transfer enhancement applications. Knowing the surface temperatures in such applications is important to quantify the heat transfer, as well as to obtain insight into the flow physics. Applying the TSP to a flat plate with and without a vortex generator showed that the TSP Nusselt number distribution over the flat plate alone matched the Blasius solution with less than 10% error. The TSP temperature distribution of the flat plate with the delta wing vortex generator showed a local heat transfer enhancement of about 30% and the locations of temperature extremes. This paper also provides a detailed guideline for the application, image acquisition, and image processing procedures for TSP along with its calibration surfaces.