Oxford Thermofluids Institute | Research - Flagships: Transpiration Cooling

The £7.34 Million UK-EPSRC and Rolls Royce funded Transpiration Cooling project is a joint initiative between the Universities of Oxford, Imperial, Southampton and Birmingham. Bringing together a world-leading team of researchers, it aims to deliver the underpinning research to make transpiration cooling a reality.

Transpiration cooling is the introduction of a cool layer of fluid through a porous material between the component and the hot freestream flow, reducing the heat flux to the material. Ideally, the hot external gas is displaced from the surface by the introduction of the film which forms a low temperature buffer layer and also increases the overall boundary layer thickness, thus, reducing both the wall normal temperature and velocity gradients.

The team’s approach will allow the coupling between the flow, thermal and stress fields to be researched both experimentally and numerically simultaneously employing an interdisciplinary approach designed to arrive rapidly at the best transpiration cooling systems.