Internal mist/steam blade cooling technology has been considered for the future generation of Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS). Fine water droplets of about 5 μm were carried by steam through a single slot jet onto a heated target surface in a confined channel. Experiments covered Reynolds numbers from 7500 to 25,000 and heat fluxes from 3 to 21 kW/m2. The experimental results indicate that the cooling is enhanced significantly near the stagnation point by the mist, decreasing to a negligible level at a distance of six jet widths from the stagnation region. Up to 200 percent heat transfer enhancement at the stagnation point was achieved by injecting only ∼1.5 percent of mist. The investigation has focused on the effects of wall temperature, mist concentration, and Reynolds number.

The addition of mist to a flow of steam or gas offers enhanced cooling for many applications, including cooling of gas turbine blades. The enhancement mechanisms include effects of mixing of mist with the gas phase and effects of evaporation of the droplets. An impinging mist flow is attractive for study because the impact velocity is relatively high and predictable. Water droplets, less than 15 μm diameter and at concentrations below 10 percent, are considered. The heat transfer is assumed to be the superposition of three components: heat flow to the steam, heat flow to the dispersed mist, and heat flow to the impinging droplets. The latter is modeled as heat flow to a spherical cap for a time dependent on the droplet size, surface tension, impact velocity and surface temperature. The model is used to interpret experimental results for steam invested with water mist in a confined slot jet. The model results follow the experimental data closely.

Closed loop steam has been chosen for cooling airfoils in heavy frame Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) to improve efficiency. Enhanced cooling by the use of mist is considered to have potential to augment cooling by internal steam alone. Water droplets generally less than 10μm are added to 1.3 bar steam and injected through a row of four discrete round jets onto a heated surface. The Reynolds number is varied from 7500 to 22500 and the heat flux varied from 3.3 to 13.4 kW/m2. The mist increases the heat transfer coefficient along the stagnation line and downstream wanes in about 5 jet diameters. The heat transfer coefficient improves by 50 to 700 percent at the stagnation line for mist concentrations 0.75 to 3.5 percent by weight, depending on conditions. Off-axis maximum cooling occurs in most of the mist/steam flow but not in the steam-only flow. CFD simulation indicates that this off-axis cooling peak is caused by droplets’ interaction with the target walls.

Internal mist/steam blade cooling technology has been considered for the future generation of Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS). Fine water droplets of about 5 m were carried by steam through a single slot jet onto a heated target surface in a confined channel. Experiments covered Reynolds numbers from 7500 to 25,000 and heat fluxes from 3 to 21 kW/m 2 . The experimental results indicate that the cooling is enhanced significantly near the stagnation point by the mist, decreasing to a negligible level at a distance of six jet widths from the stagnation region. Up to 200 percent heat transfer enhancement at the stagnation point was achieved by injecting only ϳ1.5 percent of mist. The investigation has focused on the effects of wall temperature, mist concentration, and Reynolds number.

Gray mold caused by Botrytis spp. is one of the most economically important diseases of cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) worldwide. From April to June 2011, strawberries with symptoms resembling gray mold disease were collected from different locations (Chesnee, Florence, Lexington, McBee, Monetta, and North Augusta) in South Carolina. Fruit infections began as small, firm, light brown lesions that enlarged quickly, becoming covered with a gray, fuzzy mass of spores followed by a soft rot. To isolate the causal agent, spores from symptomatic fruit were suspended in 1% Tween 20, streaked onto the surface of potato dextrose agar plates, and incubated at 22°C. Fungal colonies from single spores were at first colorless and later became gray to brown when the conidiphores and conidia developed. Conidia were identified by their morphological characteristics: an average size of 14 × 9 μm, ellipsoid to rounded without internal structure, and with a scar on the point of union to the conidiophore (1). Sclerotia produced in culture were hard, dark, irregular shaped, and formed after 2 weeks. The pathogen was identified as Botrytis cinerea Pers.: on the basis of morphology and confirmed by a restriction digest with ApoI of the 413-kb PCR amplification product obtained with BA2f/BA1r primers (2). Koch's postulates were conducted by inoculating 10 surface-sterilized strawberries with a conidial suspension (105 spores/ml) of a randomly chosen B. cinerea isolate previously characterized; 10 control fruit received sterile water without conidia. The inoculated fruit were incubated for 3 days at room temperature in air-tight plastic bags. Inoculated fruit developed typical gray mold symptoms with gray sporulating lesions. The developing spores on inoculated fruit were confirmed to be B. cinerea. All control fruit remained healthy. For many Botrytis spp., the internal transcribed spacer region does not reveal nucleotide variations and thus is useless for species identification. We used additional, more appropriate genetic markers for molecular-based species identification and verified that strawberries in South Carolina are affected by gray mold disease caused by B. cinerea. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific report of B. cinerea causing gray mold of strawberry in South Carolina. References: (1) W. R. Jarvis. Botryotinia and Botrytis Species: Taxonomy, Physiology and Pathogenicity. A Guide to the Literature. Monograph no. 15. Canada Department of Agriculture, Research Branch, Ottawa, 1977. (2) K. Nielsen et al. Plant Dis. 86:682, 2002.