A new cooling technique based on thermal driving in high centrifugal field （TDHCF） is developed for gas turbine rotational components, such as turbine blades. The key point of TDHCF is to enhance heat transfer by the fluid thermal driving in closed loop small channels placed in the high centrifugal field. Heat transfer characteristics of the new cooling technique are analyzed. In experiments, two different fluids （liquid water and Freon R12） are used as thermal driving media （fluid inside the loop channel）. And the channel width d is 1 mm and the height h is 30 mm. The temperature is measured by thermocouples and an average heat transfer coefficient KH is defined to indicate heat transfer capacity of TDHCF. Experimental results show that KH is enhanced when heat flux and the rotating speed increase. And thermal properties of thermal driving media are also influenced by KH. Larger KH can be achieved by using Freon R12 as thermal driving medium compared with using liquid water. It can increase to 2 300 W/（m^2 · K） and it is much higher than that of the normal air cooling method （usually at the level of 600-1200 W/（m^2·K））. All fundamental studies of TDHCF show that there actually exists thermal driving in the closed loop small channel in the centrifugal field to improve heat transfer characteristics.
