Coupled Heat Transfer Predictions of Thermal Environment for a Turbine Rotor

In order to predict the heat transfer for gas turbines in conceptual design phase, an algorithm was motivated to provide quick, reliable predictions of steady state temperature field. The analyses used 3-D and 2-D solvers for the heat conduction, 2-D boundary layer solver for the main gas boundary and 1-D solver for the fluid network of the secondary air system (SAS). A full scale turbine rotor was studied with this method. The calculation is consistent with experimental result. The average temperature error is 30~40K. Difference between the coupled and uncoupled model is studied for both of the SAS boundary and the main gas boundary. The maximum temperature difference is 120K, maximum mass flow rate relative difference is 10%. It's concluded that energy coupling of the SAS boundary remarkably affects the model precision. For non-cooling turbine blades, energy coupling of the main gas boundary have little impact on the temperature prediction. © 2018, Editorial Department of Journal of Propulsion Technology. All right reserved.