On the importance of inlet boundary conditions for aerothermal predictions of turbine stages with large eddy simulation

The analysis of a combustion chamber effects on the aerodynamics and thermal loads applied on a turbine stage is proposed. To do so, an integrated wall-modeled Large-Eddy Simulation of a combustion chamber simulator along with its high pressure turbine stage is performed and compared to a standalone turbine stage computation operated under the same mean conditions. For the standalone stage simulations, a parametric study of the turbulence injected at the turbine stage inlet is also discussed. For this specific configuration and with the mesh resolution used, results illustrate that the aerodynamic expansion of the turbine stage is almost insensitive to the inlet turbulent conditions. However, the temperature distribution in the turbine passages as well as on the stator and rotor walls are highly impacted by these inlet conditions underlying the importance of inlet conditions in turbine stage computations and the potential of integrated combustion chamber/turbine simulations in such a context. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.