NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF BOUNDARY LAYER TRANSITION FOR TURBINE BLADE HEAT TRANSFER PREDICTION

This paper deals with an external heat transfer numerical simulation for a two-dimensional transonic turbine blade cascade. We focused on the prediction of the laminar-turbulent boundary layer transition which can have an important effect on the distribution of the heat transfer around the turbine blade surface. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) with the correlation-based transitional model developed by Menter and later modified by Langtry are solved. Comparisons with measurements for a highly loaded transonic turbine blade, experimentally studied on the von Karman Institute (VKI) test facility, show good agreement especially for the prediction of the transition onset for the all test cases considered. One of the major contributions of this paper is the implementation and evaluation of a set of new empirical correlations published recently in the literature. The results show that all correlations tested correctly predict the boundary layer transition onset with a relative difference for the heat flux computed in the fully turbulent region.