COUPLED AERO-THERMAL MODELING OF A ROTATING CAVITY WITH RADIAL INFLOW

Flow and heat transfer in an aero-engine compressor disc cavity with radial inflow has been studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), large eddy simulation (LES) and coupled fluid/solid modelling. Standalone CFD investigations were conducted using a set of popular turbulence models along with 0.2 degrees axisymmetric and a 22.5 degrees discrete sector CFD models. The overall agreement between the CFD predictions is good, and solutions are comparable to an established integral method solution in the major part of the cavity. The LES simulation demonstrates that flow unsteadiness in the cavity due to the unstable thermal stratification is largely suppressed by the radial inflow. Steady flow CFD modelling using the axisymmetric sector model and the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was coupled with a finite element (FE) thermal model of the rotating cavity. Good agreement was obtained between the coupled solution and rig test data in terms of metal temperature. Analysis confirms that use of a small radial bleed flow in compressor cavities is effective in reducing thermal response times for the compressor discs and that this could be applied in management of compressor blade clearance.