François Thirifay, Jean-François Thomas and Philippe Geuzaine – CENAERO

at MpCCI UF 2008

The fuel efficiency hence the carbon dioxide emissions of a gas turbine used for aircraft propulsion depends on the performance of many key engine components. One of the most important is the high pressure turbine that must operate at a high efficiency in the most hostile environment in the engine. The peak cycle temperatures can reach values that are well above those that can be withstood without damage by the various parts that come into contact with gases, thereby limiting the lifetime of the blade.

In this context, the design of turbine cooling systems remains one of the most challenging processes in engine development. Modern high-pressure turbine cooling systems invariably combine internal convection cooling with external film cooling in complex flow systems whose individual features may interact in complex ways. The heat transfer and cooling processes are at the limit of current understanding. For this reason, computational CHT (Conjugate Heat Transfer) simulations can be used to acquire a better understanding as well as a capacity to simulate the complex flows encountered in modern engine cooling systems.