Abstract
Thermal analysis of a turbine disc through a transient test cycle is demonstrated using 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for the cooling flow and 3D finite element analysis (FEA) for the disc. The test case is a 3D angular sector of the high pressure (HP) turbine assembly of a civil jet engine and includes details of the coolant flow around the blade roots. Proprietary FEA and CFD solvers are used to simulate the metal and fluid domains, respectively. Coupling is achieved through an iterative loop with smooth exchange of information between the FEA and CFD simulations at each time step, ensuring consistency of temperature and heat flux on the coupled interfaces between the metal and fluid domains. The coupled simulation can be completed within a few weeks using a PC cluster with multiple parallel CFD executions. The FEA/CFD coupled result agrees well with corresponding rig test data and the baseline 3D and 2D FEA solutions, which have been calibrated using test data. Provision of upstream boundary conditions and modeling of rapid transients are identified as areas of uncertainty. Averaging of CFD solutions and relaxation is used to overcome difficulties caused by CFD oscillations associated with flow unsteadiness. The present work supports the continued use and development of the FEA/CFD coupling method for industrial applications. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.