A Numerical Three-Dimensional Thermal Stress Analysis for Cooled Blades

A modern gas turbine engine subjects the turbine rotor blade to severe thermal stress conditions. Thermal stresses constitute a major part of the state of stress in the blade. Improved blade design with optimum weight, long creep life and structural integrity necessitates more refined thermal stress analysis. In this work a plane blade profile is assumed to take the form of a second degree surface with constant curvatures. The general second degree polynomial allows all the six static equilibrium equations to be considered in evaluating the strained surface. The three dimensional state of stress is determined considering the lateral deformations of the blade profile. A numerical procedure is adopted to solve the non-linear simultaneous equations arising due to the self equilibrating thermal stress system. The results are close to that of original analysis. However, this procedure employs all the necessary equilibrium conditions and relaxes the constraints imposed due to the plane surface assumption to a lower level. The method of analysis is discussed in this paper.