Modelling Conjugate Heat Transfer Within a Gas Turbine Secondary Air System Using Thermo-Fluid System Simulation
Abstract This paper presents a novel approach that couples system modelling of both the thermo-fluid system and the thermal solid system by modelling conjugate heat transfer within a single 1D system analysis solver and applies it to the Secondary Air System of a Gas Turbine. The Secondary Air System design has to balance minimizing engine bleed whilst ensuring sufficient cooling. To achieve this, designers model both the secondary air flow and the temperature distribution in solid components. System CFD tools like Simcenter Flomaster may be used to solve flow, pressure and temperature distributions and a 3D thermal solver used to perform the thermal analysis of the blade and disc solids. The thermal interaction between the secondary flow system and the solid components is a key part of the model and is known as conjugate heat transfer analysis (CHT). This approach is problematic early in the design cycle when detailed or stable geometry information may not be available for the 3D thermal tool. An approach that couples the modelling of both the thermo-fluid system and the thermal solid system within a single 1D/system analysis tool offers the advantage of faster modelling and consistent model accuracy of both fluid and solid components, especially in the early concept design stage. This 1D-CHT approach has been implemented within Simcenter Flomaster and validated using an idealized analytical solution. It is shown that the model can be applied to the analysis of gas turbine secondary air systems including cavity flows and thermal analysis of the rotor and stator discs that form the thermal boundary of these cavities using Simcenter Flomaster alone.