Conjugate heat transfer analysis was conducted on a 648 hole film cooled turbine vane using Code Leo and compared to experimental results obtained at the Air Force Research Laboratory Turbine Research Facility. An unstructured mesh with fully resolved film holes for both fluid and solid domains was used to conduct the conjugate heat transfer simulation on a desktop PC with eight cores. Initial heat flux and surface metal temperature predictions showed reasonable agreement with heat flux measurements but under prediction of surface metal temperature values. Root cause analysis was performed, leading to two refinements. First, a thermal barrier coating layer was introduced into the analysis to account for the insulating properties of the Kapton layer used for the heat flux gauges. Second, inlet boundary conditions were updated to more accurately reflect rig measurement conditions. The resulting surface metal temperature predictions showed excellent agreement relative to measured results (+/− 5 degrees K).
Multidimensional Unstructured-Grid Liquid Rocket-Engine Nozzle Performance and Heat Transfer Analysis
