Application of Conjugate CFD to the Internal Cooling Air Flow System of Gas Turbines

Continuous improvements of the secondary air system are basic elements to increase efficiency and power of heavy duty gas turbines. It is becoming more important to perform a precise calculation of the heat transfer characteristics and to produce accurate predictions of the air/metal temperature in the internal cooling air system. Thermal effects influences the cooling behavior and consequently the cooling efficiency and the material temperature. The material temperature influences the stresses and the creep behavior that is important for life prediction and the reliability of the engine. Furthermore, the material temperature influences the clearances and therefore, the cooling mass-flow. This paper deals with a complex internal blade feed system comprising a forced radially-inward jet-flow into a large rotating cavity and the numerical coupling of different cooling air flow passages with component heat transfer, i.e. conjugate CFD. A calculation procedure was adopted to reproduce the measured rotating main shaft temperatures from the Siemens Model V84.3A gas turbine prototype. Based on this procedure, flow and heat transfer throughout the sub-cavities were discussed and the shaft temperature distribution was obtained. Results indicate a strong interaction between the thermal effects of the cooler radial jet-flow and the hotter seal gap regions. Moreover, the deficiencies in the adopted calculation procedure were identified.