Advanced CFD Software for Improving Durability of Turbine Inlet Guide Vanes

In high F/A military gas turbine combustors such as JSF, localized pockets of carbon monoxide and hydrogen can exit the combustor, causing severe cooling challenges for designers of turbine inlet guide vanes. Instead of cooling the vane, cooling air can interact with the hotpath flow to release heat near the vane surface, resulting in durability challenges and possibly catastrophic damage. In this SBIR, we propose to develop 3D CFD software that accurately predicts the effects of heat release and heat transfer into the vane. The software will utilize combustion Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methods. Key aspects to be modeled include: 1) mixing of cooling air into the hot gas flow, 2) heat release occurring near the vane surface, and 3) near wall velocity/thermal boundary layer and heat transfer to the vane. In Phase I, the overall feasibility of this approach was demonstrated and needed improvements in thermal boundary layer models for LES were identified. In Phase II, the TBLE (Turbulent Boundary Layer Equation) model implemented in Phase I for velocity boundary layers will be expanded, and a new thermal boundary layer model will be development and implemented. Detailed validation of all capabilities will take place using fundamental laboratory data, followed by more complex validation in realistic environments. Analyses of JSF vanes will then be performed in cooperation with Rolls-Royce, and potential design improvements will be assessed.