Numerical modelling for the prediction of aircraft cooled components thermal behavior

Maria Pia Monterossi, Elena Campagnoli

Politecnico di Torino

 

The European challenge to strongly reduce air traffic environmental impact requires developing new strategies and technologies for the next aircraft engine generations and, more in specific, for the Low Pressure Turbines (LPT). In reaching this target the use, in the design phase, of high fidelity numerical models, able to simulate both the thermal and the fluid dynamic phenomena in the LPT cavities, is compulsory. In this paper a multidisciplinary numerical model, integrating the fluid network with the thermal analysis, and able to predict the behavior of one stage of a LPT, is presented. In order to tune the model with the desired accuracy, at the Energy Department of Politecnico di Torino, a test rig facility, able to simulate one stage of a LPT, scaled in a suitable way, has been set up.

The obtained numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data and can be used by the designers to understand some physical phenomena difficult to observe during the testing phase.

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