Numerically thermal analysis of a turbine vane at high temperature

Abstract

Using conjugate heat transfer, thermal analysis of a turbine vane coated with thermal barrier coating (TBC) at a high temperature is presented. Numerical results are carried out at two turbine inlet temperatures (T ∞) i.e. 783 K (low) and 1566 K (high) under two turbulence intensities (Tus) i.e. 8.3% and 16.6%. The main findings of this research are that for both Tus, the metal surface temperature reduction at the high temperature is higher than that at the low temperature because of the lower heat-flux ratio at the higher temperature. Based on the metal temperature reduction, the increasing inlet temperature has a greater influence than the increasing turbulence intensity. The results also indicate that at T ∞ = 783 K, on the pressure side (PS) the metal surface temperature reduction at Tu = 8.3% is lower than that at Tu = 16.6%, while on the suction side (SS) no significant difference happens when Tu increases. Interestingly, an inverse phenomenon happens for both PS and SS, that is the metal surface temperature reduction at Tu = 8.3% increases above that at Tu = 16.6% when T ∞ increases. This discrepancy may suggest the instability of the surface heat-flux ratio due to complex heat convection at the different inlet temperatures.