Unsteady Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis of a Cooled Turbine Nozzle with High Free Stream Turbulence

In this study, a series of conjugate heat transfer (CHT) analyses are conducted for a stage of a fully cooled high-pressure turbine (HPT) at elevated levels of free stream turbulence (Tu = 5% and 25.7%). The goal of the analyses is to investigate the influence of high turbulence intensity on the fluid-thermal characteristics of a nozzle guide vane (NGV). The turbine inlet temperature is defined by considering a typical radial temperature distribution factor (RTDF). The Unsteady Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (URANS) CHT simulations are carried out using CFX 15.0, a commercial CFD package. The presented CFD modeling approach for high turbulence intensity is verified with the experimental data from two types of NASA C3X NGVs with films. The computation grid is generated for both the fluid and solid domains. The fluid domain grid is created using a tetrahedral grid system with prism layers because of its complex geometry, and the solid domain grid is composed of only tetrahedral elements. The analytical results are compared to understand the effect of turbulence on flow characteristics and metal temperature distributions. The results obtained in this study provide useful insights on the effects of high free stream turbulence and unsteadiness. The results also lead to the proposal of meaningful turbine design guidelines.