Fluid structure interaction study of high pressure stage gas turbine blade having grooved cooling channels

Gas turbines are broadly used in propulsion of aircraft and in the generation of electric power. Conserving of gas turbine blades is a foremost importance since high pressure stage blades will be exposed to high temperature operational surroundings. Numerous techniques have been incorporated for the cooling of high pressure stage blades and one such technique is to incorporate innovative helicoidal cooling ducts near the leading edge and cooling channels having differently shaped grooves to pass high velocity cooling air along the blade span. By incorporating helicoidal duct and cooling channels having different shaped grooves, there is a potential to deliver additional surface area which facilitates cooling. Since fluid structure interaction is the main aim of this study, the loading of the blade analogous to the static pressure in addition to thermal field on the surfaces of the blade are attained using computational fluid dynamics run. The study brings out deformation due to temperature, centrifugal and pressure load of the high pressure phase blade having grooved cooling channels in the vicinity of trailing edge region. A parametric methodology will be considered for changing the cooling fluid channel geometry to enhance the process of cooling near the trailing edge region. It is found from the fluid structure interaction analysis that cooling channels having buttress shaped grooved configuration near the trailing edge result in improved cooling properties resulting in improved operational stability of the blade.