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Computational Materials Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/commatsci

Multidisciplinary analysis of the operational temperature increase of turbine blades in combustion engines by application of the ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBC)
T. Sadowski *, P. Golewski **
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Department of Solid Mechanics, Lublin University of Technology, Nadbystrzycka 40 Str., 20-618 Lublin, Poland

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The improvement of the temperature resistance of the aircraft engine elements can be obtained by application of a single ceramic thermal barrier coating (TBC) (e.g. Noda [1]) or several composite layers (e.g. Sadowski [2]). Engine elements protected by TBC can work safely in elevated temperature range above 1000 C. Continuous endeavour to increase thermal resistance of engine the elements requires, apart from laboratory investigations, also numerical study of the different aero-engine parts. The most important are turbine blades, where high temperatures and stress concentrations during thermal shocks or thermal fatigue can be observed during engine exploitation. The high temperatures and stress concentrations can act as the local sources of damage initiation and defects propagation in the form of cracks. The present paper deals with the solution of the transient temperature transfer problem in bare and thermal barrier coated alloy Inconel 713 for the temperature range up to 1000 C. The computational uid dynamics (CFD) part of analysis was performed by application of ANSYS Fluent code receiving the temperature eld of combustion gas, whereas computational structural mechanics (CMS) part concerning the temperature distribution inside the turbine blade was done by ABAQUS. Finally, the efciency of the TBC layer (0.5 mm thickness) protecting and cooling channels was discussed in order to explore the operational temperature increase in the aero-engines. Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 17 October 2009 Received in revised form 7 May 2010 Accepted 12 May 2010 Available online xxxx Keywords: Turbine blades Thermal barrier coating (TBC) Computational uid dynamics (CFD) Computational structural mechanics (CMS)

1. Introduction Description of temperature transfer in the turbine blades (Fig. 1) is a very complex 3-D problem, which requires multidisciplinary approach including both aerodynamic and structural analysis. The problem can be solved by determination of:  ow of the uid around blades,  uid-structural element interaction,  turbine blade response due to thermo-mechanical loading. In general solution uid and structural elements are simulated by coupled system of equations. This leads to numerical difculties, like: ill-conditioned nature of the coupled system of matrixes and arduous calculations. Therefore the problem can be decoupled i.e. the uid and turbine blade can be simulated separately with application of computational uid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural mechanics (CSM). In the CFD and CSM analyses FEM meshes at the uidstructure interface should be the same, otherwise one can apply for instant mapping surface method proposed in [3].
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 81 538 43 86; fax: +48 81 538 41 73. ** Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 81 538 43 86; fax: +48 81 538 41 73. E-mail address: t.sadowski@pollub.pl (T. Sadowski).

In the most general case the blades of the combustion turbine are subjected to:  high mechanical pressure resulting mainly from: centrifugal forces as well as inlet gas-dynamics,  high gradient of the temperature eld taking place in a very short time,  internal cooling provided by advanced technique, which includes ejection of a cooling medium from the blade tip. The heat transfer problem is particularly important during beginning of the turbine start-up process, e.g. [4], in the short operating time, where the thermal shock takes place. Experimental evidences and numerical results (e.g. [57]) lead to the conclusion that extremely high heat transfer rates are observed near the tip and on the tip of the blade. Therefore this part of the turbine blade needs to be protected by:  TBC in the form of single layer or several layers (e.g. [1,2,818]).  intensive cooling process. To improve the reliability and durability of the blade, TBC and complex cooling system should be applied in the form of a row of channels with the air cooling ow. The effective TBC and cooling design requires a complete understanding of the ow and heat transfer

0927-0256/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2010.05.032

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2 T. Sadowski, P. Golewski / Computational Materials Science xxx (2010) xxxxxx Table 3 Dynamic viscosity coefcient g of main components of the exhaust gas at 1 bar pressure. T (C)

g ((Ns)/m2)
CO2 H2O 23.90 106 27.72 106 31.45 106 35.10 106 38.64 106 42.10 106 45.47 106 48.74 106 51.94 106 O2 36.77 106 40.14 106 43.27 106 46.22 106 49.00 106 51.64 106 54.16 106 56.57 106 58.89 106 N2 31.21 106 34.02 106 36.64 106 39.11 106 41.43 106 43.64 106 45.75 106 47.77 106 49.72 106 29.91 106 33.16 106 36.20 106 39.06 106 41.77 106 44.35 106 46.81 106 49.17 106 51.43 106

400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200

Fig. 1. Turbine blade and the TBC coating structure.

higher operation temperature and the increase of the structural integrity blades by protecting the core from hot gas stress and other aggressive corrosion environment. Therefore the present paper deals with the solution of the transient temperature transfer problem in bare and thermal barrier coated alloy Inconel 713 for the temperature range up to 1000 C. The CFD part of analysis was performed by application of ANSYS Fluent code to calculate the temperature eld of combustion gas, whereas CSM part concerning the temperature distribution inside turbine blade was done by ABAQUS. Finally, the efciency of the protecting and cool-

Table 1 Thermal conductivity coefcient km for main components of the exhaust gases (at pressure 1 bar). T (C) km (W/m C) CO2 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 47,370 55,220 62,720 69,910 76,700 83,220 89,440 95,420 101,050 H2O 56,910 69,790 83,640 98,230 113,800 129,830 146,280 162,980 179,800 O2 54,110 60,780 66,960 72,870 78,520 83,520 88,580 93,500 98,000 N2 49,230 55,070 60,740 66,210 71,490 76,590 81,510 86,180 90,680

characteristics in the whole analysed system, as crossing of admissible values of temperature or stress thresholds can lead to premature waste or even to the immediate damage of the turbine blade (e.g. [1317]) and further the whole engine. The major task for designers is the continuous endeavour to increase the energy efciency of the modern aircraft jet and industrial gas-turbine engines. It can be obtained by allowing for
Fig. 2. Characteristic dimensions of the blade cross-section.

Table 2 Average specic heat cpg of the exhaust gas of normal fuel at constant pressure (p = 1013 105 N/m2). Temperature (C) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 cpg (kJ/kg C) 1053 1079 1106 1136 1167 1197 1227 1255 1280 1302 1323 1341 1357 1371

Fig. 3. Finite element mesh in the CFD analysis (ANSYS Fluent).

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ing channels was discussed in order to explore the operational temperature increase in the aero-engines.

2. Basic formulas for analytic estimation of temperature distribution in the turbine blades Determination of the temperature eld in the blade of rotor with analytic method is a fairly difcult and time-consuming problem, because of complex shapes and boundary conditions of heat exchange. In order to dene the temperature elds in engine parts, one should formulate boundary conditions of the third kind, i.e. it is necessary to know the temperature distribution of gas owing over the turbine blade surface Tg, and the convective heat transfer coefcients a. 2.1. Temperature of the exhaust gas The temperature eld Tg in blades of the turbine rotor depends on the operating temperature of the exhaust gas T0:

Tg T0
Fig. 4. Model of the CFD analysis.

c2 r t w2 1 1 ; 2cpg

Fig. 5. (a) Increase of the internal energy (J/kg) and (b) velocity increase of the exhaust gas (m/s).

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where T0 is the temperature of the exhaust gas in front of the row of blades in engine (C), c1 is absolute speed of the outow of the exhaust gas from the nozzle (m/s), w1 is relative speed of the inow of the exhaust gas on the blades of rotor (m/s), rt = 0.850.95 is coefcient of the temperature recovery, and cpg is the specic heat of the exhaust gas at the constant pressure (J/kg C). 2.2. Heat transfer coefcients Heat ows to the tongue of a blade from the exhaust gas through the whole boundary edges from the tip of blade to the shield of the rotor. Description of this process is possible by definition of the convective heat transfer coefcient a. Generally, a depends on the current temperature of the hot gas stream and changes along the circuit and along the height of the blade tongue. The value of the convective heat transfer coefcient for many gases and liquids overowing any engine part, is expressed by several characteristic numbers: Nusselt (Nu), Prandtl (Pr), Reynolds (Re). a (W/(m2 C)) is calculated from the following formula:

Fig. 7. Finite element mesh for CSM analysis (ABAQUS).

a Nu
where

km ; dh

Moreover, in the formula (2) dh denotes the hydraulic diameter (the computational size), (m). C in relation (3) is a proportionality coefcient, whereas A, B are power indexes, all determined empirically. The Prandtl number Pr in (3) is equal to:

Nu CPr A ReB :

Pr

Here, km is thermal conductivity of the heat transfer medium (W/(m C)). The values km for the main components of the exhaust gas versus temperature are presented in Table 1. For the mixture of gases, km is calculated from the following formula:

cpg g ; km

km

n X i1

zi ki Pn : j1 zj Uij

where the values of specic heat cpg for the exhaust gas versus temperature were included in Table 2. g is the dynamic viscosity of medium, ((Ns)/m2). The values of g of the main components of the exhaust gas in relation to temperature are presented in Table 3. For the mixture of gases, the dynamic viscosity coefcient is calculated from the following formula:

The accuracy of km estimation by formula (4) is approximately 4%. zi is the molar part of the gas component i, whereas function Uij is equal to:

n X i1

zi g Pn i : j1 zj Uij

2 !0:5   32  0:5 0:25 1 Mi gi Mj 41 5 : Uij p 1 Mj gj Mi 8

The accuracy of g assessed by formula (7) is approximately equal to 2%. The Reynolds number Re in (3) was calculated according to:

One can point out that when i = j, then Uij = 1 as well as Uij Uji. Mi is the molar mass of the gas component i.

Re

_ mdn

Fig. 6. Temperature (C) of the exhaust gas.

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Fig. 8. Temperature (C) distribution for t = 200 s on the pressure side of the: (a) unprotected blade and (b) blade with TBC.

Fig. 9. Temperature (C) distribution for t = 200 s on the suction side of the: (a) unprotected blade and (b) blade with TBC.

_ where m is a mass ow rate in (kg/s) and dn is a characteristic length-scale parameter in (m).

The above presented formulas and data from Tables 13 were applied in numerical modelling of the problem, presented below.

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3. Numeric method of calculating temperature distribution in blades of the turbine 3.1. FEM models To obtain the temperature of the exhaust gas owing around the blade surface the ANSYS Fluent 12 [19] commercial code was applied. Pre-processing in numerical modelling was divided in three steps: 1. Generation of the blade shape within ANSYS. In the paper, one blade from the rotor of engine JP-67PL including 29 blades, made from alloy Inconel 713, was modelled. The characteristic shape and dimensions of the blade were shown in Fig. 2. Blades without internal cooling and possessing cooling system in the form of set of channels were considered. 2. Creation of thin TBC layer (made of ZrO2 + 7 wt.% Y2O3, e.g. [8]). It was done with SolidWorks 2009 after importing data from ANSYS. In the rst step 0.5 mm thickness side surface layer

was removed from the blade and then surface of the blade was be elongated in such a way that it cut solid gure, separately for the upper and bottom surface. Finally the blade consisted of two separate solids: core of blade and TBC. Then the model was imported to program ABAQUS, [20]. 3. Generation of the FEM mesh. A multi block structured grid (Fig. 3) of about 20,000 cells was adopted to discretize the computational domain. An H-type grid was used for both the inlet and outlet blocks, while a composite J/O-grid was utilized for passage block in order to reduce grid skewness and facilitate solving the boundary layer around the blade. 3.2. Numerical examples The CFD analysis was performed with ANSYS Fluent 12, using data from Tables 13 and data from literature. The following parameters for the exhaust gas were introduced: density, heat capacity, thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity coefcient. Steady state solutions were computed using the ke turbulence model along with scalable wall functions. The total pressure, the

Fig. 10. Temperature (C) distributions and placement of characteristic points in the cross-section of the blade in t = 29 s.

Fig. 11. Comparison of temperature change in characteristic points chosen in Fig. 10.

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total temperature and the ow angle were xed at the inow boundary, while the average static-pressure was imposed at the outow. The walls were treated as smooth and adiabatic. The inlet total pressure and total temperature were xed at p = 101,325 Pa and T = 1000 C. Fig. 4 shows the blade placed in the ow channel, whereas Fig. 5 presents the variation of internal energy of the gas and its velocity. The red arrows indicate the characteristic places where the considered functions reached the maximum values. The temperature distribution around the turbine blade was presented in Fig. 6. The maximum of the function is in the frontal vertical edge of the blade. CSM analysis was performed with ABAQUS after exporting temperature eld obtained in CFD. Three models for structural analysis were created:

1. Unprotected turbine blade. For the creation of surface gases 1240 DS4 elements were used, whereas the core blade was modelled by 29,730 of DC3D4 elements. 2. Protected by TBC turbine blade. TBC layer of 0.5 mm thickness was modelled by 103,982 of DC3D4 elements. Fig. 7 presents the mesh of nite elements for blade and TBC. 3. Protected by TBC turbine blade with additional system of ve cooling channels placed in the central part of the blade. In the numerical modelling the simulation obeys transient heating of the blade by owing combustion gases. The unsteady temperature increase was studied until 200 s. Temperature transfer in the turbine blade is very complex 3-D problem. In the real problem it is necessary to consider two kinds of heat exchange:

Fig. 12. Temperature (C) distributions in the blade cooled by system of channels (t = 200 s).

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1. The outow of heat was simulated from the bottom part of the blade to the scarf, introducing the thermal conductivity coefcient. 2. For the bottom surface of the blade, where convection to the rotor took place, the heat transfer coefcient was dened. The numerical results concerning distribution of temperatures for the blade with TBC were presented in Fig. 8 (concerning the pressure side of the blade) and Fig. 9 (the suction side) after 200 s from the beginning of the heating. One can notice the signicant reduction of the temperature eld due to ZrO2 + 7 wt.% Y2O3 TBC. In the tip of the blade, where maximum of the function takes place, the reduction of the temperature level is equal to 154.6 C, i.e. the decrease of the temperature due to introduction of the TBC is approximately equal to 18%. The temperature maps show lower values of temperature on the bottom side of the blade due to heat transfer to the rotor. Fig. 10 shows the top surface of the blade with temperature distribution for t = 29 s. On this surface three points: A, B, C were chosen in order to plot the temperatures evolution in time t for the

unprotected blade and protected one. The variations of the temperature functions are presented in Fig. 11. One can observe highly nonlinear behaviour in the rst 50 s. Steady state of temperature distribution takes place after 200 s. The most effective protection is at the beginning of the heating process, where the differences between corresponding points for unprotected and protected blades are greatest. In the steady state after t = 200 s the appropriate differences are much less due to the heat absorption. This result points out the signicance of the suitable designed TBC for efcient improvement of the structural element due to the thermal shock or thermal fatigue. Fig. 12 presents the turbine blade without TBC, but additionally cooled by the system of ve channels. For calculation it was assumed, that the interaction between cooling medium and the blade is described by surface lm condition with convection heat transfer coefcient a = 300 W/(m2 C). The sink temperature was taken 100 C at the advanced stage of heating. The temperature distribution showed in Fig. 12 concerns the end of the heating process, i.e. t = 200 s. Comparison with the results presented in Figs. 8a and 9a for unprotected blade leads to the conclusion

Fig. 13. (a and b) Temperature difference DT (C) for the characteristic points of the cross-section (Fig. 12) between a cooling wall of channels and the blade surface on the pressure and suction sides.

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that the system of cooling channels decreases the maximum temperature about 7.26%. It means that protection by TCB is more effective (Figs. 8b and 9b). However, the synergism of both analysed effects gives the very high level of reduction of the maximum temperature about 25%. More detailed information in the several characteristic lines across the channels presents Fig. 13. DT is the temperature difference between a cooling holes wall and the bucket surface at both suction and pressure sides. As can be seen from Fig. 13 the temperature gradients have similar tendency for all crossing lines as gas ow temperature increases. The largest temperature gradients in the considered cross section are observed for lines s2-sh2, p2-ph2, p3-ph3 and s3-sh3. The region between the cooling channels two and three is the thickest zone of the blade. Therefore it generates the largest temperature gradients in the cross section and it is the reason that thermal fatigue cracks can be created, e.g. [21]. The smallest temperature differences are registered along the lines p5-ph5 and s5-sh5. This is due to the fact that the blade wall has the smallest thickness. The maximum temperature gradients appear between points of

leading and trailing edges of the cross section. This difference is equal to 267 C for t = 200 s. It is important to notice that trailing edge temperature is much higher in comparison to the leading edge. Fig. 14 presents the similar temperature gradients for corresponding points at pressure and suction side of the bucket. The maximum values are two times smaller in comparison to Fig. 13. The comparative calculations were done for the blade without cooling system. Fig. 15 shows variation in time of temperature gradients in the same cross lines. The curves shapes are quite different in case of lines p4-s4 and p5-s5. Moreover, the sign changes from plus to minus. The represented numerical results indicate that the thermal heat transfer in the turbine blades is very complex problem, due to the fact that internal structure of the blades is build up from the core material, coating and system of cooling channels. The temperature elds in the blade vary in time, but the tip of the airfoil is the most exposed to the thermal gradients. The maximum temperature appears on the trailing edge. The application of TBC and cooling system of channels reduce the maximum temperature about

Fig. 14. Temperature difference DT (C) for the characteristic points of the cross-section (Fig. 12) between the blade surface on the pressure and suction sides for the turbine blade with the system of cooling channels.

Fig. 15. Temperature difference DT (C) for the characteristic points of the cross-section (Fig. 12) between the blade surface on the pressure and suction sides for the turbine blade without the system of cooling channels.

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25%. This results in signicant increase of the operation temperature in the turbines of aero-engines. 4. Conclusions Multidisciplinary analysis of the thermal heat transfer of the turbine blades in combustion engines was done. Two kinds of the turbine blades: unprotected and protected by the ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBC) were analysed. The problem was solved in two steps by CFD and CSM analysis. The major conclusions are summarised as follows:  the temperature transfer in the turbine blade is very complex 3D problem, which depends on thermo-mechanical properties of the applied composites, shapes of the analysed blades and boundary conditions of heat transfer process,  application of 0.5 mm thickness YSZ thermal barrier coating signicantly reduces the operation temperature in the analysed numerical example about 18%,  the system of cooling channels leads to signicant reduction of the maximum surface temperature about 7% in the numerical example. The total reduction of the TBC and the system of cooling channels is very effective. Presented numerical results estimate this effectiveness at the level of 25%, i.e. the increase of the operational temperature of the engine can be signicant or life-time of the safe exploitation can be prolonged. It is important in case of crack initiation and propagation under thermal shock or thermal fatigue in TBC. Acknowledgement The research leading to these results has received funding from: (1) Financial support of Structural Funds in the Operational Pro-

gramme - Innovative Economy (IE OP) nanced from the European Regional Development Fund - Project Modern material technologies in aerospace industry, No. POIG.0101.02-00-015/08 is gratefully acknowledged. (task: ZB-10: Modern thermal barrier coatings for critical parts of engines), (2) The European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007 2013), FP7 - REGPOT 2009 1, under Grant agreement No. 245479. References
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