Thermomechanical stress analysis for gas turbine blade with cooling structures

Purpose: Blade tip clearance has always been a concern for the gas turbine design and control. The numerical analysis of tip clearance is based on the turbine components displacement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the thermal and mechanical effects on a real cooling blade rather than the simplified model. Design/methodology/approach: The coupled fluid-solid method is used. The thermal analysis involves solid and fluid domains. The distributions of blade temperature, stress and displacement have been calculated numerically under real turbine operating conditions. Findings: Temperature contour can provide a reference for stress analysis. The results show that temperature gradient is the main source of solid stress and radial displacement. Compared with thermal or mechanical effect, there is a great change of stress magnitude for the thermomechanical effect. Large stress gradients are found between the leading and trailing edge of turbine cooling blade. Also, the blade radial displacement is mainly attributed to the thermal load rather than the centrifugal force. The analysis of the practical three-dimensional model has achieved the more precise results. Originality/value: It is significant for clearance design and life prediction.