Aerodynamic and heat transfer design optimization for cooling turbine blade

This paper presents an automated computer aid design optimization program for aerodynamic and heat transfer optimization of 2D internal cooling gas turbine blades. Parametric geometry models were developed with analytic function methods. The suction surface and pressure surface are presented by a series of quintic splines, the leading edge geometry and the trailing edge geometry were represented by circular arc which helps to maintain a smooth geometry connection at the end points of the pressure side and the suction side. Wall thickness functions were defined to get the coolant flow passage profile. A modeling program was developed to create the blade geometry automated without user intervention. Different number cavities blades could be built only by changing the number of rib. Coupled aero-thermal analysis method was used to solve the flow-field and solid-field based on compressible Navier-Stokes equation. The KS function method which transformed the multi-objective problems into single-objective was used for optimization. With the optimization of blade profiles, the total pressure loss, the maximal temperature and the average volume temperature were reduced significantly.