Cooling passage design optimization of turbine blades based on response surface methodology

In this study, an aerodynamic and heat transfer optimization design is carried out for cooling turbine blade. The locations of the ribs are determined as design variables and the Latin hypercubes technology is used to generate the experimental design points. With a coupled aerodynamic and heat transfer analysis, the blade aerodynamic and heat transfer performances are calculated at each design point, and then the quartic polynomials are employed to construct a response surface model (RSM). Based on the RSM, the optimization of the blade cooling passage is implemented to minimize the maximum temperature of the blade, the facet average temperature of the blade surface and the total pressure loss. Meanwhile, the response surface model is modified at each step of optimization. Finally, the optimization results are obtained. The maximum temperature of the blade is reduced by 24.5 K while the average blade surface temperature is reduced by 34.4 K, and the total pressure loss is also reduced.