Thermal Simulation of Rotor Segments with Autodesk CFD

This talk will focus on transient coupled effects of conduction and radiative heat transfer in turbine rotor segments. Rotors at ambient are to be heated to extremely high temperatures, following certain metallurgical criteria. We'll use a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation approach to analyze the rotor surface temperature, track the temperature trend vis-à-vis surface-to-core variation, and estimate transient heating time and surface heat flux. This simulation is needed to establish criteria required for testing rotors for meeting metallurgical properties under accelerated heating conditions. Challenges faced before obtaining a solution include reducing computational time, modeling complexity in geometrical features, setting up boundary conditions, and meshing. We'll also discuss basics of heat transfer and fluid mechanics, association of heater control logic, and the application of Autodesk CFD simulation tool to thermal engineering problems, as well as an analysis of results.