The use of a Navier-Stokes flow solver to predict cooling liner temperatures in a turbine engine

This thesis investigates predicting thermal effects within a typical, mixed flow turbine engine afterburning section using a Navier-Stokes flow solver. This analysis has application to help develop infra-red targeting models of jet engines. The flow solver used, NPARC, was written and is supported by NASA Lewis Research Center and AEDC. A grid generation package was used to provide a computational domain to NPARC. The software, GRIDGEN version 9.6, was written by John Steinbreimer and John Chawner for NASA Ames Research Center. Flow visualization was achieved using FAST. This software was developed by the Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation division at NASA Ames Research Center. Particular attention was paid to the simulation of the engine's flame holders and porous cooling liner. The complex flame holder geometry was portrayed as an equivalent two-dimensional blockage area. The liner was modeled as both a porous slip wall and as a solid, no-slip wall. While the various shapes used for the flame holders appeared to have some influence on the cooling liner temperatures, the type of wall model used for the liner had a major effect on the final wall temperatures. The porous slip wall produced unfavorable results; however, the no-slip, solid wall yielded results similar to experimental data. Flame holder location also played a significant part in achieving the correct liner wall temperatures in the numerical simulation.