Validation of CFD and Coupled Fluid-Solid Modelling for a Direct Transfer Pre-Swirl System

The prediction of the pre-swirl cooling air delivery and disc metal temperature are important for the cooling system performance and the rotor disc thermal stresses and life assessment. In this paper, standalone 3D steady and unsteady CFD, and coupled FE-CFD calculations are presented for prediction of these temperatures. CFD results are compared with previous measurements from a direct transfer pre-swirl test rig. The predicted cooling air temperatures agree well with the measurement, but the nozzle discharge coefficients are under predicted. Results from the coupled FE-CFD analyses are compared directly with thermocouple temperature measurements and with heat transfer coefficients on the rotor disc previously obtained from a rotor disc heat conduction solution. Considering the modelling limitations, the coupled approach predicted the solid metal temperatures well. Heat transfer coefficients on the rotor disc from CFD show some effect of the temperature variations on the heat transfer coefficients. Reasonable agreement is obtained with values deduced from the previous heat conduction solution.