Integration Between a Secondary Air System Network and A Thermal Whole Engine Model for Gas Turbine Design, Using Simcenter 3D

Abstract Secondary Air Systems (SAS) are crucial in gas turbine engines, ensuring the reliable performance of both the individual components and the entire engine system. The primary functions of SAS are to deliver cooling airflow to engine components, seal bearing chambers, and regulate bearing axial loads. Accurately modeling these flows and their thermal interactions with metal components is essential for enhancing the performance and reliability of a gas turbine engine. This paper presents an integration between a flow network model and Simcenter 3D by Siemens that pushes the Secondary Air System design to the next level. The integration was designed by Baker Hughes and developed by Maya HTT. The paper will illustrate that it is possible to integrate a flow network geometry from a fluid network solver into Simcenter 3D, overlying it onto a 2D or 3D geometry. It will describe how the flow network can be automatically meshed within Simcenter 3D and how flow network results, in terms of temperature, pressure, mass flow, and swirl, can be imported as boundary conditions. With the presented approach, flow cavities will be controlled by utilizing appropriate pumping and windage heat boundary conditions and applying heat transfer loads based on specific thermal correlations. The model solution through Simcenter 3D and obtaining key results for metallic components and the flow network will be described. Lastly, the paper will address the application of specific tools for post-processing results of special interest to turbomachinery analysts and designers. A seamless integration between secondary flow design and thermal simulation analysis can accelerate the design time by as much as three times and reduce the number of iterations. By automating and integrating tedious asks typically involved in turbomachinery design, analysts and designers can focus on more creative activities.