Numerical investigation on thermal-fluid-solid coupling for afterburner heat shield of aero-engine

Abstract To address the challenge that it is difficult to accurately predict the evolution laws of the flow field and structural field of an aero-engine afterburner heat shield under high-temperature and high-pressure operating conditions, a numerical simulation study of thermal-fluid-solid coupling for the afterburner heat shield was performed using the ANSYS Workbench software. A periodic sector model of the heat shield was established. The effects of varying the mainstream temperature (750–1,250 K) and coolant mass flow rate (0.15–0.35 kg/s) on the heat shield performance, stress, and deformation were investigated. The simulations showed that raising the mainstream temperature from 750 to 1,250 K barely altered the static pressure in the mainstream passage but reduced the cooling effectiveness of the afterburner heat shield by 4.62 %. Increasing the coolant mass flow rate from 0.15 to 0.35 kg/s significantly raised the static pressure in the coolant passage and improved the cooling effectiveness by 41.18 %. A higher mainstream temperature concurrently increased both the stress and deformation of the heat shield, whereas a larger coolant flow rate decreased the deformation but elevated the structural stress. These findings provide a theoretical basis for afterburner heat shield thermal design.