Approaches to the Simulation of Thermal Hydraulic Processes in the Oil System Elements of Gas Turbine Engine

Abstract

Design of the oil-system for gas-turbine engines requires the calculation of the exact fuel consumption and pressure losses in the pipelines, the heat exchange between the oil and the lubrication system elements, critical modes of the flow in the pipelines and local resistances. A development of the model of oil system that will enable the measurement of the flow rate and other parameters at any place inside the oil system, the numerical investigation of the influence of structural improvements taking into account these parameters is a rather promising outlook. A specific feature of the oil system of gas turbine engine is that the oil and air mixture is passing instead of single-phase liquid (oil) actually in each element of it, which affects the behavior of thermohydraulic processes in these elements. This scientific paper gives consideration to the peculiarities of the two-phase flow of oil-gas mixture, heat-mass exchange processes that occur in the oil cavity of the rotor rack of gas turbine engine and prevalent approaches to their analysis. Consideration was also given to specific features of software products available for the numerical simulation of thermal hydraulic processes and the possibility of their use for the development of the model of oil system for the gas turbine engine has been analyzed. This scientific paper showed that the investigations carried out in this field require theoretical approaches to the problem solution, the use of state-of-the-art program packages for numerical experiments and the availability of experimental base.