Massively parallel conjugate heat transfer methods relying on large eddy simulation applied to an aeronautical combustor

Abstract

Optimizing gas turbines is a complex multi-physical and multi-component problem that has long been based on expensive experiments. Today, computer simulation can reduce design process costs and is acknowledged as a promising path for optimization. However, performing such computations using high-fidelity methods such as a large eddy simulation (LES) on gas turbines is challenging. Nevertheless, such simulations become accessible for specific components of gas turbines. These stand-alone simulations face a new challenge: to improve the quality of the results, new physics must be introduced. Therefore, an efficient massively parallel coupling methodology is investigated. The flow solver modeling relies on the LES code AVBP which has already been ported on massively parallel architectures. The conduction solver is based on the same data structure and thus shares its scalability. Accurately coupling these solvers while maintaining their scalability is challenging and is the actual objective of this work. To obtain such goals, a methodology is proposed and different key issues to code the coupling are addressed: convergence, stability, parallel geometry mapping, transfers and interpolation. This methodology is then applied to a real burner configuration, hence demonstrating the possibilities and limitations of the solution.