Performance Analysis of a Gas Turbine Disk Containing Rotating Heat Pipes

Abstract

Abstract The turbine disk is a key component of an aero-engine, which works under extremely high rotational and thermal loads. The combination of high-temperature heat pipes with a turbine disk is an effective method for controlling thermal load and the corresponding stress level because heat pipes enable rapid heat transfer from the rim of the disk to its hub. In this study, the influences of temperature and stress distribution variations caused by two different shapes of heat pipes are evaluated via thermomechanical finite element simulation. Results show that although the two shapes of heat pipes exert minimal effect on temperature change at the rim, specially shaped heat pipes with a connection ring at the bottom exhibit an advantage over cylindrical heat pipes in terms of stress level decrease at the hub of the disk because the former have lower rotational and thermal hoop stress components. Moreover, notch stress at the end of the heat pipe condenser is associated with the geometric parameters of heat pipes, particularly heat pipe length.