Pressure Loss Reduction in U-Bend Using the Adjoint Method

Abstract

Gas turbine blades are usually cooled by air, which flows through internal passages serpentine shaped, coming from a high pressure compressor to save it from the high temperature. Using 180 degree turns to connect internal paths led to high pressure loss in the cooling system. The purpose of this study is reducing the pressure loss using the adjoint solver method to get the optimum shape of U-shaped paths with and without guide vane (GV). Using three different cases with three different regions of modifications. The optimized shapes showed a reduction in the pressure loss up to 60% in the case of U-bend without guide vanes.