Thermal Analysis and Creep Lifetime Prediction Based on the Effectiveness of Thermal Barrier Coating on a Gas Turbine Combustor Liner Using Coupled CFD and FEM Simulation

Abstract

Thermal barrier coating (TBC) plays a vital role in the gas turbine combustor liner (CL) to mitigate the internal heat transfer from combustion gas to the CL and enhance the parent material lifetime of the CL. This present study examined the thermal analysis and creep lifetime prediction based on three different TBC thicknesses, 400, 800, and 1200 μm, coated on the inner CL using the coupled computational fluid dynamics/finite element method. The simulation method was divided into three models to minimize the amount of computational work involved. The Eddy Dissipation Model was used in the first model to simulate premixed methane-air combustion, and the wall temperature of the inner CL was obtained. The conjugate heat transfer simulation on the external cooling flows from the rib turbulator, impingement jet, and cross flow, and the wall temperature of the outer CL was obtained in the second model. The thermal analysis was carried out in the third model using three different TBC thicknesses and incorporating the wall data from the first and second model. The effect of increasing TBC thickness shows that the TBC surface temperature was increased. Thereby, the inner CL metal temperature was decreased due to the TBC thickness as well as the material properties of Yttria Stabilized Zirconia, which has low thermal conductivity and a high thermal expansion coefficient. With the increase in TBC thickness, the average temperature difference between the TBC surface and the inner metal surface increased. In contrast, the average temperature difference between the inner and outer metal surfaces remained nearly constant. The von Mises equivalent stress, based on the material property and thermal expansion coefficient, was determined and used to find the creep lifetime of the CL using the Larson–Miller rupture curve for all TBC thickness cases in order to analyze the thermo-structure. Except in the C-channel, the increasing TBC thickness was found to effectively increase the CL lifespan. Furthermore, the case without TBC was compared with the damaged CL with cracks due to thermal stress, which was prevented by increasing TBC thickness shown in this present study.