Multi-Disciplinary Design and Test of a Full Dual Wall Blade

Environmental and operational requirements put ever more stringent constraints on aircraft engine design. All components of the engine are under pressure to become more efficient, but one of the most limiting factor is the life of the turbine. In order to improve the efficiency of the engine, the turbine is subjected to increasing temperatures, which far exceed the melting point of most materials. This project aims at tackling this issue by exploring a novel cooling technology that approaches the theoretical ideal of transpiration cooling. This cooling technology has already been tested with simplified geometries. The objectives of this project are to apply this new concept to a realistic blade, in partnership with an industrial partner, to accelerate its adoption by the industry. To do so, a combination of computational and experimental work will be carried on with the final aim to deliver a new blade design as well as a ready-to-use framework for the development and testing of such a blade, which would allow to test a new design in a matter of weeks instead of the few months that it currently takes. The development of said framework would include the modification of an existing rig as well as the creation of one, or several computational tools. While some details of the process might need to be kept confidential, the development of those tools would be documented and the various steps and results would be published to the wider gas turbine community.