Development and assessment of a coupled strategy for conjugate heat transfer with Large Eddy Simulation: Application to a cooled turbine blade

Although Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is identified today as the most promising method for turbulent flow problems, few applications of LES coupled to heat transfer solvers in solids have been published. This paper describes a coupling strategy of a LES solver and a heat transfer code within solids on parallel architectures. The numerical methods used in both solvers are briefly recalled before discussing the coupling strategy in terms of physical quantities to exchange (fluxes and temperatures), stability and parallel efficiency. The stability study is performed using an amplification matrix analysis on a one-dimensional case and allows the determination and optimization of coupling parameters. The coupled tool is then applied to a cooled turbine blade model where results demonstrate both the efficiency of the parallel implementation and the quality of the results. Coupled and non-coupled simulations are compared to experimental results and discussed in terms of cooling efficiency and flow structures. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.