Optimal location and shape definition of elliptical ventilation openings on aero engine turbine rotors with stress concentration effect

The aero engine turbine rotors are under strong centrifugal load and the highest thermal load. The ventilation openings on the rotors are inevitable, because air flow need to pass through them to cool the temperatures down and keep the air pressure balanced in internal aero engine. The ventilation openings will lead to stress concentration effect. In this paper, the stress concentration factor of elliptical opening on rotating disc is deduced by superposition method. How to define the optimal location and shape of the elliptical opening on rotating disc to decrease the stress concentration effect has been investigated specifically. The reliability and accuracy of the theoretical deviation process is verified by Finite Element Method (FEM). The process of how to obtain the optimal location of the elliptical ventilation opening with particular shape on turbine sealing disc is described as an engineering application case. The investigation provides sufficient theoretical support for optimal location and shape definition of elliptical ventilation opening on aero engine rotors with stress concentration effect by pure mechanics consideration.(c) 2021 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This paper investigates the stress concentration effect of elliptical ventilation openings on aero engine turbine rotors and proposes a method to define the optimal location and shape to reduce this effect. The reliability and accuracy of the theoretical process are verified using the Finite Element Method, and an engineering application case is described. The study provides sufficient theoretical support for determining the optimal location and shape of elliptical ventilation openings on aero engine rotors with stress concentration effect.