Cooled Ceramic Turbine Vane

N&R Engineering will investigate the feasibility of cooled ceramics, such as ceramic matrix composite (CMC) turbine blade concepts that can decrease specific fuel consumption while reducing NOX emissions. The conflict between efficiency and emissions will require a careful balancing of material selection, turbine inlet temperature, and cooling air. Parametric aero-thermal and structural analyses of selected ceramic blade concepts will be performed to identify blade design and cooling concepts, and to quantify vane and rotor cooling flow rates. Tailoring of the cooling flows allows for optimization of efficiency and emission reductions. Both internal only and film cooling flows will be determined for a range of material properties, loads, and mainstream air and coolant temperatures. Probabilistic thermal/structural analysis will identify the sensitivity of heat transfer and structural parameters to uncertainties in blade thermal conductivity and other material properties, as well as loads and geometry. The proposed effort goes beyond previous laboratory demonstrations of cooling concepts by determining more precisely ceramic blade cooling required to achieve specified performance metrics. The methodology will be developed to a level that will permit validation in an environment relevant to commercial jet engines. This will take the TRL from a current level of 4 to 5.