Continuous Adjoint-Based Optimization of an Internally Cooled Turbine Blade—Mathematical Development and Application

This paper presents an adjoint-based shape optimization framework and its demonstration in a conjugate heat transfer problem in a turbine blading. The gradient of the objective function is computed based on the continuous adjoint method, which also includes the adjoint to the turbulence model. Differences in the gradient resulting from making the frozen turbulence assumption are discussed. The developed software was used to optimize both the blade shape of the internally cooled linear C3X turbine blade and the position of cooling channels aiming at (a) minimum total pressure drop of the hot gas flow and (b) minimum highest temperature within the blade. A two-step optimization procedure was used. A free-form parameterization tool, based on volumetric NURBS, controls the blade airfoil contour, while the cooling channels are free to move following changes in the coordinates of their centers. Geometric and flow constraints are included in the performed optimizations, keeping the cooling channels away from the airfoil sides and retaining the turbine inlet capacity and flow turning.