Glenn-HT: The NASA Glenn Research Center General Multi-Block Navier-Stokes Heat Transfer Code

For the last several years, Glenn-HT, a three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code for the analysis of gas turbine flow and convective heat transfer has been evolving at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The code is unique in the ability to give a highly detailed representation of the flow field very close to solid surfaces in order to get accurate representation of fluid heat transfer and viscous shear stresses. The code has been validated and used extensively for both internal cooling passage flow and for hot gas path flows, including detailed film cooling calculations and complex tip clearance gap flow and heat transfer. In its current form, this code has a multiblock grid capability and has been validated for a number of turbine configurations. The code has been developed and used primarily as a research tool, but it can be useful for detailed design analysis. In this paper, the code is described and examples of its validation and use for complex flow calculations are presented, emphasizing the applicability to turbomachinery for space launch vehicle propulsion systems.