Development of an integrated BEM for hot fluid-structure interaction

One of the most difficult problems in engine structural component durability analysis is the determination of the temperatures and fluxes in the structural components directly in contact with the hot gas flow path. Currently there exists no rational analytical or numerical technique which can effectively deal with this problem. Since the temperature distribution in the structural components are strongly influenced by both the fluid flow and the deformation as well as the cooling system in the structure, the only effective way to deal with this problem is to develop an integrated solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer analysis for this problem. Herein, the Boundary Element Method (BEM) is chosen as the basic analysis tool principally because the definition of quantities like fluxes, temperatures, displacements, and velocities are very precise on a boundary based discretization scheme. One fundamental difficulty is that a BEM analysis requires a considerable amount of analytical work which is not present in other numerical methods. During the past year, all of this analytical work was completed and a two dimensional, general purpose code was written. A portion of the work is summarized.