Experimental study of thermal loading management strategy for the transient process of a rotating turbine disk

The use of either the passive or active types of thermal loading management, which are realised by the thermal protection and thermal loading reorganization, respectively, is determined by the thermal management strategy. Therefore, this study investigates and assesses the thermal stress evolution characteristics and their resulting effects on an aeroengine disk under different thermal loading management strategies. The non-contact rotational deformation measurement system based on the DIC-2D technology is used to measure the in-plane thermal-structure deformation and the transferred stress on a high-speed rotating disk. Three levels of heating power for the outer and inner heating coils are used to apply the thermal loading conditions for the considered thermal management tests. The results show that the equivalent stress level is decreased by 14.29% and that the safety margin is increased by 23% in the transient process under the active thermal loading management strategy conditions at Te_e = Level 2 and Te_i = Level 3. Compared with the passive thermal loading management strategy, the physical explanation for the above-mentioned results is that the direction of the actively built thermal stress between the web and hub of the disk is opposite to that of the centrifugal stress due to the additional heating energy present in the active thermal management strategy. Thus, part of the centrifugal stress is counteracted. The results of the analysis performed using the non-dimensional universal thermal management theoretical models are consistent with the experimental results.