FSTraceInterface: Towards coupling TRACE with structure solvers

Abstract

The increasing complexity of turbomachinery blade designs, driven by advanced materials and geometries, necessitates more accurate simulations to ensure engine safety and to increase efficiency. Traditional one-way coupled methods used in industry are becoming insufficient for capturing complex phenomena such as flutter and nonlinear blade vi- brations. To address this, a new coupling interface, FSTraceInterface, is being developed to integrate the turbomachinery CFD solver TRACE [8] with the Flow Simulator Data Manager (FSDM) library, enabling robust Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) simulations. This integration already supports Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations and of- fers the flexibility to couple TRACE with various structural solvers al- ready present in FSDM. The FSTraceInterface interface facilitates the exchange of data between non-matching fluid and structural meshes. The coupling methodology follows an iterative Gauss-Seidel process, ensur- ing the consistent exchange of temperature and heat flux between the fluid and structural domains. Verification and validation of the tool are demonstrated through CHT analysis of a plate with finite thickness, and conjugate heat transfer simulations of a turbine blade with internal cool- ing.