Cellular Core Panels with Heat Pipes for Thermal Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aerospace and gas turbine engine components face challenges in managing high thermal and mechanical loads, requiring structures that are lightweight, strong, and capable of efficient thermal management to prevent degradation and failure under extreme conditions.
Innovation Solution
The development of cellular core panel structures with solid or hollow trusses, incorporating heat pipes and thermal barrier coatings, which facilitate cross-flow heat exchange and mechanical strength, allowing for efficient heat dissipation and stress management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional solid blade structures are used to withstand high thermal and mechanical loads, then strength and reliability are improved, but weight increases and fuel efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The blade is divided into a solid outer shell and an internal cellular lattice structure, separating the load-bearing function (handled by the shell) from the weight-reduction function (handled by the lattice core). This segmentation allows the blade to maintain strength while reducing overall weight compared to solid structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The blade employs composite construction combining solid shell materials with cellular lattice materials, creating a hybrid structure that leverages the high strength-to-weight ratio of lattice structures while maintaining the protective and load-bearing capabilities of solid shells. This composite approach resolves the contradiction between strength and weight.
2Temperature
If thermal barrier coatings are applied to protect blade surfaces from high temperatures, then temperature protection is improved, but coating reliability deteriorates due to spalling
Solution Approach 1:
The cellular lattice structure inherently provides a porous, open architecture that can accommodate thermal expansion and stress differentials, reducing the likelihood of coating spalling. The lattice geometry allows for stress relief pathways that protect the thermal barrier coating from delamination while maintaining temperature protection.
3Temperature
If hollow turbine blade structures are used to introduce cooling air, then cooling efficiency is improved, but structural strength deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling function is segmented from the load-bearing function by placing the cooling air passage within the cellular lattice core, while the solid outer shell maintains structural integrity. This allows the hollow structure to provide cooling without compromising the strength provided by the solid shell.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling architecture transitions from a simple hollow cavity to a three-dimensional cellular lattice structure with multiple interconnected cooling channels. This dimensional complexity increases cooling surface area and efficiency while the overall structural framework maintains strength.
4Strength
If heavy aerospace components are used to ensure strength and durability, then mechanical strength is improved, but fuel consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The component structure is segmented into solid shell and cellular core regions, allowing weight reduction in non-critical areas while maintaining strength in load-bearing regions. This segmentation enables significant weight reduction compared to fully solid components, directly reducing fuel consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The design changes the density parameter of the component by introducing a cellular lattice structure with controlled cell size, shape, and distribution. This parameter change reduces overall component density and weight while maintaining adequate strength through the shell-lattice composite architecture, thereby reducing fuel consumption.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
These structures effectively reduce thermal gradients and mechanical stresses, increase operating temperatures, and enhance the cyclic thermal life of components, making them suitable for high-heat, high-stress environments while maintaining lightweight and responsive performance.
Implementation Method 1
The cellular cores can be fabricated from solid or hollow struts and are arranged to maximize the support of dynamic and static stresses, and they facilitate cross-flow heat exchange with cooling gases
Implementation Method 2
When hollow trusses are employed, they may be in the form of conventional and/or micro heat pipes that are able to efficiently and rapidly transfer heat in their axial directions
Implementation Method 3
The thermally insulating ceramic coatings applied on top of these layers reduce the blade metal surface temperature and therefore the rate of degradation during service
Implementation Method 4
the hollow structure of hot engine section turbine blades is used to introduce cooling air into the interior of the blade. It is then allowed it to exit the blade/vane through an array of small holes, thus creating a cooling film on the blade surface
Data Source
AI summary
Light-weight, heat-managing structures feature open-cell lattice, honeycomb, and/or corrugated (prismatic) arrangements in their substructures, combined with heat pipe/heat plate arrangements for managing heat to which the structures are subjected. The structures are well suited to aerospace applications and may be employed in the leading edge of wings or other airfoil-shaped components; gas turbine engine components; rocket nozzles; and other high-heat, high-stress environments.