Current Concepts in Engineering Research and Technology Vol. 3

This study examines heat transfer behaviour in gas turbine blades to evaluate the effect of cooling-hole configuration and blade material on temperature distribution and cooling performance. Gas turbine blades operate in high-temperature environments, where effective cooling is essential for maintaining material stability and reducing thermal stress. A gas turbine blade model was developed using Gambit, and the mesh was generated using CFD (FLUENT) software. The k-e turbulence model was applied for the flow and thermal analysis. Two blade configurations, containing 6 and 12 cooling holes, were analysed using titanium-aluminium alloy and nickel-chromium alloy. The analysis compared temperature distribution, pressure variation and cooling behaviour for the selected material and hole configurations. The results show that increasing the number of cooling holes reduces the temperature distribution across the blade. For titanium alloy, the maximum temperature decreased from 619°C to 395°C, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 36.2%. For nickel alloy, the temperature decreased from 665°C to 400°C, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 39.8%. The 12-hole configuration provided more effective heat dissipation and reduced hotspot formation compared with the 6-hole configuration. Nickel alloy showed better suitability for high-temperature turbine applications due to its thermal strength and more uniform temperature distribution, whereas titanium alloy showed lower overall temperatures but comparatively lower high-temperature suitability.