Optimization of cooling passages within a turbine vane

The trends in gas turbine technology aim to build more and more efficient cycles, which is usually achieved by the temperature increase at the inlet of the turbine. To prevent the negative effects of elevated temperature some actions are taken concerning, among others cooling of the high temperature components. Since the structure of the cooling system affects the turbine performance, it is essential to carry out the optimization to make it as efficient as possible. In this paper we show some aspects of passage optimization for internally cooled gas turbine vanes. In the present study the vane profile is taken as aerodynamically optimal. The analysis involves the optimization of the location and size of circular cooling passages within the vane. The analysis is performed by means of the genetic algorithm for the optimization task and FEM for the heat transfer predictions within the blade.