Predicting the Thermal Conductivity of AlSi/Polyester Abradable Coatings: Effects of the Numerical Method

The final target of this study is to achieve a better understanding of the behavior of thermally sprayed abradable seals such as AlSi/polyester composites. These coatings are used as seals between the static and the rotating parts in aero-engines. The machinability of the composite coatings during the friction of the blades depends on their mechanical and thermal effective properties. In order to predict these properties from micrographs, numerical studies were performed with different software packages such as OOF developed by NIST and TS2C developed at the UTBM. In 2008, differences were reported concerning predictions of effective thermal conductivities obtained with the two codes. In this article, a particular attention was paid to the mathematical formulation of the problem. In particular, results obtained with a finite difference method using a cell-centered approach or a nodal formulation allow explaining the discrepancies previously noticed. A comparison of the predictions of the computed effective thermal conductivities is thus proposed. This study is part of the NEWAC project, funded by the European Commission within the 6th RTD Framework programm (FP6).