SpinOffs

If you design turbomachinery for a living, you are already doing multidisciplinary optimization (MDO), regardless of whether you have a special software tool with MDO built in or not. Turbomachines, by their nature, require advanced fluid dynamics as well as very high mechanical complexity.  Whenever you make a trade-off between performance and durability or performance and weight/inertia, you are doing an MDO study. Adding MDO software to your traditional design approaches can give you additional insight into the trade-offs, and save you time by avoiding the need for manual iteration.

I recently got back from my favorite annual conference: ASME’s Turbo Expo. This year, someone thought it would be a good idea to hold it in Phoenix, Arizona…in the summertime.  While that’s not the choice I would have made, I did enjoy the conference very much and thought it was well worth attending. 

Computational fluid dynamic analysis (CFD) has become a standard part of the turbomachinery design process. Within Concepts NREC’s Agile Engineering Design System, FINE/Turbo, from our Partner NUMECA International, is the tool used to accomplish aerodynamic analysis of designs by applying standard methods of three-dimensional analysis. However, arriving at a converged CFD solution in any CFD program can sometimes be a challenge.

If you are a turbomachinery engineer, you know you can spend days, weeks, or even months analyzing various design iterations, looking for the optimal choice for the application.  When you go to present your final design for review, you want it to look as good as you know it is. Choosing the best post-processor for CFD results can not only save time in creating the desired views, but also show solutions at their best.  Without proper post-processing, your solution can lose that "je ne sais quoi" that made it the best design for the application. In other words - it has to look as good as you know it is.

Can you really get something for nearly nothing? In many cases, a properly-designed compressor casing treatment can extend compressor operating range without having to pay an appreciable efficiency penalty. Major automotive turbocharger OEMs have been leading this design effort for years and have successfully gained compressor operating range increase on both sides of the compressor (pressure versus flow) map. In most cases, the range increase has outweighed any efficiency penalty and best of all, these so-called “ported shroud” designs are naturally uncomplicated to implement, meaning that incremental cost is low.