pbCFD™ and Cadence CFD

CFD for 3D Flow Analysis

Concepts NREC offers specialized 3D flow analysis software modules to aid in validating designs. pbCFD™ is Concepts NREC's CFD solver. Cadence CFD solutions provide another analysis option for the Agile Engineering Design System®.

Both are fully integrated with AxCent®, Concepts NREC’s 3D turbomachinery geometry design program, to deliver seamless and efficient transfer of geometry and flow settings.

FINE/Agile Bundles

FINE/Agile™ is available in five specialized configurations for your specific application: radial and mixed-flow compressors; radial, mixed-flow, axial pumps; radial and mixed-flow turbines; radial and mixed-flow fans; axial compressors and turbines. All of these configurations can be easily expanded to allow for multiple applications.

    • Meanline Design: Determine design layout & sizing (on 1D basis for all components) for radial machines or determine geometry at mean, hub and tip locations for axial machines. Meanline options include:
      • COMPAL® for radial and mixed-flow compressors
      • PUMPAL™ for radial, mixed-flow, axial pumps
      • RITAL™ for radial and mixed-flow turbines
      • FANPAL™ for radial and mixed-flow fans
      • AXIAL™ for axial compressors and turbines
    • AxCent®: 3D detailed design for geometry and blading including throughflow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation
    • AutoGrid5™: Automated grid generator for turbomachinery configuration, delivers the highest quality structured meshes with minimum user input. Its Wizard mode handles all types of rotating machinery configurations and complexities.
    • FINE™/Turbo flow solver: 3D Navier-Stokes flow solver, recognized as the fastest and most accurate for turbomachinery configurations. Acceleration of several orders of magnitude is achieved thanks to the CPUBooster™ technique, NLH approach and HPC scalability. 
    • CFView™: Advanced post-processing tool, provides dedicated flow visualization and analysis outputs in an easy-to-use turbomachinery-oriented mode. 
    • Post-processing module, pbPost™, enables users to launch NUMECA International's FINE™/Turbo from within the AxCent® environment.  It can also import the CFD results generated by FINE/Turbo back into the AxCent viewing environment.

     

    • Meanline design for all major turbomachinery configurations.
    • Detailed 3D design for geometry and blading using AxCent®, including through flow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation.
    • Ultra fast CFD solvers using CPU Booster™ technology and Non-Linear Harmonic method for unsteady simulations.
    • Seamless integration with FINE™/Design3D for optimization and our unique Uncertainty Quantification module 

     

  • Meanline Design: Determine design layout & sizing (on 1D basis for all components) for radial machines or determine geometry at mean, hub and tip locations for axial machines. Meanline options include:
    • COMPAL® for radial and mixed-flow compressors
    • PUMPAL™ for radial, mixed-flow, axial pumps
    • RITAL™ for radial and mixed-flow turbines
    • FANPAL™ for radial and mixed-flow fans
    • AXIAL™ for axial compressors and turbines
  • AxCent®: 3D detailed design for geometry and blading including throughflow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation
  • AutoGrid5™: Automated grid generator for turbomachinery configuration, delivers the highest quality structured meshes with minimum user input. Its Wizard mode handles all types of rotating machinery configurations and complexities.
  • FINE™/Turbo flow solver: 3D Navier-Stokes flow solver, recognized as the fastest and most accurate for turbomachinery configurations. Acceleration of several orders of magnitude is achieved thanks to the CPUBooster™ technique, NLH approach and HPC scalability. 
  • CFView™: Advanced post-processing tool, provides dedicated flow visualization and analysis outputs in an easy-to-use turbomachinery-oriented mode. 
  • Post-processing module, pbPost™, enables users to launch NUMECA International's FINE™/Turbo from within the AxCent® environment.  It can also import the CFD results generated by FINE/Turbo back into the AxCent viewing environment.

 

  • Meanline design for all major turbomachinery configurations.
  • Detailed 3D design for geometry and blading using AxCent®, including through flow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation.
  • Ultra fast CFD solvers using CPU Booster™ technology and Non-Linear Harmonic method for unsteady simulations.
  • Seamless integration with FINE™/Design3D for optimization and our unique Uncertainty Quantification module 

 

Streamlined Design and Simulation Process

  • Meanline Design: Determine design layout & sizing (on 1D basis for all components) for radial machines or determine geometry at mean, hub and tip locations for axial machines. Meanline options include:
    • COMPAL® for radial and mixed-flow compressors
    • PUMPAL™ for radial, mixed-flow, axial pumps
    • RITAL™ for radial and mixed-flow turbines
    • FANPAL™ for radial and mixed-flow fans
    • AXIAL™ for axial compressors and turbines
  • AxCent®: 3D detailed design for geometry and blading including throughflow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation
  • AutoGrid5™: Automated grid generator for turbomachinery configuration, delivers the highest quality structured meshes with minimum user input. Its Wizard mode handles all types of rotating machinery configurations and complexities.
  • FINE™/Turbo flow solver: 3D Navier-Stokes flow solver, recognized as the fastest and most accurate for turbomachinery configurations. Acceleration of several orders of magnitude is achieved thanks to the CPUBooster™ technique, NLH approach and HPC scalability. 
  • CFView™: Advanced post-processing tool, provides dedicated flow visualization and analysis outputs in an easy-to-use turbomachinery-oriented mode. 
  • Post-processing module, pbPost™, enables users to launch NUMECA International's FINE™/Turbo from within the AxCent® environment.  It can also import the CFD results generated by FINE/Turbo back into the AxCent viewing environment.

Key Features

  • Meanline design for all major turbomachinery configurations.
  • Detailed 3D design for geometry and blading using AxCent®, including through flow, 2D blade-to-blade and streamline curvature calculation.
  • Ultra fast CFD solvers using CPU Booster™ technology and Non-Linear Harmonic method for unsteady simulations.
  • Seamless integration with FINE™/Design3D for optimization and our unique Uncertainty Quantification module 

Software Highlights

pbPost-forward - FINE-Turbo solving - axial

pbPost

Fine-Agile Meshing2

FINE/Agile for Pumps - Part 1

Fine-Agile Meshing2

FINE/Agile for Pumps - Part 2

Data Sheet

Concepts NREC and Cadence/Numeca partner to offer best-in-class preliminary turbomachinery design system and the fastest and most accurate CFD suite.

FineAgile Pumps DataSheet Thumbnail
partner-bg-img

Software Highlights

Blade Geometry

AxCent easily handles the most complex blade geometry. A partial list of blade design features include:

  • Blade stacking of 2D cross sections
  • Blade restaggering around an arbitrary axis
  • Bowed blading defined by hub-to-shroud bow profiles
  • Bowed or sculpted element with arbitrary number of mid-span sections
  • Variable tip clearance on either end of the blade
  • Flow cuts and radial trims
  • Swept leading/trailing edges
  • Multiple, offset, and independent splitter blades
  • Irregular blade/splitter configurations for noise reduction

Other design features include:

  • Parameterized volute geometry generation
  • Split duct geometry
  • Fillets with constant or variable radius and aspect ratio

Recent 3D features include:

  • Cutaway view allows real-time cross sections to be viewed as the design is edited
  • 3D overlays permit viewing of current, real-time changes on a transparent overlay

Flow analysis

AxCent includes several options for real-time interactive flow analysis:

  • Inviscid streamline curvature solvers, including Concepts NREC's Multi-Stream Tube Solver (MST),  are recognized in the industry as the best for centrifugal pumps and compressors
    • MST puts the power of real-time analysis in your hands.  It enables you to immediately visualize the consequences of design changes on velocity, temperature, and pressure. You can look at multiple iterations in seconds, rather than the hours necessary to export each design to CAD for CFD analysis. 
    • Using MST, you can significantly reduce the overall design cycle time by providing an optimized iteration for validation, rather then the more traditional iterative process that requires a lot more back and forth.
Before editing

Design before editing

After editingDesign after editing

CFD Analysis

AxCent includes a number of CFD-based solvers:

  • Blade-to-blade is a powerful and rapid quasi-3D solver for quickly evaluating flow patterns across the channel
    • Quickly provides validated feedback to resolve blade profiles for twist, camber and thickness
  • Throughflow is another quasi-3D solver for rapid analysis of axial streamwise flow in compressors and turbines using industry-standard loss and deviation models
    • Enables feedback in minutes compared to full CFD analysis
    • Run multiple iterations to improve performance
  • Full 3D CFD with an advanced full Navier-Stokes solver for comprehensive analysis using a seamless one-click interface with Cadence/NUMECA's FINE®/Turbo

Four-stage axial compressor case study showing results from both Throughflow and Blade-to-Blade solvers:

Throughflow Solver

Throughflow ran in under 25 seconds - best for axial machines

Blade to blade solver

Blade-to-Blade ran in approximately one minute. It works on either axial or radial machines and runs fastest on radial machines.

Direct Integration to Other Programs

AxCent works through direct links with all Concepts NREC meanline programs including:

AxCent can be started from any Concepts NREC meanline program (once the geometry has been set up), and can link the AxCent geometry back to the meanline design to rerun the analysis and regenerate the performance maps. Additionally, using TurboOPT II, the AxCent geometry can be linked to an internal optimizer or to a third-party optimizer such as modeFRONTIER, Isight™, VisualDOC, and IOSO.

Stress Analysis Integration

AxCent is fully integrated with Concepts NREC FEA stress analysis programs, Pushbutton FEA™. FEA stress, thermal and modal analysis can be conducted directly through the AxCent interface.

Interface to other Programs

AxCent is also compatible with many commercial and open source software packages. Some examples include:

  • FLUENT®. Direct export of geometry or CFD grids through native FLUENT format files
  • OpenFOAM®. Export of grid files and importation of output files through OpenFOAM formats
  • CAD Systems. Export of IGES and STEP formats for seamless integration with virtually any CAD package
  • Isight. Link to Isight optimization via XML format or directly through Concepts NREC’s TurboOPT IIoptimization software
  • Import-export formats with Python scripting, XML format options, various other file output for seamless export to Concepts NREC CAM programs (the MAX-PAC suite)
PushbuttonCFD_xl

pbCFD™

pbCFD™ is a baseline tool for CFD users who are interested in a cost-effective alternative to prototype manufacturing and testing. Created for designers by designers, it generates rapid design-level CFD calculations, with equally rapid setup and run times. With fully integrated preprocessing, CFD runs can be set up with just a few keystrokes. Designers can get a full 3D Navier-Stokes solution with no more effort than a streamline-curvature or throughflow solution.

Learn More about pbCFD

Cadence CFD

Cadence CFD is a full-featured Flow Integrated Environment for rotating and non-rotating flow analysis in external and internal turbomachinery applications. It is the fastest CFD suite available for rotating machinery with incompressible and compressible fluids, operating from subsonic to hypersonic flow regimes. All types of multi-stage axial, radial or mixed-flow configurations are supported: compressors, turbines, pumps, fans, propellers or contra-rotating propellers. Cadence CFD seamlessly launches with one click from AxCent.

Learn More about Cadence CFD

Product Support

Find Your Rep

Our Sales Offices are strategically located around the globe to service all your turbomachinery needs.

Upcoming Events

Tradeshows, Workshops, Webinars and more.

I came to the realization that we needed some objective insight.

We were working well with the OEM but even with our combined efforts, we were struggling to get a critical compressor to pass performance on their test stand. Although I'd never directly done business with Concepts NREC I was familiar with them and their capability so I chose to contact them when I came to the realization that we needed some objective insight. Concepts NREC fielded my cold call and immediately engaged their expertise in a complex problem that was also challenged by schedule constraints. They provided increased understanding of an already complex CFD which resulted in increased confidence that the proposed solution would succeed on the next test stand attempt (which it did!). We are pleased to have had the help of Concepts NREC and now have a well-performing compressor in our process.”

Bryan Barrington

Senior Advisor - Machinery Engineering

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