Webinar Recordings

Presented by Mark Anderson, Chief  Technology Officer at Concepts NREC

Conservation of rothalpy in the rotating components of turbomachinery is a fundamental assumption in low-order models, including meanline analysis. Commonly used equations of rothalpy depart from the actual values when a given surface in the rotational domain is not actually rotating, as is the case with an open impeller or in a leakage path.  In this webinar recording, we look at the common equations for averaged rothalpy, determine under what circumstances they do not strictly apply, examine different correction methods, and consider a new formulation of leakage path modeling. The new formulation uses these corrected rothalpy terms, which provide a higher level of fidelity to loss generation and pressure distributions calculated from meanline models. This new formulation can provide improved prediction, particularly for axial thrust magnitudes, that have typically been difficult to calculate accurately.

Presented by Raghavendra Kadage, CAE Product Support Engineer

AxCent, the cutting-edge design software at the heart of Agile Engineering Design System, is comprised of tools built to give you the best performance and design advantage.

In this webinar recording, we demonstrate the CADFIT tool, and the process to import any external CAD design into AxCent with the assistance of CADFIT and MAX-PAC.

The process of parametrizing the CAD design into AxCent’s format is explained with a walk through the software in a live demonstration of setting parameters for blade loading, fluid modeling, how to change the tip clearance for imported CAD geometry, and how to check accuracy. 

Presented by Ryan Lussier, CAM Product Manager

New in MAX-PAC 2023.2 we have added an adaptive machining module. This includes features such as import and analysis of probing data, translation of alignment and NC coordinates based on best fitting, and also offsetting toolpaths to account for blade and tool deflection.

Presented by Dr. Oleg Zubalev, Senior CAE Software Design Engineer

Guide curves are a valuable feature when making design modifications to individual stages of axial machines as well as wholesale changes. Concepts NREC has expanded the use of guide curves and how they interact with hub and shroud contours, including continuous contours, as well as adding new snapping functions that ensure a designer stays within a pre-defined flow path set by those guide curves. This webinar shows how to create a guide curve, import a guide curve, relate hub and shroud contours to a guide curve, and use the snapping functionalities for focusing on certain segments within a full machine.

Presented by Ryan Lussier, CAM Product Manager

New in MAX-PAC 2023.2 we have updated UPASS, our trochoidal roughing strategy. This new path has more consistent tool load by reducing large engagement at the walls of the pocket and also allows for improved tool orientation to produce more consistent stock conditions after roughing. 

Presented by Akshay Bagi, General Manager, Concepts NREC India Private Limited

TurboOPTII provides turbomachinery designers a simple, integrated interface with the Concepts NREC CAE products to conduct optimization studies to push the boundaries of performance and durability. The nature of optimization brings the challenge of how to manage all the data that it creates and visualize the outputs that are most valuable to the designer in such a way that rapid decisions can be made. There has been a focused effort to bring new visualization tools to this product to increase the turnaround time in making these key decisions. This webinar introduces the newest additions to the visualization tool box and also reviews some of the most value-added features that were already in place.

Presented by Ryan Lussier, CAM Product Manager

New in MAX-PAC 2023.2 we have added a hole making toolpath which includes basic hole making methods from peck drilling to helical boring. These can be used in many applications while manufacturing turbomachinery such as instrumentation holes, mechanical connections, and making holes for chip/coolant evacuation on shrouded components. 

Presented by Jesse Cheung, CAE Applications Engineer

The diversification of radial turbine applications and the need to use a broader set of real fluids in those applications is driving the need to design to pressure ratios that necessitate multiple stages of expansion. GOOD NEWS: RITAL is now capable of modeling multi-stage designs! By integrating our AXIAL solver, which is not specific to axial machines, and implementing a hood connection model between the stages, a designer is now able to create multi-stage radial turbine designs to achieve pressure ratios never before possible with this meanline design tool.  This webinar summarizes the new functionality and demonstrates how it is used in practical design applications.

Steve Kohr, Director of Software Product Management & UX, reviews new functions in version 2023.1 of the Agile Engineering™ CAE suite of software products. The products upgraded in this latest development cycle include PUMPAL^®, RITAL™, AXIAL™, AxCent^®, pbCFD™, and TurboOPT II™.

This release continues to focus on the design and analysis of turbopumps, expanding the design options for axial machines, and adapting to the alternative energy and energy storage market needs. The development team has continued to improve optimization capabilities to complement the existing design tools and provide opportunities to push the boundaries of performance using the Agile Engineering Design System^® software.

In this webinar, CAM Product Manager Ryan Lussier reviews  the latest features now available with v2023.1 of MAX-PAC™. 

This development cycle brings two new blade finishing toolpath methods, a new coordinate system feature that makes it easier to position CAD models for building the working model and setting up machine simulation, and enhancements to Mixer toolpaths that will reduce calculation time and support more roughing methods.

Artificial Intelligence has been in the news lately due to the widespread use of ChatGPT. This has lead to many discussions at Concepts NREC about how AI will change turbomachinery design in the near future. At CN we are convinced that AI isn’t coming for our jobs as turbomachinery design experts, however we do see it fundamentally changing the way that we work.

In this webinar our CTO, Mark Anderson, shows what is possible today with the optimization methods available in the Concepts NREC products. Mark also shows examples of how to launch automated optimization runs quickly and efficiently using predetermined templates available in the Agile Suite. Rachel Moore, Senior Software Engineer, discusses options for using customized scripts to implement proprietary know how from within your organization. Using these methods, an experienced engineer can transfer his/her expertise into a design template which can then drive a design problem in an automated way to achieve an optimized design. By teaching the algorithms the design process we can save time by applying the same process to future designs. Not only can an expert designer use the automation to save time, but it also allows the development of consistent design practices that can be easily taught to less experienced engineers.

Ryan Lussier, CAM Product Manager reviews the latest features added in v2023.0 of MAX-PAC™ CAM software system. 

MAX-PAC is the industry leader for CAM software specialized for advanced 5-axis machining. It is easy to learn, easy to use, and includes many strategy options to save time and improve processes. MAX-PAC produces efficient toolpaths and extremely high-quality parts.

This webinar will cover all of the new features in v2023.0, including 

• new surface milling capabilities to build and mill arbitrary surfaces that are not part of the bladed configuration
• the addition of a Stock Chain Manager which enables you to easily calculate an operation’s remaining stock and use the stock in other operations and in simulations

These changes allow shops that rely on MAX-PAC to use it for work beyond just the bladed components and minimize the time wasted developing toolpaths in other systems to merge with MAX-PAC.

Steve Kohr, Director, Software Product Management & UX, reviews the new additions to the Agile Engineering™ CAE software product suite v2023.0.

For this new version, Concepts NREC has continued to focus development for market segments such as cryogenic and rocket turbo pumps, axial gas turbines and compressors, and alternative energy and energy storage.

Improvements include:

• further development in secondary flow path design in PUMPAL™ and AxCent™
• a new combination pump design template in PUMPAL for inducer + impeller designs
• a full overhaul of the RITAL™ solver for use with real fluids
• new design modes in AXIAL™ for compressor and turbine design

During this time, Steve also provides updates on the newest product CYCAL™, a 1D thermodynamic cycle calculation product, as well as the transition of our Agile suite of products to the new Fidelity platform. This should provide even more insight into the future of designing with the next generation of Agile Engineering CAE products!

Chief Technology Officer Mark Anderson discusses a novel approach to extend compressor range through a passive method that prompts recirculation at low flow rates and corresponding higher back pressures. This recirculation method effectively establishes a higher local flow condition seen by the impeller and provides a stabilizing effect delaying the onset of stall . Various vane configurations and layouts in the secondary region are explained, and advantages and disadvantages of each are covered. The range extensions made possible by this method and the corresponding impact on performance is discussed.

This webinar presents tips and tricks for how to succeed in making high-quality toolpaths for turbopumps and inducers in MAX-PAC™.

Discussion topics include:

• Tool orientation and collision avoidance
• Multi-curve sheared leading edges
• Roughing techniques

This webinar reviews the operation and benefits of using air dynamometers for turboshaft engine testing. For over 35 years, VAROC air dynamometers have been used worldwide in military and civilian applications to test a broad range of gas turbine engines. This webinar will examine how using ambient air as the working fluid, VAROC air dynamometers offer enhanced ease-of-use, reliability, portability and control relative to other load-testing devices. VAROC air dynamometers exhibit no cavitation or uneven fluid heating, allowing stable load to be held indefinitely.

Jesse Cheung, Applications Engineer, demonstrates a unique design wizard you can use to save time and money with optimization. Design single or multi-stage centrifugal, mixed-flow, and axial pumps by stage, analyze their performance, refine the parameters with data reduction, and then model the machine according to several performance models. The pump design can easily be sent to AxCent®, Concept NREC’s detailed 3D geometric design and rapid 2D flow analysis program for further blade design and fluid dynamic analysis.

MAX-PAC is the industry leader for CAM software specialized for advanced 5-axis machining. It is easy to learn, easy to use, and includes many strategy options to save time and improve processes. MAX-PAC produces efficient toolpaths and extremely high-quality parts.

This webinar will cover over two dozen new features in v2022, including 

• Probing cycle for on-machine or CMM inspection
• New tool/probe orientation options
• Mixer strategy to modify toolpaths into custom strategies
• Tool Library upgrades including profile tools and new barrel tool types

The Cooled Turbine Airfoil Agile Design System (CTAADS™) provides a systematic and rapid 3D modeling approach to cooling-system design for axial turbine vanes and blades. The system includes many special features that can significantly reduce the total time and cost to generate airfoil cooling-passage geometry and perform a complete 3D thermal analysis.

Recent developments bring the ability to model internal core turn passages and squealer tip cap geometry, as well as flexible geometric manipulation of several cooling configurations, including film-cooling definition with spanwise variations, vane impingements cooling definition with multiple regions, and cast-cooling features definition.

Join Peter Weitzman for a walk through of the newly released version 2022.0 of the Agile Engineering Design System^® . 

The new release features new probing operations in MAX PAC™, and the CAE suite includes a streamlined system for the design and analysis of drilled nozzles for rocket turbopump design as well as the ability to optimize secondary flow paths and seals parametrically and improvements to automated CFD optimization to detect convergence and new real-fluid modeling.

This webinar is a preview of the productivity gains you can expect with the next generation of our centrifugal compressor design tools.  We will also show how the entire design workflow, from cycle through 3D CFD will be possible in a single unified design and analysis environment.

Presented by Frank DiBella, Mechanical Design/Cycle Engineer, Mark Anderson, Chief Technology Officer and Dan Hinch, Corporate VP Sales and Marketing of Concepts NREC

This webinar  presents a general discussion of sCO2 emerging technology for energy, refrigeration and propulsion, software solutions and primary flowpaths. What are the challenges the industry faces, and what are the important factors to consider.

Presented by Peter Klein, Director CAM Software for Concepts NREC

This webinar introduces a detailed look at how to use some of the most popular new features in our MAX-PAC™ CAM software. This webinar will be most useful for existing users, however experienced manufacturing engineers will appreciate the solutions our software can provide for today’s complex toolpath geometries. MAX-PAC is the leading CAM software specialized for turbomachinery. It makes advanced 5-axis machining easy and includes many strategies to produce efficient toolpaths and high-quality parts.

In this webinar, Peter Klein gives a hands-on look at recent features that have generated a lot of interest, including:

• Disc mill roughing
• New postprocessing system
• Machine simulation
• Barrel tool orientation
• Flank milling envelope

Presented by Don Seib, CAE Applications Engineer of Concepts NREC

This webinar showcases the new cycle design tool CYCAL™ integrated into the OMNIS™/Agile platform. We discuss how to build a cycle, the integration with COMPAL^®, our centrifugal compressor meanline design tool, and explore the design space considering all design decisions for the balance of plant.

Presented by Mark Anderson, Chief Technology Officer of Concepts NREC

Turbomachinery systems are often subject to variations in ambient conditions and applied loads in operation. This webinar discusses methods to predict changes in performance due to variable inlet conditions with highly non-linear fluid properties. In supercritical CO2 applications, fluid properties are far from simple perfect gas conditions.  A new method is proposed to generate normalized maps of performance that can be used to determine actual performance of a wide range of inlet conditions for highly non-linear thermodynamic properties rapidly and with high accuracy.

In collaboration with GROB Systems and Sandvik Coromant

This webinar is in collaboration with GROB Systems and Sandvik Coromant as we combine our respective technology and machine a Titanium shrouded impeller. Starting from a turned blank, we utilize both complex toolpaths from Concepts NREC and advanced cutting tools from Sandvik Coromant on the newest GROB 5-Axis machine, the G150. The large A-Axis swivel range of the G150 allows for greater approach angles for hard to reach surfaces. This allows better toolpaths, optimized cutter tangencies to adjacent surfaces and better surface engagement of the cutting tool.

In collaboration with:

Presented by Frank DiBella, Mechanical Design/Cycle Engineer

This webinar reviews the mechanical and aerodynamic design of a 2 MW rated SCO2 compressor that will be used in the research laboratories of Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI), the Center of Advanced Energy Systems and Equipment R&D.  The compressor is the most critical component of a test rig designed for developing power cycles for high temperature solar and nuclear energy sources.  The compressor is a single stage vaned diffuser layout with a pressure ratio of 1.9 at the design point.  Concepts NREC worked closely with the SARI engineers and provided the mechanical design of the compressor, verified rotor dynamics and specified the instrumentation required to verify the performance of the compressor for SARI’s research.  This webinar provides a concise review of this effort.

Presented by Jonathan Bicknell, Associated Director of Product Management of Concepts NREC

This webinar showcases the new cycle analysis tool CYCAL^® integrated into the OMNIS™/Agile platform. The demonstration includes the initial scoping of a multistage intercooled compressor design, followed by the impact on the overall cycle due to changes as the detailed design progresses.

Presented by Jonathan Bicknell, Product Manager at Concepts NREC and Martin Knatz, Manager Support at Euklid

This webinar walks through GearCAM tools and methods to show how gear production is possible without expensive hobs or special gear cutting machines, but through standard tooling and machines tools. The presentation highlights the modular structure to provide custom solutions for your specific gear design needs, including new features in measurement options.

Presented by Christos Maninos, CAM Application Engineer

This webinar explores the benefits of barrel milling vs. point milling, as well as new test options for 5-axis trochoidal milling (U-PASS) in v8.8 of MAX-PAC™ CAM software. 

Manufacturing turbomachinery components is often a challenge due to hard materials, thin blades, tight tolerances, smooth surface- finish requirements, or difficult tool access. MAX-PAC™ CAM software specialized for turbomachinery makes advanced 5-axis machining easy and includes many strategy options for producing efficient toolpaths and high quality parts.

Presented by Christos Maninos, CAM Application Engineer

CAM Applications Engineer Christos Maninos walks through MAX-PAC™ tools and methods to build accurate, machinable models for your turbomachinery designs. For example, learn how to convert a patchwork of blade surfaces to a flowline definition.

Presented by Dr. Edward Childs, Associate Director of Software Support and Documentation at Concepts NREC

The webinar provides an overview of optimization capabilities currently available at Concepts NREC and new features planned for the 2019 release.

Two examples of MDO will be presented. The first is a multiple objective optimization of a centrifugal compressor at two operating points using FINE/Design3D partnered with NUMECA and AxCent. The second is a coupled aero-structural optimization of the same compressor, using TurboOPT II and Esteco's modeFRONTIER.

Presented by Francis Di Bella, Program Manager, Large Product Development / Corporate Fellow at Concepts NREC

Francis Di Bella reviews the application of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Systems for power generation from waste heat sources. The waste heat source is typically at lower operating temperatures than heat sources that are produced from the direct combustion of fossil fuels or from nuclear reactions. The ORC system is better suited for producing more net power from such lower heat sources, while at the same time operating at perhaps lower cycle efficiencies compared to the more typical Utility Rankine Cycle systems that use water as the more standard working fluid. The webinar discusses the thermodynamics that explain this apparent ambiguity. Examples are given of ORC systems used in Industrial waste heat applications, including several novel applications that combine solar energy with the remediation of open pit mines.

Presented by Mark Anderson, CTO for Concepts NREC

Mark Anderson, CTO for Concepts NREC, covers the fundamental concepts of stability and range in radial compressors with an emphasis on turbochargers.  We start with some basic fluid dynamic theory, move on to insights gleaned from laboratory tests, and finally cover range and stability performance in actual turbomachinery components and stages.  We discuss some strategies, both passive and active, for improved range. 

resented by Mark Anderson, CTO for Concepts NREC

This webinar looks at design considerations for the inlet region of a radial compressor impeller.  We cover the basic concerns about inducer design as well as special considerations for high-speed flows.  The material starts with basic flow theory, then moves on to special design techniques, and finishes up with some live examples of various solution methods used to layout a state-of-the-art inducer.

Presented by Dr. Felipe Favaretto, Senior Software Engineer for Concepts NREC

This webinar looks at the Agile Engineering Design System^®, which enables users to design recirculating casing treatment configurations for operating range enhancement of centrifugal compressors. Dr. Favaretto presents a case study, starting with the preliminary design in COMPAL^® to assess the impact of basic casing design parameters on compressor efficiency and range. Then he shows the auto-generated 3D model in AxCent^® for making localized changes to the casing geometry. Lastly, Dr. Favaretto demonstrates generating the grid in NUMECA International’s AutoGrid™ in fully-automated fashion, running the 3D CFD analysis in FINE™/Turbo, and visualizing the results.

Using this method significantly reduces development costs of recirculating casing treatment design.

Presented by Francis Di Bella, Program Manager and Corporate Fellow for Concepts NREC

The Supercritical CO₂ Cycle is getting a lot of attention from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as other Energy Research Centers around the world. The attention is based on the fact that SCO₂systems can operate at very high cycle efficiencies and with a smaller footprint than conventional steam and gas turbine power modules of the same power output. Central to the ability to achieve high cycle efficiency is high turbine and compressor efficiency. This Webinar provides a Primer on the thermodynamics of the SCO₂ cycle and reviews the status of the technology. We also explores what technology advances must be made to achieve the highest potential of this cycle.

Presented by George C. Zitka, CAE Software Product Manager for Concepts NREC

Concepts NREC's pbPost™ is a pushbutton post-processing module that enables Cadence's FINE™/Turbo to be launched seamlessly from within the AxCent^® environment. Users can then bring their solutions back to an intuitive turbomachinery-specific interface for viewing, research and analysis. This webinar recording discovers why pbPost is a convenient way to examine FINE/Turbo solutions and how Concepts NREC and Cadence solutions are a powerful way to analyze existing turbomachinery designs and create new products.