Ansys, Concepts NREC Launch Automated Workflow for Turbo Design, Analysis

Ansys and Concepts NREC partnered again to connect design and analysis tools for turbomachinery applications. They integrated Ansys CFX computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software into Concepts NREC’s AxCent for 3D turbomachinery component design. Designers can quickly evaluate machine performance with increased predictive accuracy.

“We are thrilled to deliver this much needed—and highly requested—capability to our customers,” said Jonathan Bicknell, Vice President of Products & Engineering at Concepts NREC. “The expanded partnership improves the workflow between turbomachinery design and advanced physics simulation. Allowing for not just a streamlined workflow but improved designs for better performance and safer products.”

A typical workflow for turbomachinery engineers is:

• prepare preliminary blade designs in one software program
• perform detailed 3D analysis in a separate program
• manually transferring data between the two

Continuous data exporting causes delays, requires additional computational resources, and increases production costs. The integrated automated workflow shortens design cycles and improves performance for applications such as compressors, turbines, pumps, fans, and turbochargers.

“When running CFD analyses, it is critical to gain multiphysics insights of the design as soon as possible to ensure product performance before prototyping begins,” said Shane Emswiler, Senior Vice President of products at Ansys. “With the Ansys-Concepts NREC software integration, customers can develop complex products like jet engines significantly faster through an automated end-to-end workflow.”

Ansys customers can now obtain machine performance results from the CFX solver using the same interface. The parameters are automatically created for all blade rows, and the physics setup can be defined in an uninterrupted workflow. With one click, engineers can quickly verify turbomachinery designs using Ansys’ solvers before manufacturing.

The two companies plan to expand integration capabilities to include a broader variety of fluids in addition to features that will enable users to capture the system’s evolving dynamic behavior.

CFD

In an episode of the TurboTime podcast, Carolyn Woeber, the Director of Application Engineering at Cadence Design Systems, talks about CFD and gives a crash course in CFD and how it relates to the turbomachinery industry. She then talks about how CFD streamlines and benefits pump and compressor design and performance, how it improves the design and analysis of aerospace machinery, and what areas CFD could improve in the aerospace industry and the challenges it faces in terms of the turbomachinery industry.

“Engineers use multiple analysis tools to predict the behavior of these fluids to identify the most optimum design for their needs,” Woeber said. “This can range from analytical empirical analyses all the way to experimental setups, to CFD,” she said, “Most engineers that you talk to are familiar with and they use the analytical and the empirical analyses. They also use experimental setups when they're evaluating potential designs. But increasingly, we see more and more organizations moving toward enhancing their design processes by also incorporating CFD. So how does that work? What does that look like?”