Gas turbine diagram. (Image courtesy of Flownex.)
“Flownex is a 1D simulation software for internal flow and heat transfer applications,” explained Tiaan Dercksen main programmer at Flownex. “It is applied a lot in the nuclear industry, machine design and also in power generation.”
Using 1D simulations, engineers can quickly determine the flow, heat transfer, pressure drop and work for all of the connected components within the turbine. With the turbine simulation improvements recently added to Flownex, users can complete these simulations for both steady-state and transient flow.
Flownex come with a library of rotating components which can be used to assess the coolant rotational flow field within the turbine. This will give engineers a cost-effective and quick baseline to work from when designing the secondary air system in 3D detail.
Other 1D simulations that Flownex can perform to hasten gas turbine design include:
- Combustion chamber and coolant flow optimization
- Exhaust compositions
- Flame temperature
- Flow distributions
- Thermal capacitance
- Swirl calculations
- Pressure differentials and power transfers
- Heat convection, radiation and conduction
Assessing the flow and combustion of the system as a whole will give engineers a better idea of the specifications and changes they need to implement before moving to more time-intensive and expensive 3D part simulations.
Flownex can quickly perform thousands of simulations and assess much of the design and operational space with them. The results can then be integrated with 3D simulations like computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) to assess each part individually.
This will save a lot of upfront costs early in the design cycle by nailing down parameters and finding flaws early on. Therefore, 1D simulations allow engineers to reduce the risk of expensive final product faults, redesigns and recalls.
“Flownex enabled engineers to analyze the complete fuel system and its components in an efficient and accurate way, providing them with peace of mind that the final system design is safe, reliable and conforms to customer requirements,” said Jaco Gouws, system and stress engineer at Aerosud.
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