The present paper proposes a methodology to design and manufacture optimized turbomachinery components by leveraging the potential of Topology Optimization (TO) and Additive Manufacturing (AM). The method envisages the use of TO to define the best configuration of the rotoric components in terms of both static and dynamic behavior with a resultant reduction of overall weight. Eventually, the topology-optimized component is manufactured by using appropriate materials that can guarantee valid mechanical performances. The proposed strategy has been applied to a 2D impeller used for centrifugal compressors to prove the effectiveness of a TO+AM-based approach. Although this approach has never been extensively used before to centrifugal compressors and expanders, its application on rotor and stator components might unlock several benefits: tuning the natural frequencies, a reduction in the stress level, and a lighter weight of the rotating part. These objectives can be reached alone or in combination, performing a single analysis or a multiple analyses optimization. Finally, the introduction of AM technologies as standard manufacturing resources could bring sensible benefits with respect to the time to production and availability of components. Such aspects are essential in the Oil and Gas context, when dealing with new projects but also for service operations.
The need to be more and more competitive is pushing the complexity of aerodynamic and mechanical design of rotating machines at very high levels. New concepts are required to improve the current machine performances from many points of view: aerodynamics, mechanics, rotordynamics, and manufacturing. Topology optimization is one of the most promising new approaches in the turbomachinery field for mechanical optimization of rotoric and statoric components. It can be a very effective enabler to individuate new paths and strategies, and to go beyond techniques already consolidated in turbomachinery design, such as parametric and shape optimizations. Topology optimization methods improve material distribution within a given design space (for a given set of boundary conditions and loads) to allow the resulting layout to meet a prescribed set of performance targets. Topology optimization allows also to change the topology of the structures (e.g., when a shape splits into two parts or develops holes). This methodology has been applied to a turbine component to reduce the static stress level and the weight of the part and, at the same time, to tune natural frequencies. Thus, the interest of this work is to investigate both static and dynamic/modal aspects of the structural optimization. These objectives can be applied alone or in combination, performing a single analysis or a multiple analysis optimization. It has been possible to improve existing components and to design new concepts with higher performances compared to the traditional ones. This approach could be also applied to other generic components. The research paper has been developed in collaboration with Nuovo Pignone General Electric S.p.A. that has provided all the technical documentation. The developed geometries of the prototypes will be manufactured in the near future with the help of an industrial partner.
Topology optimization is an innovative strategy applied in the turbomachinery field with the aim of substantially improving the performances of turbomachinery components in terms of weights, stress levels and rotation speed, with a very remarkable economic impact. Being very flexible, topology optimization allows to manage the structures topology, significantly improving material distribution within a given design space for a given set of loads and boundary conditions. In this paper, the authors, in cooperation with General Electric Nuovo Pignone, develop a new concept design of a turbine disk and the optimized component is compared to the benchmark, in order to verify the achieved improvements. Special attention is paid to the use of innovative materials with lattice structures, characterized by complex three-dimensional geometries. Thanks to advanced technologies, as additive manufacturing, it is now possible to effectively exploit topology optimization to develop new components featured by complex structures. The developed prototypes will be manufactured and tested in the near future together with the industrial partners.
In modern industrial practice, the quality of a new product is achieved by identifying characteristics critical to quality (CTQs) and minimizing deviation from targets, rather than merely optimizing CTQs in the absence of variation. Estimating the variation of CTQs is thus critical to understand and correctly manage risk caused by different interacting sources of uncertainty. We have developed a method to estimate performance variability for centrifugal compressor stages. In this paper, we quantify the performance variation due to impeller manufacturing variability of two stage families. The stages studied are 2D stages designed for multi-purpose applications and 2D stages for high head applications. In a related paper, the stage performance variability here determined is considered together with other sources of variation to compute the variation in flange-to-flange performance for a full compressor. The proposed approach propagates the uncertainty of the design parameters to the stage aerodynamic performance through a Monte Carlo method. In order to keep a low computational budget, calibrated 1D/2D aerodynamic models have been run in parallel to compute the performance of the stages with randomly modified geometry. The results allow the quantification of the stage performance variability and the identification of the main sources of variation. As a step towards the corresponding analysis for a complete centrifugal compressor, results from this study have been used as input for a method where all factors affecting the flange-to-flange performance are considered. The method and the results are discussed in a companion paper.
The usual approach to compressor design considers uniform inlet flow characteristics. Especially in aircraft applications, the inlet flow is quite often non uniform, and this can result in severe performance degradation. The magnitude of this phenomenon is amplified in military engines due to the complexity of inlet duct configurations and the extreme flight conditions. CFD simulation is an innovative and powerful tool for studying inlet distortions and can bring this inside the very early phases of the design process. This project attempts to study the effects of inlet flow distortions in an axial flow compressor trying to minimize the use computer resources and computational time. The first stage of a low bypass ratio compressor has been analyzed and its clean and distorted performance compared outlining the principal changes due to uneven flow distribution: drop in mass flow, increase in pressure and temperature ratios, decrease in surge margin. Three different studies have then been conducted to better understand the effects of the level, the type and the frequency of the distortion.
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