Technical Cost Methodology Applied to the Design of Gas Turbine Components

Abstract

Design of new architectures and systems is a fundamental task in each design stage of complex products such as gas turbines and requires everyday more and more an immediate focus on cost. Due to high variability of worldwide conditions (pandemics, international scenarios, raw material costs fluctuations), it is exceedingly difficult to provide to design engineers a reliable estimation of final commercial cost of each component, while it would be a fundamental enabler to guarantee high competitivity to new products. Based on that, the aim of this paper is to analyze Technical Cost that can be addressed directly with design choices, and which shall be formally distinguished by other types of cost definitions (economical, commercial…). A case study of a rotor wheel is presented to demonstrate the value of the proposed approach in the development of Technical Cost models from raw material to final machining. The aim is to design production processes based on its Technical Cost, guiding engineering choices at each stage of program definition, from conceptual to detailed. With this method, the engineering department can control and guide Technical Costs, being the owner of all design choices and can support procurement in the overall effort of economic and commercial cost optimization.