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United States : ANSYS, STANFORD, HONEYWELL works together with simulation software to create energy-efficient aircraft engines at lower costs [TendersInfo (India)]
[October 03, 2014]

United States : ANSYS, STANFORD, HONEYWELL works together with simulation software to create energy-efficient aircraft engines at lower costs [TendersInfo (India)]


(TendersInfo (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Engineers from Stanford University, Honeywell International and ANSYS are working together with simulation software to develop more energy-effective aircraft engines at lower costs.

As demand rises for increased gas turbine efficiency, engine manufacturers are challenged with creating designs that run at higher temperatures. But that becomes an important challenge as temperatures approach the melting point of some engine component material. A well-formed method for maintaining turbine blade temperatures at acceptable levels is to employ film-cooling, a technique in which cooler, compressor-discharge air is detoured around the combustor then ejected from precisely-machined holes placed over the surface of the turbine airfoil. Excessive use of compressor air for turbine film cooling can, however, decrease engine efficiency.



Historically, film-cooling-hole-placement on turbine airfoils has been maximized by complex experiments, sometimes necessitating engine testing. For decades, research engineers have been developing computer simulations of film cooling geometries with the ambition of reducing if not eliminating the requirement for expensive, time-consuming rig testing.

Stanford, with help from Honeywell and ANSYS?, is conducting a new type of testing with 3-D magnetic resonance velocimetry to measure the velocity and concentration field in a test section. These methods measure the turbulent interaction of crossflow jets with the main flow, for a range of jet configurations and orientations. These data sets offer an essential benchmark against which the large available range of ANSYS turbulence models and computational methods can be compared. The aim is to build validated models, methods and best practices for prediction of film cooling.


"This is the first time that an engineering software company has supported an extensive test series like this, and it illustrates the commitment of ANSYS to the continued upgrade of the turbulence models in ANSYS computational fluid dynamics solutions," said John K. Eaton, the Charles Lee Powell Foundation professor in Stanford s School of Engineering. Our combined efforts are aimed at validating the turbulent mixing models in these tools over entire complex flow fields, something that has never been done before. Conducting this testing over a wide range of film cooling conditions provides a comprehensive test of the predictive capability." At 30,000 feet in the air, there s little margin for error, said Brad Hutchinson, global industry director for industrial equipment and rotating machinery at ANSYS. By always focusing on solving the most complex problems like the thin film cooling challenge Honeywell and Stanford are addressing ANSYS ensures that our customers are armed with the tools that will help them to create the most innovative products on the market.

(c) 2014 Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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