Renuda

The turbomachinery industry can be split into various sub industries depending on the application of the gas turbine and its type. Gas turbines are used for land, sea and air applications which can involve axial and/or radial and/or centrifugal designs. These designs can be of an open system type, where air or steam is usually the working fluid, or a closed system type, where other fluids can be used that are more appropriate for the given application.

This industry was amongst the first to use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the R&D process. Today, numercial simulation tools are heavily used to investigate many aspects of gas turbine design and performance. However, unlike other industries, all the major manufacturers such as GE, Rolls Royce, Pratt and Whitney and SNECMA Moteurs and many research establishments such as NASA, QinetiQ, ONERA and the DLR use in-house CFD codes to undertake the majority of their numerical research and development.

As with other industries, the use of numerical simulation tools has aided all of these companies to gain a better understanding of the operating performance of their products, improve efficiency whilst simultaneously reducing design cycle times and costs.

Centrifugal compressor.

CFD simulation of the flow and heat transfer in a centrifugal compressor, courtesy of GE Thermodyn.