Rapid Reconfiguration of Engines for Dynamics Simulation

In modern complex engine design, it is a common challenge to keep simulation in step with changes to component geometry, environmental conditions, and mission data - and this applies to both actual designs and those that belong to the hypothetical design space as explored in design of experiments (DOE). In this paper, an effective simulation process and data management (SPDM) approach is presented that hinges on a focus on components, their generalized connections and programmatic templating. This simulation approach improves the fidelity of engine analysis, engineering productivity, quality, scalability across the gas turbine engine organization, and HPC utilization. In addition to this new analysis machinery, gas turbine engine modeling fidelity is elevated by surpassing commonly used one-dimensional (1D) models of rotors. It is demonstrated how rotating components of complex aero engines can be modeled using two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric harmonic elements and three-dimensional (3D) solid/shell elements as well as how the resulting rotor models can be easily coupled with the engine casing model. Comparisons of the results obtained for these models with traditional and 1D modeling approaches highlight the advantages and limitations of each of these approaches.