The considerable progress made by turbo-machinery design in the last decade has been paced by the rigorous demands of the customers and the competitive pressures of the market place. The requirements have been for significant improvements in product operability, performance, cost, reliability, durability, maintainability and weight.
Four inter-related fronts have been responsible for much of this progress:
ADVANCEMENTS IN MECHANICAL DESIGN CONFIGURATIONS - such as integral blades and disks, more efficient hot-part cooling, sophisticated clearance control systems and welded rotors -have afforded improvements in virtually all measurements of merit.
ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSING yielding improved temperature, strength and life properties - have permitted designs with higher cycle pressures, temperatures and tip speeds.
ADVANCED AERODYNAMIC DESIGN TECHNIQUES -have provided for simplification of the configuration and for part-count reduction thru fewer stages, fewer blades per stage, and for improved performance thru higher cycle pressure ratios, and more efficient components.
ADVANCES la DESIGN METHODOLOGY - particularly in computer based analysis and graphic design approaches - have greatly enhanced the sophistication, speed and accuracy of the de sign and manufacturing processes.
Steady progress is forecast for the for-seeable future on all of these fronts.