Description
AxSTREAM Software Suite
AxSTREAM already provides over 300 global clients with the tools needed to make their projects a success. Each module seamlessly integrates with one another so you can use AxSTREAM as your one stop shop or to assist you with a specific part of your design. AxSTREAM’s capabilities and features include:
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Preliminary Design for single-stage, multi-stage and multi-module turbomachines.
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Meanline/Streamline Analysis allows users to check the performance, velocity triangles, leakages, etc. of a machine for any set of boundary conditions as well as review the streamwise and spanwise distribution of thermodynamic, kinematic and loss parameters.
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AxMAP for performance mapping of operational conditions and geometric variations for a given design.
AxMAP is AxSTREAM’s off-design performance calculation tool/feature which uses the meanline/streamline direct solvers to obtain accurate results of how a machine will operate under different circumstances. This includes information like at which mass flow rate values the turbomachine can experience stall, choke or surge or what rotation speed allows for optimum performance for a given set of boundary conditions.
Scope
About 50 parameters can be varied for each flow path component ranging from clearances to rotation speed, restagger angle, surface roughness or inlet/outlet boundary conditions so that the off-design performance of the considered machine can easily be evaluated in tabular form as well as on 2D and 3D maps.
Users provide a minimum and maximum value to use for each variable along with the number of values to use within the provided range. Moreover, the distribution of the values within the specific range can be adjusted to concentrate points in a region and variables can also take user-defined values for an enhanced flexibility.
Experimental data can be imported to compare with the simulations performed for one or multiple designs.
Results can be exported for additional post-processing, can be saved for later use within any AxSTREAM project as a template or can even be imported inside AxCYCLE to dynamically study thermodynamic cycles while accounting for off-design performance of the turbomachinery components.
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AxPLAN of various design tasks, utilizing fast design of experiment (DoE) study methods.
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Profiling and 3D Blade Design to create and edit 3D airfoils via various geometric features and interactive charts for plane sections profiling and 3D blade stacking.
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AxCFD for the calculation of 2D and 3D analysis in blade-to-blade channels.
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AxSTRESS for rapid 3D finite element analysis on blades and attachments.
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AxSLICE used for reverse engineering to extract the profile geometry of 3D blade models to analyze existing machines in the AxSTREAM software platform.
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Bearing Calculation and Analysis to determine the hydrodynamic performance and mechanical characteristics of journal (radial load and axial thrust), aero, squeeze film dampers and rolling element bearings as well as annular seals.
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RotorDynamics used to calculate rotor trains natural frequencies (including modes shape), unbalance response and conclude on stability for both lateral and torsional analyses while accounting for accurate bearing and support characteristics.
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RotorDesign for the complete design of rotors based on blades number, their position and attachments, etc. which can be used as standalone or as a link between flow path design and rotor dynamics analysis.
An aerodynamically efficient and structurally sound blading is a must for any turbomachine. However, once the geometry of the blades and the attachment (root, disk, wheel, etc.) has been determined, the design work isn’t quite finished as attention must be brought to the design of the rotor itself. The rotor design iterative process should be conducted in parallel with the full scope of structural checks (such as centrifugal and thermal stresses, gravity sag, burst calculations, etc.) and rotor dynamics analyses. Each attached rotor component (blades, disks, interstage and end packing seals, journal and thrust bearings, etc.) have to be analyzed, properly designed and finally assembled on the shaft at appropriate locations. AxSTREAM RotorDesign software was created to be an integration platform between all design tools and calculation modules. Following design and analyses steps in AxSTREAM RotorDesign, the complete and highly reliable rotor with all attached equipment can be designed and exported in CAD for further steps of end product creation.
Process
The AxSTREAM Rotor Design tool allows users to import a new/existing/optimized flow path design from any AxSTREAM project in order to design the rotor based on AxSTREAM 2D flowpath layout or through a manual input of the blade axial and radial positions when used as a standalone software.
The corresponding AxSTREAM project contains information regarding the blades geometry, material, location, diameters, number, etc. Basing on this information, AxSTREAM Rotor Design calculates and prepares all required information for RotorDynamics and other modules involved in structural checks such as mass and inertia characteristics, loads and boundary conditions.
Flow Path Imported from AxSTREAM
The blades (with root and shroud attachments) and disk geometry can be imported from AxSTRESS – AxSTREAM’s 3D FEA tool – where they can be designed. The second option is to model them in a simplified manner within the Rotor Design module to create the correct rotor model in regards to the loads and equivalent mass-inertia and stiffness characteristics, providing additional constraints in terms of sizing of the rotor for its design.
Roots and Disks Geometry Import from AxSTRESS Other component designs such as interstage and end packing sealing zones, couplings, journal and thrust bearing positions and appropriate shaft sections can also be added in the rotor assembly using the AxSTREAM Rotor Design libraries of standard components or created manually.
Once the initial rotor design is ready, the entire rotor model can be exported in the AxSTREAM RotorDynamics module to perform rotor dynamics analyses. If rotor dynamics and structural criteria are satisfied then CAD export can be performed to get rotor geometry to be used in further design steps. In other cases, the integrated Rotor Design system allows for a quick redesign of rotor components and recalculation of all steps in order to meet requirements.
AxCYCLE Software
In addition to AxSTREAM, SoftInWay provides AxCYCLE for thermodynamic simulation and heat balance calculations of heat production and energy conversion cycles. Capabilities and features include:
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AxCYCLE for thermodynamic cycle simulation including fossil and nuclear steam power plants, cooled and uncooled gas turbine plants, oxy-combustion, aerospace gas turbines engines, combined, cogeneration, sCO2 (supercritical carbon dioxide), ORC, geothermal, binary, molten salt, waste heat recovery and heat pumps /refrigeration cycles.
AxCYCLEallows users to quickly and easily design, analyze and optimize various thermodynamic cycles (thermodynamic simulation and heat balance calculations) in a user-friendly and flexible environment, from a restricted amount of known data.The tasks user can solve with AxCYCLE include:
- Design new thermodynamic cycles from scratch
- Analyze existing thermodynamic systems and their performance at design and off-design conditions
- Redesign, optimize, rerate and upgrade existing plants
- Troubleshoot and correct efficiency/reliability issues in existing hardware
Scope
AxCYCLE allows performing calculations on multiple types of cycles (Brayton, Rankine, etc.) and applications (with specific components) including:
- Fossil Steam Power Plants
- Nuclear Steam Power Plants
- Cooled and Uncooled Gas Turbine Plants
- Aerospace Gas Turbines Engines
- Combined Cycles (gas-steam, gas-sCO2, etc.)
- Cogeneration Cycles
- sCO2 (supercritical carbon dioxide) Cycles
- ORC (Organic Rankine Cycles)
- Geothermal Cycles
- Binary Cycles
- Molten Salt Cycle
- Waste Heat Recovery Cycles
- Heat Pumps Cycles/Refrigeration Cycles
- Etc.
AxCYCLE has several fluid libraries:
- General Fluids – Includes steam/water, standard air, carbon dioxide, natural gas, etc.
- COOLPROP – Contains over 45 fluid options (free database)
- NIST REFPROP – Propane, ethanol, refrigerants, CO2 and more (required third-party application).
- NIST Mixture – Contains several NIST mixtures
- Combustion Products – Includes more than a dozen typical fuels combustion product
- Thermal Oils – Contains therminol thermal oils which can be used for indirect waste heat recovery systems
- Molten Salts – Contains several molten salts
Additionally, custom fluids, custom mixtures and custom combustion products can be used in cycles.
Cooling flows and secondary flows can be thermodynamically analyzed using AxCYCLE by modeling the complete gas turbine with turbine, compressor, combustion chamber, extractions, injections, etc. while automatically recalculating the fluid properties at each component’s inlet and outlet.
Cycle Creation Process
Starting from the selection of components using drag-and-drop from respective libraries (turbomachine, heat exchange, engine, library of gas turbine engines, library of internal combustion engines, burner, separation, mixing, valve, seal, generator/motor, etc.), users progress with the cycle assembly as desired to model an infinite number of different systems.
After the cycle assembly the engineer needs to specify the data necessary to run calculations.
As a conceptual 0D tool, AxCYCLE uses only the basic thermodynamic parameters of the components such as pressure, enthalpy, temperature, fluid quality and basic performance parameters such as efficiency and pressure loss.
No mechanical or geometric data is required which makes it extremely convenient and adapted to investigate concepts when the components of the system have no defined characteristics as well as to study existing systems where some geometric/mechanical data may be unknown.
Each parameter in AxCYCLE can be either inputted or calculated. This allows for an enhanced flexibility of problem formulation to, for example, calculate mass flow rate or heater outlet temperature based on given boundary conditions and power requirement or specify the flow rate and boundary conditions to obtain power.
Additionally, multiple options are available for different components to be modeled in specific ways; for example heat exchangers can be characterized by their efficiency or pinch point, turbines can be conceptual or behave as per existing hardware, etc.
For steam cycles the embedded Steam Cycle Wizard tool allows simplifying the components selection, cycle assembly, property type specification and boundary conditions input through an easy-to-use interface.
Analysis & Post-Processing
Thermodynamic cycles can be analyzed at their design point or at off-design conditions to calculate power production, heat and fuel consumption, rejected heat, thrust, thermal efficiency, etc.
Embedded P-H and T-S diagrams allow reviewing the thermodynamic process of the current system and also allow superimposing the characteristics of other cycles as a mean of comparison.
Printer-friendly simulation results (reports) can be automatically generated.
AxCYCLE systems and their components can be exported to the AxCYCLE Economics module to evaluate the capital costs, payback period, levelized cost of electricity, influence of renovations on ROI, etc.
AxCYCLE can also be linked to the AxSTREAM platform to:
- Extract boundary conditions for turbine, compressor and pump conceptual design
- Import turbomachine performance maps to study cycle at design and off-design conditions using actual efficiency values.
Cycle Off-Design Calculations, Parametric Studies and Optimizations
In addition to design point calculations AxCYCLE includes several tools for system off-design calculation, parametric study and optimization tasks.
AxCYCLE MAP
MAP is a multi-run tool used to run a series of calculations for one or two variables. AxCYCLE MAP is a very effective tool to study the influence of operational parameters on cycle performance. It is the ultimate tool to calculate cycle performance curves as it can automatically take into account components off-design efficiency based on the boundary conditions inputted or calculated; these include for example the dependency of efficiency on turbomachinery components rotation speed and pressure ratio, the influence of component aging, or can be used to study the effects of variations of operating conditions and component parameters on cycle performance.
AxCYCLE PLAN
AxCYCLE is fully capable of thermodynamic cycles optimization calculations including through the use of a DOE approach (Design Of Experiment) in the PLAN tool. This multivariable tool can be run for any combination of input and output parameters within dozens available (up to 20 variables can be selected at once). The DOE engine itself selects values within the provided range, in an optimized way, to minimize the number of solver runs required to optimize a cycle. The obtained results are used to build “response surfaces” that are used as abstract models for optimization.
AxCYCLE QUEST
The QUEST tool inside AxCYCLE is a quasi-random search algorithm which can be used to optimize combinations of parameters within a given range, for as many design variables as desired and for any given number of combinations of parameters. Results are plotted on a 3D design space which allows easily reviewing the best combination of values for a given task while allowing users to set filters to customize and refine the optimization task.
AxCYCLE CASE
To study several cycle load points the AxCYCLE CASE tool is generally used. It allows users to specify the desired value for each of any number of variables to select in order to analyze how the system would behave under different conditions. For enhanced user experience AxCYCLE CASE is fitted with an option to interface to and from spreadsheets containing results and/or values for the different parameters selected. Some examples of CASE tasks include studying the performance of the given cycle upon opening or closing of valves, analyzing the required boundary conditions to obtain a given take-off vs cruise thrust for an aerospace gas turbine or hourly energy demand of a power plant.
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AxCYCLE Economics for cost estimation, selection of power generation technology and process scheme, fuel type selection, comparison of different scenarios and projects, and lifecycle economics.
AxSTREAM NET Software
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AxSTREAM NET for secondary flows, and cooling systems.