Static Analysis of Low Pressure Turbine Stages: tool development

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the development of a multidisciplinary tool capable of giving fast and easily readable feedback during the preliminary design phase of low pressure turbine stages of aircraft engines. A feasible and high performance aerodynamic result may not be compliant with the aeromechanic side of the project. The steps back and forth to obtain a high quality project both in aerodynamics and aeromechanics may lead to slow and complicated iterations. For this reason the need to develop a preliminary tool giving a clear feedback to the designer has arisen. The GE Avio Aero tool is a Workbench Wizard named PRIME, which connects to DynBooster, a private property software which builds the CAD directly from airfoil geometry de fined by the aerodynamic section and inner/outer band templates. PRIME then generates a FEM model with proper boundary conditions and is set up to perform all the analysis requested, giv- ing outputs for following analysis and direct feedbacks on the ones carried out inside the tool itself. The whole process is performed by a Wizard built in ANSYS Workbench Mechanical environment, which automatizes most of the steps, leaving the user to set up proper inputs and outputs. The first functions implemented by the tool focused on a pre-stressed modal analysis, inputs for vibratory behaviour and a basic Campbell Diagram. During the work carried out during this Thesis, the main focus was put on the static analysis and the post processing phase of results, thus ranging from extensive tests on load cases to experimental ways to show results. Thanks to the development of this software, the user will be able to obtain reliable and fast results even without the know-how which lies behind FEM analysis. In the first three chapters a general background will be offered, starting from the corporate reality of GE, Avio Aero and Greatlab, through the basics of propulsion until some theoretical notions about the content of the thesis. Following chapters will put the attention on the work itself, the way PRIME works and its advantages, specifying the need for such a software in the fast growing industry. The final chapter will present the future works related to PRIME and its future applications.