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Turbomachinery and Flight Propulsion
Design and Make Concepts
In this main research area of the institute emphasis is put
on the use of new enabling technologies in the materials
and manufacturing sector, as a measure to enlarge the
design space for turbomachinery and to come up with
novel solutions in terms of turbomachinery parts or
turbomachinery components integration, targeted at
savings in weight, cost and build complexity. The availa-
bility and further maturing of additive layer manufacturing
methods brings along a variety of options for basically
unlimited shaping of geometries, which can be exploited
when optimising turbomachinery parts with respect to
their structural stiffness, vibrational behavior and weight.
Associated with these structural conceptual changes
an improvement of the aerodynamic behavior may be
identified – again, research is required to develop multi-
disciplinary approaches and simulations, which allow the
opportunities given in this field to be taken. An enabler for
a step change in aero engine efficiency is the use of heat
exchangers for the purpose of inter-cooling and recuper-
ative processes. Research at the institute in this area is
focused on the quantification of the benefits and the con-
ceptual design of novel heat exchanger geometries, which
allow better matching of the required engine architecture
Thermo-structural model of a turbine disk with heat pipes and their working
principle
Disk temperature distribution with/without heat pipes derived using
numerical modelling
and the desired reductions in weight and size. In this
context, additive manufacturing methods are expected to
provide the ability to geometrically optimise the aero-ther-
mal design features of heat exchangers. Also, integration
of heat exchangers with adjacent components such as
compressor stages is being adressed within the scope
of the advanced design and make concepts research.
Beyond this, enhanced methods for heat exchange/
transfer were investigated. Numerical modeling of the
thermo-structural behavior of turbine disks with integrated
heat pipes has been carried out, which demonstrated the
large potential of this heat management approach.
Projects
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Strukturmechanische Untersuchung der Potenziale von
Turbinenscheiben mit integrierten Hitzeröhren (2014-
2017, LTF PV)
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Advanced Seal Design (2016-2018, EU, FlexTurbine,
WP3)
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Conceptual Design and Investigation of Novel Heat
Exchangers for Small Helicopter Gas Turbines (2016-
2019, PV)
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Conceptual Design and Numerical Investigation of
Novel Inter-Cooling Heat Exchangers (2017-2020, LTF
PV)
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Options of Rotor Drum Life Monitoring in Large Steam
Turbines (2017, IA)