SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Rotating Machinery Technologies Home

Contact Us

SwRI Information

Rotating Machinery Technologies Site Map

Español

The most current technology, including finite element and boundary element methods, is applied to the stress analysis of gas turbine components at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). SwRI is a pioneer in probabilistic structural mechanics, which integrates computational mechanics and probabilistic methods to manage distribution of material properties, dimensions, and loads. Computational facilities include a central VAX computer, distributed workstations, and access to CRAY supercomputers. Available numerical codes include ABAQUS, ANSYS, and NASTRAN.

Two of the vibrational modes of a space shuttle APU turbine blade are shown. SwRI combined its vibrational analysis with Institute-developed probabilistic structural analysis methods to determine allowable inspection intervals. NASA is using the results for engine maintenance.		Air-cooled gas turbine blades have complex temperature and stress profiles. Temperatures are shown in the upper figure and longitudinal stresses are below. This analysis uses a generalized plane strain finite element methodology.

SwRI can offer you a full range of capabilities and experience in gas turbine technology including becoming an extension of your engineering department. For more information about our gas turbine stress and thermal analysis capabilities, or how you can contract with SwRI, please contact Klaus Brun, Ph.D., at kbrun@swri.org

or (210) 522-5449.

gasturbine.swri.org

| Fluids and Machinery Engineering Department | Mechanical Engineering Division | SwRI Home |

Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multidisciplinary, independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with 11 technical divisions.

January 03, 2013