Digital Value Tool for Gas Turbine Digitized Cross Section

Digital Value Tool (DVT), an innovation tool, has been developed to digitalize the conceptual Cross Section of Gas Turbines (GTs). The tool aims at reducing the lead time of the conceptual design process, speeding up the development of the conceptual cross section, pursuing a standardized approach in order to improve quality. DVT is programmed in C++ and C#, and it is built by .dll files developed in the NXOpen environment. The digitalization of the cross section is based on: GT input data, component pre-sizing based on design rules and verification loops, dynamic environment and interface automatization obtained by a dedicated parametrization. One of the main goals is shifting from the manual generation of conceptual design of cross section to a digitalized one, which is characterized by the components and their sketches being stored inside the .prt file of the 2D model. In order to achieve this goal, virtual blocks containing geometrical and non-geometrical information are automatically generated and associated to the designed components. This guarantees the storage of the engine’s DNA inside a unique file. A dedicated feature allows exporting the information inside an .xml file, which organizes data according to a tree structure resembling the engine modules. Both the .xml and .prt file cover the whole communication protocol with external tools carrying out conceptual analysis such as: component conceptual costs, rotodynamic analysis, secondary flows and thermal evaluation, clearances assessment. The tool is constantly updated and populated for a continuous improvement being at the cutting edge of new technologies. Moreover, DVT is implemented in most of referenced industrial GT configurations.