Stress analysis of the discs of axial-flow microturbines

• Main Authors: Pawel Baginski, Pawel Zych, Grzegorz Zywica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: JVE International 2020-09-01
• Series: Journal of Vibroengineering
• Subjects: axial-flow microturbines; finite element method; stress analysis; optimization method; three-dimensional
• Online Access: https://www.jvejournals.com/article/21165

The article discusses the mesh creation techniques for models of discs of axial-flow microturbines. A universal method of optimization of such devices, in terms of their strength improvement, has been proposed. The research focused on microturbines that can operate in combination with ORC systems, especially the ones whose discs have many structural components such as pins or chamfers. Calculations were done using the commercial software ANSYS Workbench. Both tetrahedral and hexahedral grids were used in the analysed models. The calculation time needed for the grid preparation was regarded as an important parameter. Therefore, the reference model was created using the disc slice method. The results obtained for the models that included the full complex geometry of the disc were compared with the results obtained for the reference model. The mesh size coefficient was defined. It enabled to simplify the strength optimisation method for discs of axial-flow microturbine and also made it more universal. After carrying out all analyses and computations, it was possible to develop a scheme of conduct during the optimization of the aforementioned expansion devices.