AxSTREAM™ Release notes

• AxSTREAM workstation part is compatible with Windows Vista
• Curtis stage preliminary design option is added
• Meanline analysis of counter-rotating axial turbines is available
• Multi-flow option is added for axial turbine preliminary design
• An interactive design editing of meridionals of axial compressors added
• Three rotor/stator restagger angle variation option - fixed, proportional, by schedule were added for compressors and turbines
• leakage diagram for multistage turbines and compressor is added
• Specific profile loss/deviation models are added for NASA/C4/DCA for axial compressors
• Enhance compressors maps calculation using inherit of initial conditions
• Introduce different option to setup initial conditions "inherit" add
• Introduce setup initial velocities as a distribution X^Y
• add map’s point density control coefficient for map calculation
• color and marker selection option for maps visualization added to AxMAP
• cycle-symmetric functionality added to AxSTRESS
• the structural analysis of moving blades with tip fastening (for counter-rotating axial machines) added to AxSTRESS
• added AxSTRESS option - express structural and modal analysis via embedded FEA module with automatic mesh generation.
• added AxCFD option - express 3D flow analysis via embedded CFD flow solver with automatic mesh generation.

Extended Design options From AxSTREAM 2.1 extended Design functionality is added to “Cylinder” window:
• charts of turbomachinery design parameters with interactive editing;
• preliminary design solver resulting points monitor;
• editable Mollier diagram;
• interactive graphical editing of meridional dimensions.

• Flowpath geometry editing
  Flowpath geometry editing performed by dragging nozzles and blades hub, mean and tip diameters lines. Also user can drag LE and TE hub, mean and tip points.
• Interactive Mollier (HS) diagram
  The Mollier (HS) diagram editing options provides the ability to redistribute heat drop between nozzle and blade of same stage or between stages in interactive mode. User can drag theoretical enthalpy downstream stator and theoretical enthalpy downstream rotor points in every turbine stage
• Interactive Charts option
  Interactive charts allow to edit:
  • Angles chart – A0met, B1met angles curves.
  • Reaction chart – midline reaction on stage
  • Meridional chart – mean diameter at nozzle/blade LE/TE, airfoil length at LE/TE, partial admission ratio, mean reaction
  
• Design points preview window
  “Preview result points” button on “Charts” toolbar in “Cylinder” window display obtained solutions points obtained with preliminary routine. Design points are displayed in a space of dimension-less parameters U/C0 (load coefficient) , Cz/U(flow coefficient) , and total-to-static efficiency

• Starting from v.2.0 AxSTREAM turbomachinery design software includes design/analysis option for Axial Turbines, Axial Compressors , Radial Turbines, and Centrifugal Compressors.
• Radial Turbine option is available including preliminary design, 1D (meanline) analysis, 2D (axisymmetric) analysis, profiling and Blade 3D design. DoE based optimization engine, map generator AxMAP, export options are available for radial turbine too.
• Centrifugal Compressor option is available including preliminary design, 1D (meanline) analysis, profiling and Blade 3D design. DoE based optimization engine, map generator AxMAP, export options are available for centrifugal compressor too.
• Added new component AxSTRESS - fully automated FEA based structural and modal analysis for axial and radial turbomachinery blades
• Added 1D(meanline) problem formulation "Flow rate determination for output total pressure" for axial and radial compressors
• Added option to build multi-station stage with separate twisted/prismatic options for stator and rotor blade
• Added option to trim blades preserving number of stations with separate control of leading and trailing edges.
• Added option to use single-row stages (stator or rotor) for axial turbines and axial compressors.
• Enhanced Preliminary Design routine for axial turbines with special option to design flow path suitable for standard blading usage.
• Enhanced Custom Report option now allows to build/view/output formatted reports with fast access links in HTML and RTF formats.
• Added measuring grid background for all plane (2D) views. Automatic scaling and optional distance/angle measuring tool is available.

• Enhanced initial estimation for velocities for Axial Compressors
• Enhanced 1D solver for centrifugal compressor with regards to Reynolds numbers

• Introduced for in-house testing  radial turbine design and meanline and axisymmetric analysis options
• Introduced for in-house testing centrifugal compressor design and design and meanline and axisymmetric analysis options
• Reworked License Server and License Administrator to support radial turbomachinery licensing
• Enhanced stability of centrifugal compressor preliminary design
• Introduced the option of single-row stages (stages with single nozzles or blades crown)
• Enhanced calculation procedures for axial turbine stages with significant radial velocity component (diagonal stages)
• Extended the scope of DoE optimization engine AxPLAN to explore the opportunity of existing axial turbine design modernization by airfoils rotation
• Added new profiling mode “Fixed” to import external blade geometry.
• Added special option to explore influence of variation of incidence angle on profile performance (losses, flow separation, etc)
• Added option to populated Standard profile to all stations/blades with “Apply to stage/all” options
• Fixed problem in “backward” engineering of long blade stages.

• Complete kit of Axial Compressors modules including Stage Axisymmetric Analysis
• New common charts visualiser of stage-wise and span-wise properties distribution
• Support ATLAS profile library for compressor cascade profiling

A number of additions and enhancements :

• added the selection of prismatic/vortex blade design
• profile may be inserted from ATLAS library as “adjusted-to-stagger“
• added velocities triangles and flow angles notation on profile view
• added Buri criteria (flow separation) chart to Profiling flow charts
• added blades and vanes volume calculation
• added TE global axial position calculation (estimation of flow path total length)
• added stations TE/LE axial position and margins charts to Blade Design window and added margins visualization on profile view
• added auto align option TE/LE Blade Design (for custom profiles only)
• added bending and tensile stress margin charts to Blade 3D window
• changed cylinder preliminary design dialog (added current values and percent of adjustment)
• changed S1 optimization dialog – current chord value is displayed
• AxSTREAM project file now is stored as compound document ( project info is available in Windows Explorer)
• added history record about user and date of last document modification
• added 'Journal options" menu to application (journal state during document opening : clean, open, ask)
• added setting custom preferences for new project: units, journal opening state, time delay factor for session playback and preferences dialog
• added "Apply to section" in group edit dialog

• Beginning with v.1.7.02, AxSTREAM turbomachinery design software delivers special capabilities to perform the task mentioned above within its own environment.
    - import of 3D blade geometry with blade angles determination and interactive adjustment;
   - import / export of profile / blade point array data from / to Excel tables;
   - comparison of two types of the same profile and the corresponding curves of streamline;
   - allotment of new profile type named ‘fixed’ for the profiles imported together with the blade;
   - adjusting the blade by rotating to evaluate existing blade design suitability for new machines or for machines purposed for modernization.

• Additionally to the AxPLAN DoE study and optimization module already embedded in AxSTREAM, the system is replenished with a new PMG module.
Contrary to AxPLAN, which requires minimum number of runs yet, at that, forces to compute all points formed by a design of numerical experiment, PMG permits to compute any randomly chosen region in the domain of two variables.
Maps Generator provides supplementary capabilities for specifying a set of miscellaneous parameters. This is very convenient in the course of compressor map generation.

• Added Fluid Designer (WFD) utility generates unified tables that describe thermodynamical properties of the fluid (both pure gas and mixture).
WFD generates the fluids as:
   - ideal gases mixture (pure gas component properties are those assigned by a designer);
   - dry mixture of real gases (up to 37 components). Pure gas component properties are extracted from NIST (USA) REFPROP library;
   - as wet mixtures of real gases (8 components max).

• An alternative Camberline profiling method was added to existing Pressure/Suction profiling.
Camberline profiling preserves defined inlet and outlet metal angles, wedge angles and edges radii. Camberline profiling allows interactive editing camberline curvature and thickness spline curvature.

• The feature what make easy extraction data from charts is added to AxSTREAM . The grid with charts data can be called via context menu (Right Mouse Click). Grid support Copy_Table/Copy_Column options. This way charts data ( and loads in particular) may be exported to other applications (EXCEL, Word, etc.)

• As enchantment of existing presentation of DoE study results as flat topogram the 3D presentation of F(x, y) response functions. 3D window supports interactive zoom and pad.

• To provide better introduction to AxSTREAM and enhance customer technical support, a Session Record/Player was added to AxSTREAM. In the course of recording, it is possible to make commentaries with the help of Insert UserNote function.

• Blade geometry stored in format similar to BladeGen/TurboGrid “CURVE” file may be imported to AxSTREAM and angle will be extracted from profile shapes.