Ph.D.

Research Proposal

Design Optimization & Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of

Turbo Machinery Components (Turbine & Compressor)

by

Tasneem Yaqoob

Supervisor: Professor Qun Zheng

Session: 2019-2023

Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China

 Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by the convergence of breakthrough
technologies. Additive manufacturing is one of them which consequences a paradigm shift in
manufacturing workflow and technology. With the advent of additive manufacturing (also known
as 3D printing), parts and products can be designed, prototyped, and manufactured in a fraction of
the time that it takes using conventional manufacturing technologies and processes. Redundancy
and large volumes of unused inventory will be replaced with new efficiencies and just-in-time
manufacturing.

3D printing technologies are being used to develop the next generation of turbomachinery that will
power the world. Turbomachinery components of future power plants which are exposed to a high
temperature and a corrosive or oxidative atmosphere produced by combustion gases will be made
of additive manufacturing.

This research proposal aims to design, optimize and evaluate the thermal and mechanical
properties of turbomachinery components using finite element analysis (FEA). Research will be
focused on the turbine & compressor components of future generation NPP’s. Study will compare
the simulated and experimental results of rapid prototyping samples with different levels of
porosity. The samples will be tested and simulated for a range of normal, shear and cyclic loading.
A 3D finite element model will be developed using topological optimization technique, which
produces optimal design ready for additive manufacturing of turbomachinery.

Research will be beneficial for indigenous development of turbomachinery components specially

turbine blade, and also helpful for the life assessment of existing turbomachinery of NPP’s. The
mentor of the proposed research is actively involved in the design & analysis of turbine and
compressors of advanced NPP’s at China, this research will also provide an opportunity to
understand the future generation modular type NPP’s based on Closed Brayton Cycle (CBC).
1. Research Background
A current trend in turbomachinery component design is to rely more and more on predictions from
numerical tools in the design process. Where in the past components were designed by using rules
of thumb and simple correlations coming from theoretical considerations and experimental
experience, nowadays computational tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and
Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM) are well integrated into the design process.

In order to reduce the time-to-market while improving the product quality, optimization techniques
are currently very attractive. They tend to replace the time-consuming trial and error design method
by an automated design procedure. In an optimization strategy using the concurrent approach, all
disciplines are evaluated at the same time, and modifications to the design are made based on a
global view of its performance in the different fields.

Porous materials have extensive application in power engineering, aerospace, medical application,
automotive and ornament industries, and in all modern appliances where strength to weight ratio
has significant importance. Combination of optimum strength to weight ratio for fabrication of
porous material is a real challenge. Modern rapid prototyping methods deal with the fabrication of
these porous materials with controlled porosity. Topology optimization is a numerical method
that optimizes material plan in a specified design space, for a given loading and boundary
conditions. Topological optimization provides the maximum value of objective function within
the design space to ensure the maximum performance of the system under consideration.

Combination of controlled porosity with the help of rapid prototyping and incorporation of
topological optimization gives significant material saving and provides the best strength to weight
ratio without any compromise. This combination of rapid prototyping and topological optimization
not only reduces the material cost but also shrink the time of manufacturing.

A major concern in the utilization of topological optimization is a manufacture-able design.

Adding the manufacturing constraint in topological optimization for the manufacture-able
outcome is a dynamic research field and the main essence of this research proposal.

2. Research Significance:
This research proposal aims to examine, optimize and evaluate the thermal and mechanical
properties of controlled porous turbomachinery components using finite element analysis (FEA).
Research will be focused on the components of turbine & compressor which will be used for future
generation closed Brayton Cycle NPP’s. Study will compare the simulated and experimental
results of rapid prototyping samples with different levels of porosity. The samples will be tested
and simulated for a range of normal, shear and cyclic loading. A 3D finite element model will be
developed using topological optimization, which produces optimal design ready for additive
manufacturing of turbomachinery.

In Pakistan rapid prototyping is a new field and research opportunities in this field is not available.
Indigenous development of 3D printed components of power plants is need of time as Pakistan is
importing all type of turbomachinery components for its family of NPP’s. Knowledge from this
research will be beneficial to establishing a research group for indigenous development of
turbomachinery components within Pakistan. Research will also be helpful for the life assessment
of existing turbomachinery components as acquaintance with the failure criteria is an important
parameter of design.

3. Literature Review
Turbomachinery, in mechanical engineering, describes machines that transfer energy between a
rotor and a fluid, including both turbines and compressors. While a turbine transfers energy from
a fluid to a rotor, a compressor transfers energy from a rotor to a fluid. Conventional
turbomachines, e.g. turbine, compressors, turbochargers, comprise high-temperature components,
e.g. blades and Vanes, such as guide vanes and rotor blades, carrier elements, ring elements, which
are exposed to a high temperature and a corrosive or oxidative atmosphere produced by
combustion gases. Conventionally complex hollow, especially metallic or at least partially
metallic, structural parts for high-temperature applications, such as, for example, high-pressure
turbine blades are produced as a rule by means of precision casting with a directionally solidified
or monocrystalline structure. These methods have many limitations and challenges during
manufacturing of porous materials. [1]
In order to achieve more efficient and less expensive manufacturing of turbomachinery
components of complex shape, in recent times additive -manufacturing-type production processes
are being investigated. These components are relatively small components having a narrow cross
section. [2]
The use of additive manufacturing for turbomachinery components has been shown to offer
significant advantages in comparison to previously used conventional manufacturing methods. [3]
The porous material has the advantage of being particularly thermally stable and resistant to high
temperatures. Furthermore, it is distinguished by a high resistance to corrosion, oxidation and other
chemicals, such as combustion gases. Suitable selection of the viscous filler moreover makes the
high-temperature component particularly mechanically strong and sufficiently resistant to stresses
and damping.
Several manufacturing processes of porous material are known among which freeze casting [5]
,space holder technique [6] rapid prototyping [7] or laser processing. Freeze casting and space
holder processes mostly lead to randomly distributed pores whereas rapid prototyping and laser
processing are adopted when a controlled architecture is required.
Conventional manufacturing methods for fabrication of porous components are either very
complex to exercise or are unsuccessful in producing porous material with the desired level of
porosity and strength. This necessitates exploration of advanced manufacturing technologies.
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing processes have been proposed as a way to overcome this
issue. Major global companies, such as Vestas, Siemens, and General Electric (GE) are leveraging
3D printing technologies to improve their turbine designs and manufacturing processes.
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is an advanced CAD/CAM based layered manufacturing
technique which provides an alternative for the fabrication of the nearest shape fabrication of
porous parts with controlled porosity. In the recent introduction of Electron Beam Melting (EBM)
and Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) processes allow a direct digitally enabled Fabrication
of porous custom titanium with a controlled porosity and desired external and internal
characteristics. [8]
H. Shen, and L.C. Brinson developed a 3D microstructure model and a couple of 2D models with
14.7 % porosity for FE simulation. They use solid-state foaming technique to prepare the physical
samples for experimental data. The 3D FE models predicted Young’s modulus of 81.4 GPa and
the 0.2% offset yield strength of 258 MPa. on average. Based on the experiment, Young’s modulus
was found to be 78 GPa and yield strength of the material is roughly 261 MPa. They concluded
that the predicted macroscopic responses from the 3D model are in reasonable agreement with the
experimental and theoretical results. [4]
Nicolas Soro and Martin Veidt, evaluated the mechanical properties of commercially available
porous titanium structures with various porosity levels to predict and understand the mechanical
behavior of porous materials under uniaxial compressive loading. They compare the experimental
results with finite element simulation through a combination of experiments and finite element
modeling. Finite element simulations were conducted on representative volume elements (RVE)
of the microstructure to assess the role of pore parameters on the effective mechanical properties.
Two porous shapes (spherical and spheroidal) were simulated for elasticity and elasto-plasticity
and compared with experimental data. The physical samples were prepared using sugar pellet
space holder for experimental analysis. They concluded that the more realistic representation of
pores by spheroids gives much better agreement with the experimental data, with predicted Young
moduli respectively of 42.9GPa for Ti with 30 % porosity (Ti_30) and 33.5GPa for Ti with 40%
porosity (Ti_40), while the experimental data obtained were 38.1GPa and 33.8GPa. This
corresponds to a 12.5% difference for Ti_30, and to a much lower difference of 0.9% for Ti_40.
They also evaluated that the adopted modeling approach showed good potential for predicting the
stiffness of porous titanium under compressive loading. [9]
Many more literature is studied on the FEA and topological optimization for the writing this
proposal which will be helpful during PhD studies.

4. Proposed Methodology
Following methodology will be used in order to design, evaluate and investigate the mechanical
characterization of 3D printed porous components for turbo machinery with different level of
controlled porosity under diverse stress ratios in normal, shear and fatigue loading:

a) Investigation and preparation of a 3D model with inherent porosity using appropriate

modeling software as recommended by the mentor.
b) Development of FE model from 3D model with different levels of porosity.
c) Simulation of FE model under the thermal, compressive, shear and fatigue loading as
advised by the mentor.
d) Acquisition and interpretation of simulated data under various loading conditions

e) Development of physical sample components of porous material using additive

manufacturing with the various controlled porosity levels as per simulated study.
 f) Mechanical characterization of 3D printed porous components with different level of
porosities for compressive, shear and fatigue loading.
g) Characterization of transverse fatigue strength of 3D printed porous titanium and its life
prediction by using fracture mechanics approach.
h) Study of experimental and simulated results.
i) Development of topologically optimized FE model of porous titanium using ANSYS 19
optimization tool.
j) Analyze the topologically optimized FE model of porous titanium using ANSYS 19 for
same loading condition s.
k) Development of topologically optimized 3D printed porous titanium samples.
l) Mechanical characterization of 3D printed topologically optimized porous titanium with
different level of porosities for compressive, shear and fatigue loading.
m) Comparison study of topologically optimized porous titanium with non-optimized porous
titanium.

The outcome of this research work will be the better understanding of topologically optimized 3D
printed porous materials in each and every aspect for development of turbomachinery components
and for different other application where 3D additive manufacturing will be required like aerospace
and manufacturing of medical implants of mundane application. The clear understanding of
optimization tool and finite element analysis technique for 3D printed components for
turbomachinery will be a great service for designers to be able to develop a methodology for
characterization of 3D printed components under the effect of shear, and compression loading and
for life prediction under fatigue loading.

5. References

[1] D. (. Erwin Bayer and M. I. (. Karl-Hermann Richter, "METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PRODUCING A
COMPONENT OF ATURBOMACHINE". USA Patent US 2012/0213659 A1, 23 August 2012.

[2] F. (. ). Pierluigi Tozzi, F. (. ). Iacopo Giovannetti and F. (. ). Andrea Massini, "TURBO -MACHINE
IMPELLER MANUFACTURING". USA Patent US 9 ,903,207 B2, 27 02 2018.
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manufacture of porous, titanium, bone in-growth constructs, suitable for orthopedic applications,"
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, vol. 2, pp. 325-34., 2009 May.

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[5] B. C. Q. G. W. Q. Niu W, "Processing and properties of porous titanium using space holder
technique," Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 506+, no. 1-2, pp. 148-51, Apr 25 2009.

[6] d. W. J. V. B. C. d. G. K. Li JP, " Porous Ti6Al4V scaffold directly fabricating by rapid prototyping
preparation and in vitro experiment.," Biomaterials., vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 1223-35, Mar 1 2006.

[7] W. (. Andreas Kayser and G. (. Ivo Wolter, "HIGH-TEMPERATURE COMPONENT FOR A

TURBOMACHINE, AND A TURBOMACHINE". US Patent US 7,347,664 B2, 25 Mar. 2008 .

[8] B. L. Shen H, " Finite element modeling of porous titanium," International Journal of Solids and
Structures, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 320-35, 2007 Jan 1.

[9] B. L. C. Y. V. M. A. H. D. M. Soro N, " Finite element analysis of porous commercially pure titanium
for biomedical implant application," Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 725, pp. 43-50..

[10] P. A. A. D. Ryan G, " Fabrication methods of porous metals for use in orthopaedic applications.,"
Biomaterials, vol. 13, pp. 2651-70, 2006 May 1.

[11] B. F. B. L. M. c. f. m. t. a. a. o. i. m. J. o. B. M. R. P. A. A. O. J. o. T. S. f. B. T. J. S. f. B. Thelen S, "

Mechanics considerations for microporous titanium as an orthopedic implant material," The
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Biomaterials, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 601-610, Jun 15 2004.

[12] M. L. K. C. S. R. M. F. Heinl P, "Cellular Ti–6Al–4V structures with interconnected macro porosity for
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[13] B. S. B. A. Krishna BV, " Low stiffness porous Ti structures for load-bearing implants.," Acta
biomaterialia, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 997-1006, Nov 1 2007.