przykład wdrożenia

Significantly reducing engineering time to set up simulations for innovative and optimized turbomachinery

Morfo Design uses Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to enhance CFD analysis with high-quality mesh

Morfo Design uses Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to enhance CFD analysis with high-quality mesh

Morfo Design

Morfo Design is a spin-off from the University of Florence that is dedicated to exploring new engineering advancements in urbomachinery. It is committed to transferring the experience it has gained in the aeronautical and energy sectors to companies that exploit lower-level aerodynamic components, such as fans, blowers and pumps.

https://www.morfodesign.it/

Centrala:
Florence, Italy
Produkty:
Simcenter STAR-CCM+
Sektor przemysłowy:
Przemysł lotniczy i obronny, Energetyka i media komunalne

Udostępnij

The Simcenter STAR-CCM+ integration with CAD and the quality of mesh that it creates is excellent. This is important for any CFD analysis and makes the software easy to use.
Matteo Checcucci, Chief Executive Officer, Morfo Design

Using simulation to innovate

Turbomachinery is vital to many industry sectors, from smaller pumps, fans and compressors for vehicles, refrigerators and computers to much larger scale implementations in factories and energy plants.

Modifying existing designs rather than creating completely new machines is an established procedure for turbomachinery manufacturers, enabling them to leverage previous engineering efforts for future developments. However, it sometimes leads to designers erring on the side of caution, or not using the complete design space
since they don’t have the capability to try out all conceivable variations.

After all, prototypes of the modified components still need to be built and tested. This can be challenging, as experimental testing typically measures integral values like efficiency, head or pressure rise, and can naturally give only limited insight into the physical details of the flow inside a machine. Experiments are time-consuming and costly, but to be competitive in the market in the long term, manufacturers have no choice but to constantly improve performance and efficiency.

Morfo Design, a startup out of the University of Florence, has brought new computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation methods to the industry by pioneering the integration of parametric and optimization tools with Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software, part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

The company specializes in the aerodynamic development of turbomachinery, and chief executive officer (CEO) Matteo Checcucci explains that simulation is the key to innovation. “Using Simcenter STAR-CCM+ allows our engineers to be more experimental without worrying about spiraling costs and timelines,” he says. “With simulation, we can help customers reach far more optimized designs.”

morfo-design-86364-feature(1)-640x360

Enabling experimentation and optimization

“There’s been great progress in the turbomachinery capabilities of Simcenter STAR-CCM+,” Checcucci says. “And we’re seeing more and more customers appreciate that.

“With turbomachinery, you don’t always analyze the entire machine. Instead, it is advantageous to start with simulating the flow around a single blade or vane, using the rotational symmetry of the rotor or stator, and applying periodic boundary conditions.” It can take several hours to manually obtain the required geometry for this approach from the complete computer-aided design (CAD) model. Therefore, using the application programming interface (API), Checcucci has developed custom code that automatically converts CAD files to prepare them for simulation. “Now we simply plug the CAD file into Simcenter STAR-CCM+ and start the simulations,” he says. “We often run them overnight and have the results ready in the morning.

“Using this technique allows our customers to experiment with various geometries, and to efficiently optimize each component,” Checcucci says. “This is essential for them to meet the market’s requirements regarding performance and sustainability so they can be more competitive.”

One example of Morfo Design engineers using their simulation ability was to optimize a pump inducer. It was designed to increase fluid pressure while minimizing cavitation issues caused by the thermodynamic conditions at the inlet. They parametrized the inducer with their own graphical interface (Papillon) and then used the modeling capabilities of STAR-CCM+ to represent complex phenomena such as phase change and gas bubble formulation and transport as well as the interaction of the bubbles with the fluid flow. The simulations represented cavitation mechanisms accurately with varying flow rates, enabling the customer to determine the lowest possible total inlet pressure without the inducer experiencing a reduced compression ratio.

morfo-design-86364-feature(2)-640x360

Integration, efficiency and flexibility

Before Morfo Design was established, Checcucci was researching turbomachinery at the University of Florence. When the company was founded, he experimented with a variety of simulation solutions but chose Simcenter STAR-CCM+ due to three main factors.

“The Simcenter STAR-CCM+ integration with CAD and the quality of mesh that it creates is excellent,” he says. “This is important for any CFD analysis and makes the software easy to use.

“The fast and robust Simcenter STAR-CCM+ CFD solver is also ideal. Running it on our HPC cluster delivers great parallel efficiency and gets us the results in short turnaround times.

“Last, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is very flexible. Depending on the project we are working on, we can easily increase or decrease the number of cores we use according to our requirements.”

Crucially, Checcucci was able to prove to customers that it was the right choice. “Simcenter STAR-CCM+ has been widely used in engineering for decades, but systematic deployment for turbomachinery increased in the past few years,” he explains. “We ran simulations to show that it delivered the best results. Once we demonstrated this to customers, they were happy to use it.”

morfo-design-86364-feature(3)-640x360

Leading change in turbomachinery design

Checcucci is convinced that new techniques provided with the help of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ can provide significant benefits for larger companies as well as for small and medium enterprises.“Now that we can demonstrate the benefits of using Simcenter STAR-CCM+, I am convinced that existing design procedures can be adapted accordingly,” he says. “The turbomachinery industry values established procedures and technologies, recognizing their reliability and effectiveness. However, to make progress, it also acknowledges the importance of embracing innovation and continuously exploring new methods and technologies.

“As Siemens continues to improve Simcenter STAR-CCM+ and we continue to improve our techniques, I think we will see more businesses adopting our unique approach to turbomachinery design.”

morfo-design-86364-feature(4)-640x360
The fast and robust Simcenter STAR-CCM+ CFD solver is also ideal. Running it on our HPC cluster delivers great parallel efficiency and gets us the results in short turnaround times.
Matteo Checcucci , Chief Executive Officer, Morfo Design