The Future of Full Engine Dynamic Simulation for Gas Turbines

Abstract The new rotordynamic simulation approach has been developed to digitalize and integrate all rotordynamic analyses from conceptual to utilization product life phases. The current simulation approach required collect all Gas Turbine (GT) data by users independently and retrieve needed parameters from different sources (sometimes unavailable) during modelization and validation (FEM analysis and tests) phases increasing design lead time and costs. The new approach called “Full Tube” has been developed in cooperation with Siemens/ Simcenter 3D. The most beneficial of the new process are the first phases when design goes through conceptual to optimization steps. During these phases the X-section is imported inside Simcenter 3D rotordynamic tool to prepare the model, apply boundary conditions & loads, run the simulation and export the optimized parameters. The tool is based on an automatized approach and guarantees to export a model including all features and an information necessary to complete the rotordynamic analysis. It allows to evaluate vibrations of full train considering whole Gas Turbine (GT) structure and to determine interactions of rotors, casing and baseplate components interdependently. Exploiting this fact, the scope of verification has been even extended to permissible limits not only on rotating parts but also on stationary parts without the need to perform separate analyses. The tool also provides full functionality for bearing selection and data analysis in accordance with API616 requirements. Authors in the presentation focus on rotordynamic of NovaLT gas turbine verification and validation process considering interaction between harmonic components of rotors and structure, considering variable loading conditions: full speed no load, full speed full load. Finally, the presentation shows that the new approach of gas turbine rotordynamic verification has good coherence with the test results which will allow to skip the test validation phase in the future.