No abstract

This work presents the implementation of an interactive learning platform for turbine design in an engineering teaching environment. Due to the abundance of strategies and problems encountered in a multidisciplinary iterative design process, presenting the student to the multitude of scenarios can be a laborious and time-consuming task, often not possible in one-semester courses for undergraduate students. The developed computational program breaks down the preliminary design methodology into a step-by-step analysis of a single-stage axial turbine for aeronautical application. In it, the student is guided through velocity diagram construction, performance prediction, tridimensional and compressible effects considerations, blade designing as well as accounting for losses. In this interactive learning tool, it is possible to explore the sensitivity and effects of each design choice at various design steps, generating insight and hopefully a more intimate understanding. This exploration generates real-time changes in the output interface, for example the velocity diagrams and major geometrical features, in which the student is able through different trials to observe and compare the impact of different approaches, choices and assumptions. The program is written in Python language and the loss models chosen were Kacker and Okapuu; Dunham and Came; and Ainley and Mathieson. As the same set of design requirements can lead to different — yet optimal — configurations, the student will be given guidelines based on established design methodologies with the aid of graphs and the usual ranges of the calculated parameters found in practice. At the end of this process, the student is able to harvest a final design from which it is possible to generate discussions among a class or examine the suitability of a final product in regards to a proposed assignment, objective or application.

The gas turbine industry requires extensive knowledge in several areas of engineering, and since both industry and academy continuously develop new approaches, technologies, and models, usually, there is not enough time to cover all the relevant subjects in one or two-semester courses for undergraduate or graduate students. In previous work, the authors have presented an interactive platform for the preliminary design of single-stage axial turbines with uncooled blades, for use at the undergraduate courses offered by the Turbomachine Department at Aeronautics Institute of Technology to accelerate the learning process. The present work aims to present an expansion of this interactive learning platform, with the inclusion of a module for the thermodynamic cycle study, a module for off-design calculations, and the generation of a PDF file containing the step-by-step solution memorial with all the equations and values used in the design. The work also presents a structure for the conduction of a graduate course in turbomachines focused on the design of axial turbines. It comprehends theory and exercise classes, oriented study with the interactive learning platform, and a project in which the students have to implement some of the modules and run test cases. The authors observed more interest of the students and higher quality questions in the classes while using the interactive platform or programming, developing a better understanding of the design process until the end of the course. Also, while, in previous semesters, the preliminary design occupied almost half of the 48-hour course, it took only 12-hour to cover the same subject, granting time to more advanced topics, such as blade cooling, off-design performance and computational fluid dynamics simulations.