Latest News October 2020

Welcome to Frewer Engineering’s Latest News October 2020.

We can report on continued growth and development of our design and analysis services across a number of industries.

We hope you enjoy the read.

Experimental Aero-Engine Airmeter Incorporates Several Innovations

October has seen a milestone event for the Advanced Composites Division at Frewer Engineering with the successful installation and running of an experimental carbon-epoxy composite aero engine Airmeter at our customer’s test facilities in Germany. Ten months in the making, from design and analysis to installation, the nearly 2m diameter structure has required many specialist skill-sets from the Frewer engineering team. Initially, detailed composite FEA was required to meet critical stiffness requirements, then new concepts for bonding in and retaining critical sensor mounting inserts had to be developed to meet a very close-tolerance technical specification.

Speaking about the project, Frewer Engineering’s Head of Advanced Composites, Matthew Jeffreys said:

“It’s always very gratifying when a customer takes the trouble to thank us for a job well-done and for our professional approach. We’re delighted to have received such praise for this project which, from the start, has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience working with both the customer and our UK-based manufacturing partner, North West Aerotooling.”

Click here to read more on our Composite capabilities

Design of Future Gas Turbine Combustion Test Equipment

Our advanced engineering design team are busy working on future high temperature (full annular) combustion test equipment which will lead to cleaner and quieter engines. Dealing with temperatures higher than the melting point of the materials that make up the equipment gives challenges for cooling (using both air and water). Packaging remotely operated advanced gas sampling instrumentation into the design is a further challenge. Complete interactive thermal, fluid flow and finally stress modelling gives us the ability to iterate designs fast.

Our team are currently dealing with further challenges of equipment life prediction for thermal fatigue and creep. Topping this off with the need to meet all required pressure vessel regulations, makes these projects amongst the most complex we come across.

Our engineering team have in excess of 25 years of combustion equipment design experience on both full annular and sector rig combustion test projects.

Click here to read more on our Advanced Engineering capabilities

Our CFD Analysis Service Grows!

The coupling of our capabilities to model composite structures with the ability to perform advanced CFD analysis is proving popular with our customers. We are currently performing three CFD projects for 3 of our customers, ranging from helicopter equipment, surface war ship equipment to internal aerodynamics & thermal modelling of future gas turbine equipment.

Click here to read more on our CFD capabilities

Future Fan Blade Development

Our 3D CAD design team are busy working on rotating machinery to assist in the development of future fan blades that will be larger than any currently in service. Challenges, such as, rotor dynamics and balancing are key. The equipment provides a cost effective means of testing a fan blade, by running at full speed in isolation, to verify its integrity along with its untwisted shape. Further tests involve bird impact which impart large loads onto the test equipment.

Click here to read more on our Advanced Engineering capabilities

Marine Defence Sector Update

This is a busy division within our business and sees us working on a variety of new marine defence projects, both surface vessel and sub surface vessel based. Challenges to reduce weight but maintain stiffness and shock resistance properties is the design trade here. Our design team are familiar with iterating designs to meet a variety of customer required properties.

Click here to read more on our Marine Defence capabilities