Latest News May 2021

Future Gas turbine development equipment design

Our advanced engineering team are currently working on a variety of gas turbine development projects to deliver a new and environment friendly large gas turbine system which will be used for mainly future long haul travel.

The challenge is the sheer scale of end customers requirement.  The gas turbine will likely be the largest ever built! Our team are involved on this project with the design and analysis of a number of highly loaded rotating rigs to allow development of a new carbon composite fan blade assembly.

The team are also designing the exhaust hot nozzle system which is manufactured using high temperature alloys to achieve a super tight nozzle throat tolerance when in use and thus ensuring the correct back pressure is seen by this new engine when in use.

Advanced Engineering Division Update

Our advanced Engineering team are currently designing a new small wind turbine concept (less than 150mm diameter) to provide power to remotely deployed equipment from military aircraft. 

The project involves sizing and selecting a turbine blade set shape from scratch to achieve the required power generation capabilities for our customer. Aerodynamics is key to achieving the end clients requirement here along with detailed blade and disc design for safety.

The team are preparing a design that can be wind tunnel tested in the summer to ensure it’s performance, before moving forward into detail design of the equipment.

Martha’s CFD Team Update

Our CFD team (headed up by Martha Cooper) remain busy on a variety of projects using one of our software codes, SC Flow from MSC Software solutions.

Predicting mixed flow in a complex steam engine application is key for our customer to achieve even greater power from the unit.  This enables improvements in design of the valve system. Further CFD activities are also underway in the field of maritime defence on both surface vessels and sub surface vessels. The challenge is achieving very high fidelity modelling which in turn brings the challenge on our IT Systems speed.

In addition to the above, the CFD team are also modelling complex thermal heat transfer problems for a number of aerospace projects.  this analysis work is coupled to our FEA tools to allow a complete thermal and mechanical model to be achieved giving our customer reliable expected thermal and strength performance predictions.

Sporting Gun Complex Mechanism Design

Our design team are concepting a complex mechanism for a unique shotgun application for one of our clients. The challenge is one of packaging a reliable mechanism in very tight boundary constraints to minimise weight. The use of our Siemens NX 3D cad along with 3D printing of the assembly allows us to accurately predict performance and prove operation.

Advanced Composites Division Marine Defence

The Advanced Composite Division continues to develop and modernise mast structures for submarine defence projects. The evolution of designs occur when either new materials become available or new data emerges that cause load cases to be reviewed. Both these eventualities have been witnessed in recent years creating the need for a large number of mast structures to be redesigned and improved upon.

With weight and stiffness being critical properties, designs have had to be heavily optimised to meet performance criteria. New prepreg resin systems now available from suppliers specializing in marine environment applications, coupled with use of the latest analysis tools, have enabled our engineers to improve composite mast structures to new levels of design efficiency.

Further the composites team are currently trailing filament winding structural techniques which allow optimisation to reduce weight and pressure vessel thickness.

Advanced Composites Division Civil Aerospace

Frewer Engineering has a long history of designing and analysing test and development Airmeters for both business and commercial jet aero engines. Airmeters are critical components in any engine development programme, accurately controlling the airflow into the engine for consistent monitoring of pressures, temperatures, air speed and ultimately engine performance. Strength is a fundamental prerequisite of course but stiffness and a close geometric tolerance of the inside aero surfaces are also critical.

Using the latest NASTRAN toolsets for dynamic and static structural analysis as well as CAD design, Frewer’s Composite Division engineers are able to model and design carbon fibre composite structures to predetermined levels of performance to ensure each Airmeter meets the customer’s design specifications in every respect.

Dan Green Completing Project Management Course

Dan Green, one of our budding engineers, is currently on a project management course with the Association of Project Managers, he is completing the PMQ qualification.

This course along with other technical courses will bolster his ability to provide our customers with slicker design management of projects.

Our Advanced Analysis Team Update

Our team are busy in the field of Rotordynamics analysis of a compressor test unit for one of our US based customers. Utilising our NX Nastran bespoke Rotordynamics tools is key to providing accurate predictions of performance in service.

The team are also involved with shock and vibration analysis of complex machinery for a US customer operating in the field of silicone chip manufacturing. They are closing the loop on predicted performance against as tested performance by our customer. This will provide even higher levels of accuracy in vibrational and shock predictions.

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