“Upgrades to our software are a major part of our commitment to our users,” says Mark Anderson, vice president of software for Concepts NREC. “We perform research plus listen to our customers and others in turbomachinery to provide exclusive products for our customers. Our Agile 2009 upgrades reflect what the industry needs.”

Anderson added that there are cyclical patterns in turbomachinery as in every industry and that the megatrend in engineering software is to take advantage of ever-growing computing power and core technologies such as visualization and solution algorithms.

Striving for greater efficiency is part of this trend. All the new features in Concepts NREC’s Agile 2009 software help engineers improve their designs, making them more efficient through reduced fuel consumption and carbon dioxide output.

“The benefit of increasing efficiencies in turbomachinery designs is quite large since nearly every watt of electricity comes from some form of turbomachinery. A huge amount of that power is used, in turn, by turbomachinery. Even a one percent overall efficiency gain is huge,” Anderson says.

Some of the new features and upgrades in the Concepts NREC Agile 2009 are pushbutton computational fluid dynamics (Pushbutton CFD™) volute support, integrated finite element analysis (FEA), global grid smoothing, mixed grid topologies and massflow boundary conditions.

Agile 2009 Pushbutton CFD volute solution was developed with Concepts NREC’s research budget. Because, industry wide, laying out volutes has been notoriously expensive, Concepts NREC applied research funds to develop the Pushbutton CFD volute solution, a previously missing piece in the turbomachinery engineering puzzle.

The integrated FEA stress analysis capabilities found in Agile 2009 consolidate turbomachinery engineering, design and analysis tools. Designers now weigh all the variables earlier in the process, saving time and money by eliminating the need forbackand-forth between aerodynamics and stress analysis teams, which in turn reduces errors and leads to better trade-off studies.

Enhancements made to grid generation in Agile 2009 include global grid smoothing and mixed grid topologies that allow for better grid quality for fully integrated turbomachinery engineering, design and analysis.

Combining these technologies into one design system gives engineers enormous advantages by helping to achieve better end results in less time.

Mass-flow boundary conditions, now available in Agile 2009, allow for solutions to be set to converge to specific mass flows. Additionally, mass flow boundary conditions can increase solutions ranges. This enables engineers to develop more complex, yet more efficient turbomachinery designs.

Availability
Concepts NREC's new Agile™ Engineering Design System Software® 2009 is available via the company’s worldwide sales offices and authorized distributors. For a list of sales contacts and distributors, go to http://www.conceptsnrec.com.