When the Engineering, Manufacturing and Service groups of Parsons Power Generation Systems Ltd in Newcastle, England, became part of Siemens Power Generation Ltd, the company's core business strategy changed from manufacturing complete turbine power generators to designing upgraded individual turbines (retro fitting) and servicing parts. This new direction required a new design philosophy, one that would enable the company to maintain its high position in the hugely competitive, worldwide energy marketplace.

According to Richard Goodfellow, a Principal Design Engineer at Siemens Power Generation, the company is now under more pressure than ever to produce faster results for its clients.

He says, "We work with leading global energy companies to increase the efficiency of their power generation plants and that generally means just replacing one or more turbine cylinders out of the complete turbine generator line at each plant. Whereas our previous contracts required in depth Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and we used ANSYS multiphysics software, we do not always have the time or need to achieve such detailed analysis. Lead-times for refurbishment of turbine plant are very short and in this competitive market a reduction in time really does give us a competitive edge."

"Our new direction required a new design philosophy and therefore tools which would enable us to produce quick analyses of models we create in Pro/ENGINEER. We needed an analysis tool that would provide us with quick, up-front results but would also give our customers complete confidence in our work."

Pro/ENGINEER 3DSolid Models can be read directly into ANSYS FEA products.

"Physical prototypes are obviously cost prohibitive so we only have one shot at each design - there is no margin for error. Because of our background with ANSYS - a relationship that goes back eight or nine years - we took a look at their DesignSpace product during our regular package reviews."

"We found that DesignSpace has a good interface with Pro/ENGINEER so we were able to take the CAD models and analyse them without the problems sometimes experienced when transporting an image from one package to another. The majority of our work is stress and thermal analysis of turbine casings and the results from DesignSpace are accurate enough for our needs, and the needs of our clients. They are all aware of the ANSYS name and that in itself breeds confidence and makes our life easier."

"In terms of speed of analysis, DesignSpace makes applying boundary conditions to the model very easy. Loads and pressures can be applied without worrying about the details behind it , simply point at the area of interest, apply the load and you get a quick accurate answer."

One case in point which demonstrates how DesignSpace has been utilised at Siemens Power Generation is the design of a 125MW HP/IP ( combined high pressure/intermediate pressure) turbine as a replacement turbine module for the Far Eastern market.

Richard Goodfellow continues, "The process began with a 2D CAD drawing and from this a 3D model was created in Pro/ENGINEER and transported into the DesignSpace package. Here we concentrated on analysing the turbine casing because it is a pressure vessel and has to survive very high pressure and temperatures created by the steam - up to 535 oC and 130 Bar pressure."

"Once the analysis was complete and changes made to the 3D CAD model, it was analysed again so that the optimum design could be achieved. This process now takes us days, not weeks as before, and when it is complete we simply generate production drawings for our manufacturing department."

"In this case the customer was very satisfied with the results and the fact that we are using a tool that is a qualified standard also gives them confidence in our design. DesignSpace has enabled us to maintain our competitive edge at Siemens Power Generation, as in any industry nowadays, time really does mean money."