Rotor design

This simple game illustrates the challenges of optimising the structural design of a rotor.

Concept design of rotating machinery often requires a range of disciplines working together closely to achieve challenging design requirements.

This simple game illustrates the challenges of optimising the structural design of a rotor. The goal is to design a gas turbine high pressure turbine disc with a maximum stresses below 1000 MPa and a total mass of less than 230kg.

Have a go at optimising your design by dragging the points on the polygon then clicking ‘Evaluate design’. This example uses a simplified finite element solver that we wrote; for real concept design projects we make use of a range of multiphysics computer-aided engineering (CAE) packages!

Due to the interactive nature of this tool, you may need to use Chrome or other compatible browser.

Modulus = 190 GPa

Poisson's ratio = 0.3

Density = 8.908e6 kg/m^3

Maximum speed = 14,300 rpm

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