Concept NREC’s work with the US Air Force should provide insight on ways to make aero engines even more efficient.

The innovation arm of the United States Air Force (AFWERX), has awarded Concepts NREC a Direct-to-Phase II contract focused on developing an Integrated “cooling and secondary flow design system”  to address one of the more pressing challenges of the Air Force.

Contract scope includes introducing advanced methods for the design, layout, and analysis of turbomachinery secondary flows supporting U.S. National Security objectives.  This program will enable the design and optimization of critical secondary flow systems to a similar level of maturity currently available for primary flow paths.

Concepts NREC’s work will also capitalize on their CAE turbomachinery design software as the basis for development and provide full integration with the mature components of the software already available.

The result will be a product applicable to all classes of turbomachinery and for all industries (both defense and non-defense related). These advances are likely to trickle down to aeroderivative engines over the next few years.

“Analytical methods have advanced to the point where there’s less and less potential for further improvements in the primary flow path.  Future gains in the performance and reliability of turbomachinery will come from better design of secondary flows,” says Mark Anderson, Chief Technology Officer, Concepts NREC.