Design of High Performance Flanges and its Influence on Manufacturing Costs, Structural Performance and Weight
Abstract: This project attempts to research the manufacturing cost, with an emphasis on machining, of high performance flanges for Turbine Rear Structure (TRS) applications, as well as the tradeoffs with structural performance and weight. A combination of traditional cost modelling techniques from the literature, as well as, the non-conventional manufacturing complexity index, as cost indicator are implemented. A multidisciplinary study is carried out with the aid of ANSYS Workbench in the form of computer simulated experiments to investigate tradeoffs in flanges. It is concluded that multidisciplinary studies of cost, performance and weight lacked model robustness to draw sound conclusions about flange design. However, the manufacturing complexity index after partial validation with experienced engineers shows promising results, and could be a way forward to estimate final machining operation cost for flanges in the future.
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