Design Automation of Steam Turbine Diaphragms in NX : Research and implementation of design automation in a development process

Abstract: Siemens Energy develops, manufactures, and provides service of products utilized for production of green energy. This thesis has been conducted at Siemens Energy in Finspång and the department of steam turbine design. A major part of the work at the department includes service and updates of operating steam turbines located all around the world. The tasks of updating and service are short and require quick answers as the plant is waiting to be started. In order to adapt to the rapid development time required, the department of steam turbine design has developed a CAD automation process for drawing production of steam turbine diaphragms. The automation process is developed in an older CAD system that the department long have relied on. This CAD software and thus the automation process will soon be retired and taken out of service since the company is switching to the modern CAD software NX. This thesis is aimed at investigating the current development process at the department and propose and develop a new CAD automation process in NX for steam turbine diaphragms. The work was initiated by performing an analysis of the current situation where the collection of data constituted a solid ground for the rest of the thesis. The data lay the basis for the creation of a design specification which later served as a starting point for both the search and development of solution proposals regarding CAD automation. During the concept generation, it became clear that the development process embodied the scope of concepts, a form of application programming interface to achieve design automation was considered evident. This implied a more area-focused concept generation leading up to multiple solution concepts. After the generated solutions had been sorted and ranked, the solution to proceed with was based on NX integrated tool Knowledge Fusion to achieve CAD automation in NX. The development of the automation process and associated models utilized theories such as the MOKA methodology, high level cad templates and on explicit reference modeling. Resulting in a CAD automation process with possibilities to deliver both CAD models and technical drawings within a timeframe that reduces development time. It was concluded that the developed CAD automation process and associated models assured quality and reliability of the CAD material produced. Furthermore, the developed solution fit in the existing diaphragm development process and showed potential to significantly reduce the development time of steam turbine diaphragms.