A Knowledge-based Engineering Environment for Automated Analysis of Nozzles

This paper describes a new, and unique, system for design and analysis of a family of parts with a specific focus on gas-turbine nozzles. The system, built on the tenets of knowledge-based engineering (KBE) within an object-oriented framework, supports the notion of scalable products that can be resized through reparametrization. The KBE system for the parametric design of nozzles has been integrated with a topology and geometry utility system (TAGUS) and geometry-based mesh generators (QUADTREE and EXTREME) to develop a turnkey system. The resulting system is shown to help reduce the design cycle time and to increase engineering productivity by representing design and manufacturing information as part of the complete product definition.