Weight Analysis of Turbine Engine - an Object-Oriented Version (WATE++)

About this technology

Overview

WATE++ is an object-oriented computer code for gas turbine engine weight estimation; it calculates the weight and dimension of each major gas turbine engine component. It is used to create engine architecture that could achieve an engine thermodynamic cycle produced by a thermodynamic cycle code. The thermodynamic cycle data, the material properties, and design rules for geometric, stress, and turbo-machinery stage-loading limits were used to determine an acceptable engine flowpath and weight.The code was converted from the structured FORTRAN version of the code, originally developed by Boeing Aircraft for NASA, to improve its maintainability and extensibility. The conversion was done within the NASAs NPSS (Numerical Propulsion System Simulation) framework. This enables WATE to interact seamlessly with the thermodynamic cycle model which provides component flow data such as airflows, temperatures, and pressures, etc. that are also required for sizing the components and weight calculations. The tight integration between the NPSS and WATE++ greatly enhances system-level analysis and optimization capabilities.