Accelerating Turbomachinery Innovation with AxSTREAM and Ansys

Speeding Up Turbomachinery Innovation with AxSTREAM + Ansys CFD Integration

In today’s competitive engineering landscape — spanning aerospace, energy, and automotive sectors — turbomachinery designers must deliver higher performance, better efficiency, and faster development cycles. Traditional fragmented workflows, where early design and detailed simulation happen separately, are no longer sufficient for modern performance demands.

The Challenge

Designing complex turbomachinery systems (like turbines, compressors, and fans) requires juggling:

• Aerodynamics
• Thermodynamics
• Structural integrity
• Heat transfer
• Fluid-structure interaction

All of these factors must align within tight deadlines and high performance specs. Historically, moving from conceptual design to detailed 3D simulation involves manual data transfers between tools — a slow and error-prone process.

A Unified Design + Simulation Workflow

To overcome these hurdles, AxSTREAM (a turbomachinery design environment by SoftInWay) is tightly integrated with Ansys CFX, a high-fidelity CFD solver. This partnership creates an end-to-end workflow where:

• Engineers begin with 1D and 2D design and proceed through 3D geometry generation in AxSTREAM
• Blade geometry, boundary conditions, and mesh data seamlessly transfer into Ansys CFX
• Simulation runs directly within the same workflow, preserving data continuity and design intent
• Results (pressure, velocity, temperature, efficiency, etc.) are visualized and analyzed back in AxSTREAM

This integration eliminates manual file exports and imports, reducing errors and accelerating the entire design cycle.

How It Works in Practice

A typical turbomachinery design process now looks like:

1. Initial Design in AxSTREAM — define performance goals and flow path parameters.
2. Blade Geometry Generation — create and refine blades based on aerodynamic criteria.
3. Mesh Generation — structured or semi-structured meshes optimized for blade passages.
4. CFD Simulation in Ansys CFX — assess detailed flow behavior, losses, and performance metrics.
5. Results Post-Processing — visualize outputs like pressure distribution or velocity vectors to refine design decisions.

Real-World Example: Three-Stage Axial Turbine

In designing a three-stage axial turbine, engineers can:

• Build and refine geometry in AxSTREAM
• Automatically generate tailored mesh elements
• Launch CFX simulations directly from the AxSTREAM interface
• Analyze turbine performance under realistic operating conditions
• Iterate rapidly to achieve optimal outcomes

The result? Faster innovation, fewer design iterations, and a smoother transition from concept to detailed validation.

Beyond Simulation — Toward Manufacturing

AxSTREAM also allows geometry to be exported in neutral formats (NDF) compatible with Ansys TurboGrid and other blade meshing tools. This capability supports final mesh refinement and prepares designs for manufacturing with high-quality solids and detailed geometries.

Why This Matters

By embedding simulation earlier in the design process, engineers can:

• Catch performance issues before they become costly
• Preserve design intent throughout iterations
• Reduce overall development time and risk
• Make smarter decisions with validated simulation data

For teams pushing boundaries in turbomachinery innovation, this integrated AxSTREAM + Ansys workflow is a powerful advantage — enabling better performance, higher predictability, and quicker delivery to market.