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Acooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the Raytheon Technologies Research Center will allow researchers to use high-performance computing and machine-learning algorithms to reduce the computational expense of fluid dynamics models that examine coolant flow mixing and heat transfer in turbine engines, improving functionality.

“The overarching goal of this project is optimizing the combustor and turbine cooling designs for modern engines,” says Argonne research scientist Pinaki Pal, who leads the project with co-investigators Prithwish Kundu and postdoctoral appointee Opeoluwa Owoyele.

“Typically, aircraft engines operate at very high pressures with small-sized engine cores, and this tends to bring a lot of hot gases closer to the walls and increase the heat loads on combustor liner and turbine blades. This then requires a focus on thermal management,” says Michael Joly, principal investigator and research engineer at the Raytheon Technologies Research Center. “Design improvements to reduce the cooling air flow requirements can increase the engine’s thermal efficiency.”

To optimize cooling designs, researchers must consider how the cooling air is injected by selecting cooling hole angles and arrangement. Highly resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations can achieve great accuracy but require tremendous computational expense – particularly in the boundary regions near the walls. Or researchers could use under-resolved simulations with models applied to capture near-wall flow dynamics, producing a less-accurate solution more quickly.

“The problem with the simulations that are computationally cheaper is that the wall models are not able to capture the rich flow physics prevalent in practical configurations,” Pal says.

By leveraging the power of advanced CFD modeling, high-performance computing, and deep learning, Pal and his colleagues along with industry partners from Raytheon Technologies intend to merge both approaches.

First, they’ll perform wall-resolved simulations of several engine configurations, using a massively parallel CFD code called Nek5000, recently enhanced for engine flow and combustion modeling. Researchers will use Argonne supercomputing resources, including the Theta system at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Then, they will take the high-fidelity data generated from these simulations to train a faster and less computationally expensive deep learning-based spatial emulator to capture near-wall heat transfer. The surrogate models will realize many of the accuracy benefits of a high-fidelity simulation, while performing computations at a fraction of its cost, according to Kundu.

Pal says, “We are creating physics-informed deep learning models that can be trained on a wide range of initial conditions to solve problems much more efficiently without sacrificing predictive capability.”

Argonne National Laboratory

Raytheon Technologies

In 1936, Oren S. Cole founded Cole Carbide Industries with a vision: apply family values, innovative manufacturing, and advanced quality assurance to produce custom carbide products. Now, 84 years and four generations later, President John Cole carries on his great-grandfather’s legacy serving the aerospace, medical, automotive, oil & gas, and heavy equipment industries. Cole Carbide has built a worldwide reputation as a progressive and reliable provider of high quality, close tolerance, made-to-print carbide cutting tools, tool systems, and engineering services.

While Cole remains a family business at its core, the company has continually expanded and adapted to meet ever-changing market conditions. In 2019, John Cole and his management team further defined and consolidated Cole’s diverse brands to reflect an evolution that began years ago. Cole’s corporate structure has been refined into two main entities: Cole Carbide Industries devoted to custom engineered products and threading systems for oil, gas, and water; Cole Tooling Systems (CTS) encompassing the prominent Millstar, Omnithread, and Indexa-V product lines.

“With operations more integrated, ordering is simplified. Customers can easily coordinate orders from our three CTS tooling lines to meet all their needs, with input from our expert staff,” says Sales Manager Todd Green. “It also maximizes efficiency across all operations so we can offer some of the most competitive pricing and best turnaround times in the industry.”

CTS for aerospace

Beyond high-level, collaborative customer service, CTS offers versatile capabilities ideally suited to aerospace manufacturing, which makes up as much as 30% of Cole’s business. CTS Vice President Ron Field says, “We offer a wide selection of standard tooling that can handle most aerospace operations, but we produce plenty of customs too.”

As key reasons why aerospace manufacturers seek out Cole, Field cites precision manufacturing to handle tight tolerances and its range of specialized tooling capabilities.

Cole’s Millstar line offers high-feed tooling that sets new standards for aerospace machining speed and efficiency. Sophisticated geometries on Millstar HFM4 and HFI4 solid carbide end mills provide a cutting edge free from tangent points that could induce wear. This accommodates heavy chip loads for high feed rates, decreases tool deflection, and quickly achieves net shape.

“You won’t find a comparable tool that can beat the efficiency of these end mills for roughing operations,” Field says. “They really allow machining at unheard-of speeds.”

CTS’ Millstar EIV5 end mill offers a unique combination of radial grind, variable helix, variable pitch, and radius preparation for maximum versatility and accuracy. This innovative design enables large step-overs with no bottom vibration, greater depth of cut with no side vibration, and extended machining without radius failure. Its exceptional, proven performance on high-temperature alloys such as titanium makes EIV5 a perfect choice for many aerospace applications.

Looking to the future

As a supplier to essential industries, CTS has remained steadfast in its commitment to support customers amid the widespread impact of COVID-19.

“Like many other manufacturers, we’re operating with reduced staff and with meticulous safety precautions to protect workers and customers,” Green says.

These unprecedented changes have been difficult at times, but adapting to a changing world is nothing new for Cole. It’s been part of their core philosophy for eight decades and will continue to be a guiding principle as Cole moves into the post-pandemic world of 2021 and beyond.

Cole Tooling Systems is a leading manufacturer of carbide inserts and wear parts, based in Orion Twp., Michigan. For more information, please call 877.645.5782 or visit http://www.coletooling.com.

Common features on aerospace parts, holes can provide simple weight reduction, component access, mechanical assembly/movement, or critical location alignment. Feature requirements – such as diameter tolerance, finish, positional tolerance, roundness, and cylindricity – also vary. Often one of the fastest material removal operations, hole making can present challenges due to the materials, machinery, and methods used.

1) Which drill to use; indexable carbide or solid carbide?

It depends on the specifics of the hole and application. For example, holes with very long length-to-drill-diameter ratios require the strength and rigidity provided by solid carbide drills. This is also true when the hole requires a tighter International Tolerance (IT) grade. Replaceable tipped carbide drills such as Iscar’s SumoCham and Logic3cham can provide IT8 hole tolerances while delivering high material removal rates.

If you cut a variety of materials, replaceable tip drills allow users to change drill head diameter and geometry to optimize specific applications by using ISO material group-specific heads such as the SumoCham ICP, ICM, ICN, and ICK drill heads.

2) What is the benefit of having material-specific drill heads?

Changing drill geometry by quickly removing and replacing the self-clamped head tailors the drill to the material – decreasing cycle time, improving tool life, and making the process more stable. This allows more spindle uptime and throughput. For example, a SumoCham ICP head cutting Inconel 718 may suffer from chipping on the cutting edge or the chisel point due to the shearing force of the material. Changing to the ICM provides a reinforced cutting edge to withstand the pressure to shear high nickel/super alloys.

3) What are some challenges for producing holes in different materials, and do indexable products for drilling and reaming address that?

Materials with low melting points, such as aluminum, present reaming challenges as the hole tends to close on the tool, increasing friction and heat that impact tool life and finish. Diamond coatings reduce this and an indexable reaming solution, such as Iscar’s Bayo T-Ream, make it easy to apply a different head with a diamond coating. High nickel content materials, such as Inconel and titanium, also exhibit the phenomenon, so material-specific heads for drilling, such as ICN and ICM for SumoCham drills, will not have large margins that create additional friction and heat.

4) What about solutions for composites?

Layered carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and hybrid titanium laminates can fray or delaminate from heat and cutting pressure, and composite materials are very abrasive. Iscar’s SumoCham semi-standard ICF and ICF-Ti drilling heads are diamond coated with unique cutting geometry to direct cutting forces out radially instead of axially. Iscar also offers these geometries in solid carbide with diamond coating, brazed PCD wafers, and brazed solid PCD nibs (tips).

5) Are there solutions for automated drilling units (ADU)?

Power and available force limitations on portable drilling units indicate using high-speed steel (HSS) or cobalt solid tools. Advances in cutting tool geometry and materials that reduce cutting force and horsepower required have made indexable solutions viable. Iscar offers semi-standard items, from both SUMOCHAM indexable drilling and BAYO T-REAM product lines, which feature the required special shank connectors used in popular air-driven ADUs for in-station drilling, allowing for increased performance and decreased cycle times.

For more information: https://www.iscarusa.com

To understand digitization vs. digitalization, you need to know the differences between the digital twin and digital thread. To successfully transition to the digital enterprise, you need to have both.

Digital twins

The digital twin, which has been around for decades, is a virtual representation of a product or process in the proper context so teams can analyze, study, and improve the product or process under development.

A digital twin enables companies to better predict product performance and production processes prior to verification and physical production, minimizing risk. Ultimately digital twin users win new business, get to market faster, and manage costs better than their competitors.

A digital twin can do all the right things, but if it’s not connected or integrated to all phases of product lifecycle development, you’re not realizing the twin’s full potential.

You can set up a digital twin for just about anything in engineering or manufacturing. Many examples manage the digital twin and 3D CAD implementations, but you need a digital twin seamlessly connected to other digital twins or to other phases of program development for the continuous exchange of data – the enhanced automation of data – up and down the product development lifecycle.

Digital threads

The Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio represents a comprehensive digital twin that brings a series of adaptable digital threads to the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry. Siemens is the only company today to offer a digital twin that’s fully connected to a series of digital threads for increased automation and digitalization. With the digital thread, all processes are connected. Customers gain a deeper understanding and greater visibility into all product development phases up and down the value chain.

Digitization? No, digitalization

As a company goes through its transition into a digital enterprise, it often stops short, not realizing the full benefits of its digital enterprise.

When companies begin, information is placed into a Word or Excel file. Simulation or modeling programs are started, but nothing is linked. When a user moves something from paper to a software-based program, they are digitizing that artifact. This is primarily a document-based system.

Most companies today import and translate data from external sources, but nothing is fully connected. One team may manage engineering data in one system while other teams manage production data, program management, scheduling, and tracking on different systems.

Many companies think they’ve achieved digitalization once the digital twin is in place and functioning at full maturity using 3D CAD models, simulations, etc. However, even with a virtual representation in place, there is no sharing across the product lifecycle or supply chain (hence, no fully operational digital thread).

A fully digitalized enterprise connects virtual representations or twins with a digital thread. Seamless integration of the entire value chain has been achieved. Common tasks are automated and everything’s networked together. Requirements drive entire design, manufacturing, testing, and service systems. Updates are automatically shared up and down the value chain. The digital thread connects all processes to provide integration throughout the entire lifecycle of product development. This is also where a fully mature digital twin and a fully operative digital thread come together.

Siemens provides A&D digital threads that take advantage of our Xcelerator portfolio, and when combined with our deep industry knowledge, provide a key competitive advantage for our customers.

Learn more about Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio at https://www.sw.siemens.com/portfolio