Towards the isogeometric aero-engine

Creating very detailed finite element models of aero-engines is a very time-consuming process especially if structured meshes have to be generated for thousands of parts. Isogeometric analysis offers the possibility of an accelerated model creation process while achieving higher accuracy by using the non-uniform rational B-spline functions used for the geometry description also as basis functions for the finite element analysis. In this case, no meshing is necessary anymore. Here, we demonstrate this process by applying a self-developed tool which creates a geometry description and a computational model of a part at the same time. By the help of this tool we build up a simplified mechanical aero-engine model, which is used for transient implicit computations simulating the acceleration process of the rotor. We discuss the results as well as the computational time of isogeometric models in comparison to classical finite element models.