The 2018 Flownex release contains a new liquid-gas fluid type that allows you to simulate a mixture of air and oil. This along with Flownex’s large library of flow components allows you to model the complete lubrication systems of gas turbine engines.
Proper lubrication in turbo-machines is essential as it separates moving surfaces so that no metal-to-metal contact occurs. As long as the oil film remains unbroken, metallic friction is replaced by the internal fluid friction of the lubricant. Under ideal conditions, friction and wear are kept to a minimum and therefore this technique is used universally in aircraft engines to prolong component life and increase performance.
The practical implementation of bearing lubrication requires the use of bleed air to seal the bearing chamber and prevent the oil from leaking through the gap between the shaft and bearing housing.
This creates a pressurised cavity with a highly turbulent mixture of air and oil. The new Flownex release contains new functionality specifically developed for this application and allows you to model the flow of air and oil throughout turbomachinery lubrication systems.
In this webinar we will briefly discuss the fluid dynamics theory related to a mixture of air and oil and how turbo-machinery lubrication systems can be modelled in the new Flownex release.