Tag: free webinar

Discussion – Alien Signal or Radio Noise: Leveraging Turbomachinery

Posted by Kimberley Squillante

The Internet practically exploded early yesterday morning with talk of an extraterrestrial discovery after a signal was detected by a Russian telescope. The star in question, HD 164595 located a vast 95 light years away, sent out a strong radio spike that was picked up and sparked a boom of excitement. According to an article published by National Geographic, however, this signal may not be what it was first interpreted as.

Astronomers have pointed their radio telescopes towards the stars for over half a century, hoping to catch a glimmer of life beyond this planet. Short of a futuristic rocket ship, these telescopes seem to be the best bet for catching a peak of something out of this world. That is a main causStarse as to why this discovery is so tantalizing to both scientists and the rest of us earthlings. However, after further investigation, neither the Allen Telescope Array, commanded by the SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute, nor the Green Bank Telescope, used by the Breakthrough Listen project, turned up additional signals or observations.

Another issue that has risen according to this article is that the signal did not repeat and could have been caused by something else. A source on Earth, such as a faulty power supply, military transmission, or arcing electrical fence for example. Another possible explanation could be that gravity from another object in space amplified a weaker signal. That being said, it would appear that HD 164595 is similar in many ways to our sun. It is composed of the same ingredients, is approximately the same age and has at least one planet in its orbit. This would suggest that theoretically, it would be plausible for life to exist within this system.

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Looking Back at SoftInWay’s 2015

Posted by Sarah Decelle

Happy New Year! The holiday season and 2015 have come to a close, and it has been quite a year. In this post, we are taking a look back at some of the greatest developments we have accomplished this year at SoftInWay. Take a look at the list and see if you missed anything, and stay tuned for a look at some of our plans and goals for 2016!

1. SoftInWay Turbomachinery University

Early in 2015, we launched STU, an innovative learning portal that provides online training for optimal turbomachinery design and analysis. STU consists of video courses on a variety of subjects, and corresponding exams. We have added 4 full courses in the past year. STU also features all recorded SoftInWay webinars and discounted versions of our software. Find STU here.

2. Software Upgrades

Our Software Platforms, AxSTREAM and AxCYCLE have become even more sophisticated in the last year. AxSTREAM, now version 3.4.3.0, has seen the addition of brand new capabilities, including Rotor Dynamic analysis and Bearing design.
AxCYCLE, now version 4.230, saw a major upgrade at the end of 2015 in the form of a new Module for Economic Analysis. The Module performs the estimation of cost and economic efficiency of power plants. It is the first tool of its kind in the industry.

3. Growing Team

SoftInWay expanded it’s team this year with new members in three of our offices. We have grown both our sales and technical teams for more efficient client communication and project execution. We are so happy to welcome our new teammates, and look forward to adding even more in 2016!

4. And more!

There are too many things to list! So here are a few more:
– We had our most successful webinars this year with a record number of registrants and attendees.
– We attended old and new conferences all of the world and at them published a number of papers and presentations.
– Our networking event at Turbo Expo in Montreal was a huge success. We hope to host more events in 2016 in new locations, including New York City!

We wish everyone a very happy New Year. We’re looking forward to 2016 where we will continue to innovate and grow.

Upcoming Webinar: Power Plant Cost Estimation

Posted by Sarah Decelle

Cost Estimation and Economic Analysis for Power Plants

Thursday, January 21st | 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST

The Kendall Cogeneration Station in Cambridge, MA

Registration is open for our first webinar of 2016.

The processes of power plant design, enlargement, and redesign must consider certain factors, such as technological scheme, basic cycle parameters, equipment configuration, and fuel type. These factors have long reached beyond the scope of the technical and physical, and must consider economic criteria. Economic indicators are fundamental when selecting a specific solution. Therefore, even at the initial stages of a project, engineering problems should be considered in parallel with the assessment of economic efficiency. In addition, a power plant is a very complex entity, and introductory capital costs cannot be the only economic criteria considered. The economic indexes over the entire lifecycle of the plant must be accounted for.

The modern world has seen extensive investment in the field of cost estimation. The approximate estimation of cost and economic efficiency of a power plant, however, is a complicated and time-consuming process. It demands a high level of knowledge and information.

In order to simplify this process, and make it available for the engineering community, SoftInWay, a leading turbomachinery solutions provider, developed the new AxCYCLE Module for Economic Analysis. This webinar will demonstrate the module and discuss its extensive capabilities and applications.

We look forward to a great webinar and your challenging questions. Please register ahead of time and if you have any specific questions, let us know during the registration so that we can try to incorporate the answers into our presentation.

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Free Engineering Webinar – November 12!

Posted by Sarah Decelle

Innovation Strategy: How to Leverage Turbomachinery Reverse Engineering

SoftInWay will be hosting its next free webinar on Thursday, November 12! This webinar will delve into the complicated world of reverse engineering and demonstrate the best methods and tools.

Reverse engineering of Turbomachinery is extremely important for the partial replacement of turbines or compressors that have operated for many years, especially for owners, operators, and non-OEM service providers.

Documentation for a significant amount of these machines is not available due to different reasons, thus replication/reproduction becomes costly and time consuming. In the owner/operator scenario, one of the options is to buy new, modern machinery (as a replacement), but this is often significantly more expensive than performing overhauls & optimization of the flowpath, while maintaining the casing and other components. For OEMs looking to study a competitor’s machine, things become even more complicated.

SoftInWay’s turbomachinery software platform, AxSTREAM, has a unique capabilities for extracting turbomachinery geometry and profiles from scanned data, thus streamlining the reverse engineering, benchmarking, duplication, and optimization process. Additionally, by leveraging the extensive experience of SoftInWay’s 60+ person engineering team, customers are able to benefit from our techniques and software for different types of overhaul, rerates, cycle changes, and other sophisticated projects.

The webinar will include:

  1. An introduction to the reverse engineering of turbomachinery including its origins and modern trends
  2. The significance of special software and specialized experience for reverse engineering of turbomachinery
  3. Information on how to leverage reverse engineering and modern software to improve existing turbomachinery performance
  4. Examples of reverse engineering-based improvement, innovation, and modification

Who should attend:

  1. Engineering professionals performing or involved in reverse engineering projects
  2. Engineering professionals working in the mechanical, aerospace, automotive, marine, or power generation industries seeking to renovate or improve existing turbomachinery equipment
  3. Engineering professionals working in turbomachinery operation who want to renovate or improve their equipment performance
  4. Engineering students looking for comprehensive and state-of-the-art approaches for turbomachinery reverse engineering

Register for this webinar by clicking the link below! Can’t attend? Register and we will make sure you receive a recording of the presentation.

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Upcoming Webinar: Design of Waste Heat Recovery Systems Based on Supercritical ORC for Powerful Engines

Posted by Sarah Decelle

C836150Our next webinar is on October 8th! Join us as we discuss Design of Waste Heat Recovery Systems Based on Supercritical ORC for Powerful Engines.

Waste heat recovery is a hot topic (pun intended) that SoftInWay embraced rapidly. Numerous projects have been successfully performed on both the thermodynamic and the turbomachinery components levels.

In this webinar, we will discuss the case of a powerful ICE that can now benefit from a 20% boost in power due to waste heat recovery using a supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC). Different configurations, levels of complexity and parameters are studied and compared for the thermodynamic cycle as well as different fluid. Moreover, to show you that SORC is the way to go the results obtained are compared to what would be obtained with a different type of WHR system; double-pressure water steam cycle.

The session will include:

  • Introduction to the powerful ICE considered and its waste heat sources
  • Working fluid and parameters selection for the waste heat recovery system (WHRS)
  • Comparison of different configurations of WHRS SORC
  • Preliminary design of the turbine(s)

Who should attend?​

  • Engineers actively contributing to making their processes more efficient.
  • Engineers working in the mechanical, aerospace, automotive, marine, power generation industries who want to optimize their process equipment by utilizing untapped heat.
  • Engineering students looking for a comprehensive and state-of-the-art case study to optimize existing equipment allowing them to widen and deepen their understanding of waste heat recovery to meet the requirements of future employers.
[su_button url=”https://www2.softinway.com/whrwebinar” target=”blank” radius=”round” icon=”icon: arrow-right” desc=”Register”][/su_button]

Plan Your Turbomachinery Training for the Rest of 2015

Posted by Sarah Decelle

The sun is starting to shine and the weather is warming up. The schools are closed, the beaches are open, and everyone is itching to get to their vacation. But summer will be over before we know it! Don’t wait too long to begin planning for the final months of 2015. Take a look at our fall and winter courses that are now open for registration. Early sign-ups qualify for discounted prices! Here’s what’s available for the rest of the year:

Classroom Courses:

Centrifugal Compressor Design
September 15-19 | Zug, Switzerland (Register)
October 5-9 | Boston, MA, USA (Register)

Axial & Centrifugal Pumps Design
September 22-26 | Bangalore, KA, India (Register)
December 14-18 | Boston, MA, USA (Register)

Stream & Gas Turbine Design
September 22-26 | Boston, MA, USA (Register)
November 23-27 | Zug, Switzerland (Register)

Turbocharger Design & Performance Matching
October 12-16 | Bangalore, KA, India (Register)

Axial Compressor Design
November 23-27 | Bangalore, KA, India (Register)

Online Courses (click the dates to register!):

AxCYCLE for Organic Rankine Cycle Design
July 9-10, September 3-4, November 12-13

Waste Heat Recovery Design (Last of the year!)
July 13-30

AxCYCLE for Steam & Combined Cycle Design
July 28-29, September 10-11, November 4-5

AxCYCLE for Supercritical CO2 Cycle Design
August 4-5, October 27-28

Axial Turbine Design (Last of the year!)
August 10-20

Axial Compressor Design
September 21-October 1

Turbocharger Design
November 30-December 17

Also don’t forget about our monthly webinars! Keep an eye out for email invitations to our live presentations and demonstrations of the industry’s latest trends and developments. You can find all of our recorded webinars in our learning portal – SoftInWay Turbomachinery University. Your free registration gives you access to all recordings!

Innovation in Aerospace: Aircraft Compressor Design

Posted by Sarah Decelle

Aerospace - croppedOur next webinar is on Thursday, April 30th! Are you an engineer involved in the Aerospace Industry and its latest development, a manager interested in improving the performance of your aircraft engines, or a student interested in the future of aerospace and the current climate of the industry? You should attend! During the webinar, we will be taking a close look at the most recent trends and developments of compressors in aircraft engines with a focus on the key factors for the successful development of aircraft engines.

Key factors for the successful development of aircraft engines include technological viability, performance, and re-usability. As one of the industry’s most high-technology products, aircraft engines require innovation in manufacturing and especially in design. They also face the need for continuous development in their technical capabilities in terms of achieving not only higher efficiencies and reliability but also safety and environmental legislation.

Continue reading “Innovation in Aerospace: Aircraft Compressor Design” →

TBT Webinar: Centrifugal Compressor Design: Can You Really Avoid Choke and Surge?

Posted by Sarah Decelle

It’s Throwback Thursday and we are sharing another of our past webinars! This week’s is called Centrifugal Compressor Design: Can You Really Avoid Choke and Surge?

video2

Surge and choke are inherent, sophisticated phenomena in centrifugal compressor operation. They limit the operational range of any centrifugal compressor and cause severe damage to the machine if it is in surge condition. Several books cover the development of centrifugal compressor surge and choke models that can be applied in compressor control systems in order to avoid surge and choke; while these methods focus retroactively, there are some proactive methods that can be applied during the design phase of the machine. Continue reading “TBT Webinar: Centrifugal Compressor Design: Can You Really Avoid Choke and Surge?” →

TBT Webinar – Developing Reliable, High Performance, Advanced 3D Blades

Posted by Sarah Decelle

It’s Throwback Thursday which means we have another one of our favorite past webinars! This week’s is called Developing Reliable, High Performance, Advanced 3D Blades. It was the first of three in a special Steam Turbine Series

Since 1884, steam turbines have been exemplary turbomachines that have improved throughout the years with modern design advances. As steam turbines became common, the competition heated up and today efficiency continues to be a hot topic. One trending technique that makes steam turbines most efficient is advanced 3D blading. Continue reading “TBT Webinar – Developing Reliable, High Performance, Advanced 3D Blades” →

TBT Webinar – Design of Impulse and Reaction Turbines

Posted by Sarah Decelle

This week’s TBT webinar, Design of Impulse and Reaction Turbines Webinar #2: Applications for Supercritical CO2 Cycle, discusses important considerations for using high-density working fluids with small turbine sizes. Structural constraints and performance are considered and the full design process is demonstrated.

video2This webinar covers:

  • Supercritical CO2 cycle overview
  • Estimation of impulse and reaction turbine application rationality in modern supercritical CO2 cycles taking into consideration structural requirements and performance goals
  • Comparison of CO2 and steam turbines (impulse and reaction) for the same boundary conditions
  • Detailed flow path design with AxSTREAM

Who should watch:

  • Mechanical and aerospace engineers working on conceptual turbine design
  • Operation/Overhaul/Engineering managers seeking to increase energy efficiency
  • Everyone interested in how SoftInWay Inc., and AxSTREAM can help them with creating more efficient Turbomachinery

You can find the recording here, in our video center. Not registered for our center? Not a problem, just register and you’ll be emailed access info for all of our free learning materials.