protoblade 0.2.0

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ProtoBlade

ProtoBlade is an open source turbomachinery design tool for creating CFD-compatible 3D CAD models. This tool is intended for use when creating multiple prototypes (hence Proto) of turbomachinery blades (hence Blade). 3D CAD models can be created in a ‘batch’ style situation which can integrated into automated unstructured meshing pipelines.

What Does ProtoBlade Do?

ProtoBlade can automatically create CFD ready CAD models from a blade definition. A turbine example with constant radius endwalls is shown below. Three sections are supplied at three different radii (shown as points on the animation below). The final product is a CAD model of the fluid domain complete with periodic boundary faces. This could be used as the input for an unstructured meshing pipeline. For more information see examples\axial_turbine.

It is also possible to create a CFD ready CAD model from endwalls supplied as a CAD file. The example below again shows a turbine defined with three radial sections (shown as points) but this time the endwalls are defined from a CAD file and feature a cavity upstream of the blade. The output is a CFD ready CAD model complete with periodic faces. For more information see examples\axial_turbine_with_cavity.

Why Use ProtoBlade?

ProtoBlade is open source.

You are free to create a fork of the project and distribute this package within your own application or design pipeline.

ProtoBlade is easy to deploy

ProtoBlade is hosted on PyPI like any other Python package, or it can be installed using a pre-built installer. It can be installed and deployed using pip on any system that has a Python Interpreter of version 3.7 or higher. Most other CAD scripting and automation tools are pinned to a certain application or Python Environment.

ProtoBlade is functional

All of the ProtoBlade functionality can be accessed through the command line interface or through the Python API.

Quick Start

Full details of how to install and use ProtoBlade are given in the docs. A quick start is outlined below.

ProtoBlade is currently supports on Windows (python versions 3.8,3.9 and 3.10) and Linux (python versions >3.8).

First, create a new virtual environment an then activate it. Once this is done use pip to install ProtoBlade:

pip install protoblade

After installing ProtoBlade you will be to able to run it from a terminal.

python -m protoblade example.toml

Where example.toml if the filepath of the file you wish to process. The output of this process will be a a step file axial_turbine.step. This will be a 3D solid body CAD model of the turbine blade including periodic surfaces. See the animation above.

Documentation

Documentation for ProtoBlade can be found here

Support

Any questions, queries or features requests can be sent to [e-mail]

Image Credit

Turbine icons created by Freepik - Flaticon