Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced the winners of its first annual Don Miller Award for Excellence in System-Level Thermo-Fluid Design. Mentor Graphics established the award to recognize exceptional use of Flowmaster® software in research and real-world applications. The inaugural award was presented toAndrea Tradii, Stefano Rossin and Riccardo De Paolis of GE Oil and Gas on October 19th at the 31st International CAE Conference in Verona, Italy. Their work, "Experimental Validation of Steam Turbine Control Oil Actuation Systems Transient Behavior," was presented at the same event last year and was nominated for the inaugural award this year.
Tradii, Rossin and De Paolis' work dramatically demonstrates the value of simulating the multi-physics of the fluid-mechanical interactions of a steam turbine trip valve using the Mentor Graphics® Flowmaster tool. With nearly 40 years of combined experience at GE Oil and Gas and the turbomachinery industry, the authors demonstrated creativity and innovative thinking in the application of the Flowmaster software to solve a significant engineering challenge.
Two runners-up were also selected by the panel of expert judges, including Don Miller. The team of Morten Kjeldsen from Flow Design Bureau AS, and Christoffer Jarpner from EnginSoft Nordic received a runner-up award for their work at Salt Ship Design SX. They investigated use of 1D and 3D CFD as complementary methods of simulation and optimized piping systems onboard ships with the aid of Flowmaster software and other CAE tools. The team of Roberto Conti, Emanuele Galardi, Enrico Meli, Daniele Nocciolini,Luca Pugi, Andrea Rindi of Florence University, with Dr. Stefano Rossin and Riccardo De Paolis of General Electric Nuovo Pignone S.p.A., was recognized for their innovative work on understanding the interactions between the fluid, mechanical control and control logic of a steam turbine control valve.
"I am deeply honored to have an award in my name, and to see the tremendous body of work executed by these outstanding engineers," stated Don Miller, former research director for British Hydromechanics Research (now BHR Group) in the U.K. "I had no idea the capabilities Flowmaster would provide users with when I sought venture capital funding 35 years ago. The prize-winning entry clearly demonstrates that from a core of validated data, not only can the thermal/fluid flow performance of complete systems be simulated, but also the functioning of complex individual components that carry out vital control and safety functions." Miller is also the author of Internal Flow Systems, whose book serves as the foundation for Mentor Graphics Flowmaster software technology.
For more information on the Don Miller Award, and to review the winning submissions for the 2015 awards, visit:http://www.mentor.com/products/mechanical/awards-publications/don-miller
