Case Study: GE Aviation achieves reliable backup generator lubrication by optimizing drain sizing with Altair's Flow Simulator

GE Aviation’s Systems Business uses GE’s Flow Simulator to Model Aircraft Backup Generator

GE Aviation’s Systems business needed to ensure a backup generator (BUG) mounted to a new engine would reliably return oil via a gravity drain so bearings and electromagnetic components wouldn’t overheat or fail. Under tight size and program-timing constraints, the team sought an analytical approach and turned to Altair’s Flow Simulator to model the complex network of tubes, bends, junctions and plenums and assess worst‑case oil flow and required drain sizing.

Altair’s Flow Simulator, with its GUI and elemental “building block” modeling, let GE rapidly build and iterate models, evaluate both pressure-differential and gravity-fed scenarios, and validate outputs against GE’s proven Excel tools. Using Altair’s solution, GE confirmed minimum drain dimensions, mitigated risk of oil buildup, accelerated design iterations, and reduced the need for late-stage physical testing—providing confidence in the BUG lubrication system performance.

GE Aviation