SHAPE OPTIMIZATION OF COMPRESSOR BLADES USING 3D NAVIER-STOKES FLOW PHYSICS

A CFD-based design method for transonic axial compressor blades was developed based on three-dimensional Navier-Stokes flow physics. The method employs a sectional three-dimensional (S3D) analysis concept where the three-dimensional flow analysis is performed on the grid plane of a span station with spanwise flux components held fixed. The S3D analysis produced flow solutions nearly identical to those of three-dimensional analysis, regardless of the initialization of the flow field. The sectional design based on the S3D analysis can include three-dimensional effects of compressor flows and thus overcome the deficiencies associated with the use of quasi-three-dimensional flow physics in conventional sectional design. The S3D design was first used in the inverse triode to find the geometry that produces a specified target pressure distribution. The method was also applied to optimize the adiabatic efficiency of the blade sections of Rotor 37. A new blade was constructed with the optimized sectional geometries at several span stations and its aerodynamic performance was evaluated with three-dimensional analyses.