Aerodynamic inverse design of turbomachinery cascades using a finite volume method on unstructured meshes

Abstract

A recently developed aerodynamic inverse design method for turbomachinery cascades is presented and is implemented in a cell-vertex finite volume method on unstructured triangular meshes. In this design method, the mass-averaged swirl schedule and the blade thickness distribution are prescribed. The design method then provides the blade shape that would accomplish this loading by imposing the appropriate pressure jump across the blades and satisfying the blade boundary condition, the latter implies that the flow is tangent to the blade surfaces. The method is first validated for a compressor cascade. It is then used to design an impulse cascade and to redesign the ONERA cascade.