Arbitrary Blade Section Design Based on Viscous Considerations. Blade Optimization

Abstract

A blade design and optimization procedure is presented in this work, which is based on viscous flow considerations. This procedure concerns the design of optimum rotating arbitrary compressible high subsonic compressor and turbine blade shapes. It takes into account the effects of wall curvature and Coriolis force on turbulence, while it allows the variation of stream surface radius, along which the blade shape is placed, as well as streamtube width, with meridional distance. In order to establish the inverse part of the viscous optimization procedure, aspects such as laminar stability, transition, optimum deceleration and, more generally, the behaviour of compressible attached and separated shear layers are discussed. A plane on which all the general properties of the compressible laminar and turbulent shear layers appear, is constructed and the generation of optimum shear layers for the critical side of the blade shape is established. The complete optimization (design) procedure is then described and discussed, while various designs realized by the present procedure are presented at the end of this paper.