Development of an (Adaptive) Unstructured 2-D Inverse Design Method for Turbomachinery Blades

Abstract

An aerodynamics inverse design method for turbomachinery blades using fully (adaptive) unstructured meshes is presented. In this design method, the pressure loading (i.e. pressure jump across the blades) and thickness distribution are prescribed. The design method then computes the blade shape that would accomplish this loading. This inverse design method is implemented using a cell-centred finite volume method which solves the Euler equations on Delaunay unstructured triangular meshes using upwind flux vector splitting scheme. The analysis/direct Euler solver first is validated against some test cases of cascades flow. Computational grid and solution adaptation is performed to capture any flow behaviors such as shock waves using some error indicators. In the inverse design method, blade geometry is updated at the end of each design iteration process. A flexible and fast remeshing process based on a classical ‘spring’ methodology is adopted. An improved spring smoothing methodology for large changes of blades geometry is also presented. This flexible remeshing method can be used in designing a real blade (i.e. round leading and trailing edge) and also ‘fat’ turbine blades with blunt leading and trailing edge. The inverse design method using unstructured triangular meshes is validated by regeneration of a generic compressor rotor blade geometry subjected to a specified pressure loading and blade thickness. Finally, the method is applied to the design of the tip section of Nasa Rotor 67. The result shows that the design method is very useful in controlling shock waves.