Dual Point Redesign of Axial Turbines Using a Viscous Inverse Design Method

Abstract

A new dual-point inverse blade design method was developed and applied to the redesign of a highly loaded transonic vane, the VKI-LS89, and the first 2.5 stages of a low speed subsonic turbine, the E/TU-4 4-stage turbine that is built and tested at the university of Hannover, Germany. In this inverse method, the blade walls move with a virtual velocity distribution derived from the difference between the current and the target pressure distributions on the blade surfaces at both operating points. This new inverse method is fully consistent with the viscous flow assumption and is implemented into the time accurate solution of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations. An algebraic Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is used for turbulence closure. The mixing plane approach is used to couple the stator and rotor regions. The dual-point inverse design method is then used to explore the effect of different choices of the pressure distributions on the suction surface of one or more rotor/stator on the blade/stage performance. The results show that single point inverse design resulted in a local performance improvement whereas the dual point design method allowed for improving the performance of both VKI-LS89 vane and E/TU-4 2.5 stage turbines over a wide range of operation.