Design and Performance of Advanced Blading for a High-Speed HP Compressor

A set of advanced blading has been designed for a 5-stage high-speed research core compressor. The blade profiles were aerodynamically-tailored using a sophisticated quasi-3D S1-S2 flow calculation system which was developed at RAE Pyestock. This system involves iteration between blade-to-blade calculations using an inviscid-viscous code, and a streamline-curvature calculation for the pitchwise-averaged throughflow. The design and measured performance of the new compressor are compared with an initial conventionally-bladed 4-stage version. The new design achieved a peak level of poly tropic efficiency approaching 91%, a substantial improvement on the initial version, but showed a shortfall in pressure ratio compared with design intent. Post-test analyses based on measured performance data are used to give further insight into this result and indicate possible improvements in the design approach.Copyright © 1991 by ASME