Desktop Computer Programs for Preliminary Design of Transonic Compressor Rotors

Abstract : A need exist for correlation-based desktop computer programs that predict the flow through transonic compressor rotors with nominal computational time and cost. Modified versions of two desktop computer programs, BOWSHOCK and TRANSROTOR, were used to perform a parametric study on a modem compressor rotor. BOWSHOCK calculates the exit flow properties of a supersonic streamtube through a user-defined compressor rotor. TRANSROTOR calculates flow properties at three stations in a user-defined compressor stage. Modifications to TRANSROTOR included the incorporation of a recently published rotor loss model. Baseline and modified TRANSROTOR versions were run with two modern transonic compressor blades. Results were compared with a Navier-Stokes-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. A parametric study using BOWSHOCK examined the sensitivity of rotor performance to variations in six blade parameters. Both TRANSROTOR versions predicted rotor performance within ten-percent of the CFD results. Computational times were under six minutes. The results of the blade geometry parametric study showed that isentropic efficiency was most sensitive to stagger angle and least sensitive to blade spacing. Total pressure ratio was most sensitive to blade maximum thickness location and least sensitive to blade maximum thickness.