Dual Point Redesign of an Axial Compressor Airfoil Using a Viscous Inverse Design Method

The midspan section of Rotor 67 is redesigned simultaneously at two different design points using a new inverse blade design method where 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. This 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 that are expressed in an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) form to account for mesh movement. A cell-vertex finite volume method of the Jameson type is used to discretize the equations in space; time accurate integration is obtained using dual time stepping. An algebraic Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is used for turbulence closure. The CFD analysis provides the initial blade pressure distributions at both operating points, e.g. at two different back pressures and/or blade speeds. At each operating point, a target pressure distribution that results in a performance improvement, is prescribed. The inverse design method is then used to reach the prescribed target pressure distributions at both operating points, simultaneously. This is done by using a weighted average of the difference between the target and current pressure distributions at the two operating points, to modify the airfoil profile. The results show that by carefully tailoring the target pressure loadings at the two design points, some performance improvement can be achieved over the entire range between the two operating points.