An overall blockage attenuation-based aerodynamic performance and stability design optimization method for transonic axial flow compressors
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 15 December 2022
Issue publication date: 25 April 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to understand and quantify the overall blockage within a transonic axial flow compressor (AFC), and to develop an efficient collaborative design optimization method for compressor aerodynamic performance and stability in conjunction with a surrogate-assisted optimization technique.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantification method for the overall blockage is developed to integrate the effect of regional blockages on compressor aerodynamic stability and performance. A well-defined overall blockage factor combined with efficiency drives the optimizer to seek the optimum blade designs with both high efficiency and wide-range stability. An adaptive Kriging-based optimization technique is adopted to efficiently search for Pareto front solutions. Steady and unsteady numerical simulations are used for the performance and flow field analysis of the datum and optimum designs.
Findings
The proposed method not only remarkably improves the compressor efficiency but also significantly enhances the compressor operating stability with fewer CFD calls. These achievements are mainly attributed to the improvement of specific flow behaviors oriented by the objectives, including the attenuation of the shock and weakening of the tip leakage flow/shock interaction intensity.
Originality/value
CFD-based design optimization of AFC is inherently time-consuming, which becomes even trickier when optimizing aerodynamic stability since the stall margin relies on a complete simulation of the performance curve. The proposed method could be a good solution to the collaborative design optimization of aerodynamic performance and stability for transonic AFC.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2016M602817), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51606141), National Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2017-II-0007–0021) and China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 202006280244), all are highly acknowledged by the authors.
Citation
Wang, X., Sun, J., Benini, E., Song, P. and He, Y. (2023), "An overall blockage attenuation-based aerodynamic performance and stability design optimization method for transonic axial flow compressors", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 1853-1885. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-07-2022-0437
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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