Applications of an Improved Aerodynamic Optimization Method on a Low Reynolds Number Cascade

Abstract

The effect of cascade aerodynamic optimization on turbomachinery design is very significant. However, for most traditional cascade optimization methods, aerodynamic parameters are considered as boundary conditions and rarely directly used as the optimization variables to realize optimization. Given this problem, this paper proposes an improved cascade aerodynamic optimization method in which an incidence angle and nine geometric parameters are used to parameterize the cascade and one modified optimization algorithm is adopted to find the cascade with the optimal aerodynamic performance. The improved parameterization approach is based on the Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) method, the camber line superposing thickness distribution molding (CLSTDM) method, and the plane cascade design method. To rapidly and effectively find the cascade with the largest average lift-drag ratio within a certain range of incidence angles, modified particle swarm optimization combined with the modified very fast simulated annealing algorithm (PSO-MVFSA) is adopted. To verify the feasibility of the method, a cascade with NACA4412 and a practical cascade are optimized. It is found that the average lift-drag ratios of two optimal performance cascades are respectively increased by 13.38% and 15.21% in comparison to those of two original cascades. Meanwhile, through optimizing the practical cascade of the Blade D500, under different volume flow rates, the pressure coefficient of the optimized cascade is increased by an average of more than 6.12% compared to that of the prototype, and the average efficiency is increased by 11.15%. Therefore, this improved aerodynamic optimization method is reliable and feasible for the performance improvement of cascades with a low Reynolds number.