Numerical Predication of Swept Blade Aerodynamic Effects

Abstract

Three-dimensional blading has been used in the process of turbomachine designs. To meet the need for efficient turbine blade designs, CFD predictions of a complex 3D flow field in turbine blade passages had been used. Because the numerous advantages of 3-D CFD have been reported in the open literature, many industries already use 3D blading in their turbomachines. In addition, blade lean and sweep have been implemented to increase the blade row efficiency. Experimental studies have shown the advantages of these features. However, most of the experimental results combined other features together, making it difficult to determine the effects of individual features. The development of CFD techniques has made it possible to do three-dimensional turbulent flow analyses in a very short time. In this study, numerical studies are presented to study the sweep effects on a transonic compressor airfoil. The focus of the paper is to investigate the sweep effects without changing other compressor blade features i.e. keeping the blade out flow angle the same for all cases. The purpose of the study is to enhance the understanding of the sweep in a transonic compressor rotor blade. The results showed that the sweeps redistributes the flow reducing the secondary flow loss, depending on the baseline. It was shown that forward sweep reduces the tip loading in terms of the static pressure coefficient.