Inverse Approach to Turbomachinery Blade Design

This paper presents a novel viscous inverse method for blade design. In this method, viscosity is directly taken into account using a flow analysis code based on the Navier-Stokes equations. In this approach, the blade pressure loading and the blade thickness are prescribed and the corresponding blade profile is sought. By specifying the target pressure loading and the blade thickness, the camber line instead of the blade surface deforms. The prescription of the blade thickness ensures that a realistic blade shape with closed leading and trailing edges can be obtained. The redesign of an axial rotor and a stator blade, starting from an initial arbitrary profile in subsonic flow regimes, demonstrates the merits and robustness of this approach.