Compressor design methods for NSA/Open Rotor

Purpose and goal

With increasing requirements on the compressor performance for modern aircraft engines the compressor stability at part speed has become more important. Conventional blade design methods do not account for part speed performance since the focus has been to achieve a high efficiency at the design point. In this project a new design method was developed that produces an optimal set of solutions in terms of efficiency and stability which makes it possible to select a design by balancing the goals. By this a Lean perspective has been integrated that also leverages advances in computer power.

Results and expected effects

The method has been successfully used to design a compressor stage which was proven to have higher stability given the same efficiency as a previously designed compressor. The result will be important for maintaining competiveness and to facilitate innovation of critical components within the aircraft engine industry. An interesting opportunity that is possible to study is to balance the efficiency improvements possible by friction reductive technologies such as delaying transition with stability.

Approach and implementation

The work has been conducted in close collaboration with industry where the design and testing of compressors is ongoing. The strategy has been to assess and improve the critical parts of the design chain. Four main parts have been considered within this work: development of a computational model suitable for optimization with help of validation, evaluation and tests of advanced optimization algorithms, integrating the subcomponents of the design process with the selected optimization strategy, verification of the method by benchmarking with previous compressor designs.