Design Methodology for Splittered Axial Compressor Rotors

Abstract

Recent trend toward lightweight, compact compression systems for advanced aircraft gas turbine engines has created a need for very high pressure ratio fan and compressor stages. One way of achieving pressure ratio in excess of 3:1 in an axial blade row is to introduce splitters (partial vanes) between the principal blades, a concept pioneered by Wennerstrom during early 70s for application in a 3:1 pressure ratio single axial stage. This paper presents an advanced methodology for high pressure ratio splittered rotor design. The methodology centers around combining a meridional flow calculation, an arbitrary meanline blade generation procedure, and 3-D inviscid and viscous analyses. Methods for specifying work distribution, solidity, loss, and deviation distributions, as well as the airfoil generation and splitter vane placement are discussed in detail. Importance of 3-D viscous effects along with results from a 3-D viscous calculation for Wennerstrom’s splittered rotor are also presented.