437

Axial ow compressor design

S J Gallimore Rolls-Royce plc, PO Box 31, Derby DE24 8BJ, UK

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to set out some of the basic principles and rules associated with the design of axial ow compressors, principally for aero-engines, as well as the practical constraints that are inevitably present. The thrust is primarily on the aerodynamic design but this cannot be divorced from the mechanical aspects and so some of these are touched upon but are not gone into so deeply. The paper has been written from the point of view of the designer and tries to cover most of the points that need to be considered in order to produce a successful compressor. The emphasis has been on the theory behind the design process and on minimizing the reliance on empirical rules. However, because of the complexity of the ow, some empiricism still remains. Keywords: compressor, aerodynamics, design, computational uid dynamics (CFD), secondary ows, endwall ows, boundary layers, tip clearance ow, rotors, stators, stall, surge, reaction

NOTATION D U V a DH Dp r incompressible ow dynamic head (0.5rV 2) blade speed axial ow velocity enthalpy rise static pressure rise density

1 INTRODUCTION To write a short paper on axial ow compressor design is a demanding task because of the many decisions and interactions that take place in the course of the design process. Complete books have been devoted to the aerodynamics of compressors (e.g. reference [1]), to which the reader is referred for a more detailed description of the phenomena described here. A whole research industry (with the associated literature) as well as considerable engine company eort is expended trying to improve our understanding of these machines. Teams of engineers from various disciplines are employed and it might as well be said at the outset that it is not a precise science and many judgements have to be made based on experience where the science behind the design does not give accurate answers. This lack of accurate prediction inuThe MS was received on 20 February 1998 and was accepted after revision for publication on 18 December 1998. Invited paper for the Special Issue on Turbomachinery Design published in two parts in the Proceedings, Part C, 1999, Vol. 213, Issues C1 and C2.
C02198 IMechE 1999

ences the design process, starting with the fundamental requirements of a compressor to pass a certain ow at a given pressure ratio and eciency with adequate operating range for stable operation. To the authors knowledge there are no methods currently available that guarantee to predict the absolute values of these quantities to a sucient accuracy that a new design can be said to be risk free. The lack of predictive capability permeates through the whole design process down to the ne details of three-dimensional and unsteady ow behaviour and necessitates the skill and judgement of the engineer at every step. Notwithstanding this, there have been signicant improvements in the predictive capability available to the designer over the years, with improved modelling of the ow physics and increased computing power. This has led to improved designs with more certainty of achieving the desired results, but of course the demands for higher eciency, reduced cost, etc. continue to push the compressor designer beyond the current established practice. The reason for this lack of certainty in the predictions lies in the complicated nature of the ow through axial ow compressors which is described in the next section. The ow is unsteady and three-dimensional and viscous eects play a dominant role, with separations of the boundary layer ows being common. Unfortunately it is these very features that are dicult to model accurately and hence the uncertainty in the design process. Because of this complexity, assumptions have to be made about the ow in order to make it a tractable problem that can be calculated, but the danger of this approach is that some of the important ow physics will be left out of the model and this can lead to unexpected
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

438

S J GALLIMORE

behaviour of the real machine that was not predicted. In an attempt to minimize this risk a series of rules have been developed over time that attempt to add back in the missing physics but are not necessarily based on that physics. The design process is iterative and interactive and can broadly be described as design by analysis. It uses a range of tools from the most simple mean line methods to the most sophisticated three-dimensional computational uid dynamics (CFD). Each has its own part to play in the overall process, with more complicated modelling being used as the design becomes more rened. The design can iterate between the various stages of the design process. There is a continual interaction with other disciplines such as whole engine modelling and performance, mechanical design and stress, each of which has its own objectives. To simplify this paper the design process can, somewhat articially, be split into roughly four stages: preliminary design, throughow design, blading design (two-dimensional ) and blading design (three-dimensional ). These headings will be expanded upon below and used as sections to explore the axial ow compressor design process. Firstly, however, the ow eld that the design process is trying to control will be described.

2 DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPRESSOR FLOW FIELD The purpose of this section is to give a description of the main features present in the complex ow eld of a multistage axial ow compressor. While it is not possible

to go into all the phenomena in great depth in this paper, it is hoped that this description will prove sucient to allow the approximations used in the various design methods discussed later to be appreciated. Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the ow through an axial ow compressor rotor with some of the signicant ow features illustrated. In general the ow is unsteady because of the relative motion between successive blade rows in the compressor. This not only means that the wakes of the upstream blade row pass intermittently through the row but also that the back pressure seen by the row also varies because of the upstream potential eect from the downstream row. It is also true that the eects of blade rows even further upstream can be detected some rows downstream. If these unsteady eects are ignored, the picture of the ow illustrated in Fig. 1 is obtained. The ow into the blade row is radially non-uniform and can be typied as a freestream region and two annulus wall boundary layers where the ow velocities vary towards the endwall values. Because of the change in rotation between successive blade rows any reduction in axial velocity towards the annulus walls produces a change in inlet angle in the frame of reference of the blade row under consideration. Generally, the relative air inlet angles increase towards the walls. The freestream is turned towards the axial direction and diused through the blade row. This sets up a tangential pressure gradient which then acts on the endwall boundary layer uid. Because this uid has a dierent momentum at inlet to the blade than the freestream ow, and is also subject to the eects of shear on the endwalls and within the ow eld, it will turn a dierent amount than the

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of ows in a compressor blade row

Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

439

freestream ow in the pressure gradient. This results in ow under- or overturning and radially non-uniform exit ow angles from the blade row. At xed blade ends the endwall ow cannot sustain the amount of diusion required in the suction surface endwall corner and it tends to separate. This separation region is fed by endwall uid that is overturned by the mechanism just described and results in reduced turning in this region. On the blade surfaces the blade boundary layers do not behave in a two-dimensional way. Because they are travelling slower than the freestream ow they tend to be centrifuged radially outwards on rotors. In stator blade rows the radial pressure gradient imposed by radial equilibrium tends to force the blade boundary layers radially inwards. The process of transition of the blade surface boundary layers is complex and has been the subject of extensive study recently (e.g. reference [2]). This work has revealed that the process is unsteady and heavily inuenced by the incoming wakes from the upstream blade row. The process of transition varies with time as the wakes pass over the blade, with the position of the start of the fully turbulent boundary layer moving along the blade chord with time. This is illustrated in Fig. 2. Because of the eect of the wakes the boundary layer ows in compressors tend to behave more like turbulent ones rather than laminar ones and this means that blades with Reynolds numbers above about 2105 will all have essentially the same type of boundary layer characteristics and not be subject to laminar boundary layer separations. This accounts for most engine compressors except for the very smallest at high altitudes. It is also a useful factor in allowing the use of large-scale low-

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of unsteady transition

C02198 IMechE 1999

speed compressors for detailed aerodynamic research. Increasing the Reynolds number of a compressor will generally reduce losses as the boundary layers thin until no further improvement is possible. The precise value of the Reynolds number beyond which no loss reduction occurs depends on details of the design such as the blade surface roughness. At blade ends with a tip gap (rotors at the outer casing and cantilevered stators at the hub) the ow is dominated by the ow across the tip clearance. This ow is driven by the viscous drag of the endwall passing over the blade tip and also by the pressure dierence across the blade. The tip clearance ow interacts with the ow already on the endwall to produce a complex ow pattern that is often typied by a vortex type structure as the tip clearance ow rolls up and passes downstream. The ow patterns just described are well known, if not fully understood, and are generally categorized as secondary ows (apart from the transition). This is a slight misnomer because it may give the impression that they are of secondary importance. In fact it is these ows that tend to dominate the behaviour of multistage compressor blade rows, particularly when the aspect ratios approach unity in the latter stages of a machine. They determine the stall behaviour of the blade row and are responsible for at least half the losses. Recently, another category of ows has received attention and their importance in determining compressor behaviour has become more widely appreciated. These are the ows associated with the mechanical design and real geometry of the machine such as shroud leakage ows and bleeds. These ows enter and leave the main annulus through axial gaps between rotating and stationary parts of the hub and bleed holes in the outer casing. Even if there is no net ow into or out of the annulus the circumferential non-uniform static pressures produced by the blades mean that ow goes both into and out of these gaps in a non-uniform manner. These ow disturbances interact with the main ow eld and can change the nature and magnitude of the secondary ows as well as producing losses. This was illustrated on an isolated rotor [3] where even the presence of a small axial gap just upstream of a rotor inuenced the ow eld over a signicant part of the span. The result of the types of ow just described is that the ow eld in a compressor blade row is extremely complicated and can be categorized as being unsteady, three-dimensional and dominated by viscous eects. This makes it extremely dicult to model and predict accurately and so for compressor design to proceed several simplications need to be made in order to produce practical design tools. An example of the exit ow eld measured on a low-speed compressor serves to illustrate this and is shown in Fig. 3. The data are taken from reference [4] and show contours of measured total pressure defect taken downstream of the third stator and circumferentially averaged ow angles and loss coecients for the
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

440

S J GALLIMORE

Fig. 3 Example of the complexity of ow in a compressor blade row. (After Howard et al. [4])

same blade. The stators are cantilevered and the tip ow at the hub of the stator is clearly shown in the contours. Towards the outer casing there is evidence of separation in the suction surface endwall corner. The eect of the tip clearance is again seen clearly in the underturning of the ow measured downstream of stator 3. There is a signicant increase in the losses in this region, associated with the tip clearance ow. Near the outer casing there is both under- and overturning of the ow as well as an increase in the losses. So far in this description one of the most important phenomena in compressors, stall or surge, has not been touched upon. It is now generally accepted that stall occurs in compressors when the ow breaks down under increasing adverse pressure gradients. Two types of breakdown have been identied, one associated with a short lengthscale disturbance known as a spike, and the other identied with a longer lengthscale known as a modal oscillation. The modal oscillations are related to an instability of the whole compression system while the spike type of instability can be related to a more local disturbance in the ow, commonly caused by high incidence at a rotor tip [5]. For modal oscillations to occur the compressor has to be axially well matched, with none of the stages being signicantly more stalled than the rest. This situation will be fairly unusual even in a well-designed high-speed multistage compressor operating over its full speed range, perhaps only occurProc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

ring at one speed, and consequently the most signicant mechanism for practical purposes is the spike type. This breakdown occurs near rotor tips in discrete patches which rotate in the same direction as the rotor but at between 30 and 70 per cent of the rotor speed, illustrated in Fig. 4. This is called part span rotating stall and can have more than one stall cell initially but as the stall develops they tend to coalesce into one cell. Eventually the instability in one blade row can disrupt the ow in the whole compressor, leading to a bulk instability of

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of a part span rotating stall

C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

441

the ow through the whole compressor which is called surge. However, in a multistage compressor it is possible for one or perhaps more blade rows to be stalled without the compressor surging. This typically occurs at low speed with the front of the compressor stalled but the rest of the machine being healthy enough to support it. For the compressor designer it is important to be able to predict the onset of stall because generally it is not satisfactory to operate a compressor in stall for any signicant part of engine operation. However, it may be judged from the preceding description of the phenomenon that predicting stall onset is a dicult task and remains one of the biggest challenges to research into compressor aerodynamics. 3 PRELIMINARY DESIGN This is the phase of a design where the basic outline of the compressor is established, such as the annulus lines, number of stages and overall length. Depending on the nature of the project the designer will have more or less freedom to change these parameters. For a new engine there will be many iterations before the compressor arrangement has been xed to t in with whole engine requirements of ow, eciency and surge margin at the required shaft speed. Because of this, relatively simple and fast tools tend to be used to screen out the various possibilities before the most promising options are subjected to a more detailed analysis. However, it is this part of the process that is the most crucial of all because if fundamental mistakes are made here, such as choosing too few stages or too short a compressor for example, then no amount of later changes to blade proles or numbers will be able to rectify the situation. Changing the fundamental architecture of the compressor later on in the project will have serious consequences. The basic inputs to the design will be requirements for a certain ow capacity, pressure ratio, eciency and surge margin for a range of engine operating points. These must be achieved at shaft speeds appropriate for the compressor and turbine. The mechanical restrictions of compressor length and radius to t in with the whole engine arrangement need to be met. The anticipated level of tip clearance in the compressor is an important parameter because of its large inuence on both the eciency and surge margin [6 ]. The design decisions will have to be taken against the project background of acceptable risk, technology level, timescales and cost. Previous experience will play a major role in assessing what is an acceptable design in the circumstances. A civil engineering project will require a dierent balance of risk, etc., compared with a military or industrial application. The basic tools to deal with this part of the design are mean line performance prediction programs. These assume that the ow through the compressor is steady,
C02198 IMechE 1999

inviscid and one-dimensional. Viscous eects are included by using losses taken from correlations to represent the annulus loss and blade losses. Blade turning is either specied or is taken from correlations that relate blade deviation to the blade two-dimensional prole. Annulus wall boundary layer blockage is also calculated from correlations or perhaps by simple methods such as that of Stratford [7]. The details of the correlations used will vary because they will be heavily dependent on the past experience of the organization carrying out the design but fundamentally they all do the same thing. Examples of typical correlations may be found in the work of Miller and Wasdell [8] and Wright and Miller [9]. The regions of the ow that tend to dominate the behaviour of a compressor, the endwall regions, are not modelled well in this process and so empirical adjustments have to be made to any theoretical limits to blade loading, etc., that may exist. The procedure is to iterate through the mean line prediction program, which is in eect just solving the mean velocity triangles through the compressor, until an annulus, number of stages, blade numbers and ow angles have been arrived at that are deemed satisfactory. At this point in the process the prime considerations are blade and endwall loadings. These are fundamentally linked to the three-dimensional viscous nature of the real ow eld, but at this point some parameters are used to guide the decisions without recourse to a full knowledge of the ow eld. Some decisions can be made without postulating blade prole inlet and exit angles, blade numbers, etc., but by just specifying the turning of the air imposed by the blades. The velocity triangles provide knowledge of the stage loading, DH/U2, and axial velocity, V /U, once the a ow angles have been decided. With an initial estimate of eciency this will give the pressure ratio. High V /U a will give relatively higher DH/U2 and hence the stage pressure ratio for a given blade loading, as quantied by the incompressible static pressure rise coecient (Dp/D) which is discussed below. It will also reduce the annulus area for a given mass ow, giving a smaller compressor. However, the general velocity level in the compressor will be higher which may present problems in terms of high Mach numbers and so possibly losses in the front stages and high exit Mach numbers from the compressor which could cause problems with the diuser and combustor design and so increase the losses there. Typically, exit Mach numbers above 0.25 are to be avoided and rotor 1 tip Mach numbers above 1.4 can give high losses in certain circumstances. Some decisions can be made on the ow angles which will determine the reaction of the compressor. The reaction is the ratio of the static pressure rise achieved in the rotor to the overall stage static pressure rise. For 50 per cent reaction the relative velocity triangles through both rotor and stator are identical and they have equal diusion. At rst sight this might seem to be the obvious
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

442

S J GALLIMORE

choice because it evens out the loading across the blade rows. However, the reaction is not necessarily a completely free choice. The inlet ow angle to the compressor will be determined by what is upstream. If the inlet ow angle is axial and there is no requirement for variable stators on the compressor for part speed surge margin then perhaps axial ow into the rst rotor is the best option. At exit from the compressor there is generally a requirement for axial ow into combustion chambers. However, if the rotor 1 Mach numbers are high then some inlet ow swirl angle in the direction of rotation would reduce them, but the swirl will have to be removed by the point at which the ow leaves the compressor and this increases the stator loadings. The choice of reaction will also inuence the bearing loads which need to be monitored. While this is not a fundamental constraint, changes later on in the design process may have implications for the mechanical design of the engine. There are successful compressors with 50 per cent reaction, high reaction (zero stator exit ow angle) and axially varying reaction, which indicates that the choice of reaction for its own sake is not a crucial design parameter in determining eciency and surge margin and is more likely to be the result of the other design considerations discussed above. A more complete discussion on the choice of reaction, which reaches similar conclusions to those here, can be found in reference [1]. The fundamental parameters that are used in compressor design are measures of ow diusion and velocity. Common examples of diusion parameters are the Leiblein diusion factor and the incompressible static pressure rise coecient, Dp/D (or the De Haller number if preferred); Dp/D is fundamental to the velocity triangles and is simply a measure of the static pressure rise through a blade row non-dimensionalized by the inlet relative dynamic head. A value of unity would indicate that all the dynamic head had been turned into static pressure and the ow had stagnated. This does not happen because the annulus and blade boundary layers have less stagnation pressure than the freestream and will separate before the static pressure rise is achieved. This creates separations which in turn produce loss and increased deviation. Typical design values for a compressor would be about 0.45, but this will vary depending on the type of operation that the particular compressor is required to perform. The diusion factor is a measure of the diusion on the suction side of a blade. If this becomes too large the blade boundary layer will separate, causing losses and increased deviation. Again, design values of around 0.45 are typical. The detailed choice of design levels for these types of parameter depends on the application, previous experience and the amount of surge margin required. The limits used in a particular design will be based on previous experience. Care must be taken at this point to acknowledge inlet radial distributions of total pressure. If there is a signicant radial variation then the loading of some parts of the blade
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

will be signicantly above the mean levels and so a reduced mean level of design loading would be appropriate in these cases. Of course, near the endwalls the loadings will always be higher than the mean levels because of the annulus wall boundary layers. However, this is usually taken into account in the acceptable mean levels of loading used as design criteria which will be somewhat below the equivalent values that are appropriate for a purely two-dimensional cascade. Mach number levels are also chosen by the designer. High Mach numbers will give high dynamic heads and reduce the loading coecients described above. However, excessive Mach numbers give shock losses that can result in low eciencies if there is insucient work or turning in the blade row. The correlations for loss and deviation will generally be based on the loading coecients described above and the blade tip clearance. The predicted losses and eciencies give the designer another guide to the choice of blade numbers, loadings, Mach numbers, etc. The balance between prole and secondary losses might inuence the choice of aspect ratio, as will the constraints on overall compressor length. The aspect ratio also plays an important role in determining the surge margin of the compressor. Lower aspect ratios tend to give more surge margin at a given two-dimensional blade loading. There is no agreed scientic explanation for this, but it is generally thought that low aspect ratio blades control the endwall boundary layer ow better and so delay the onset of stall. The trend has been for compressor aspect ratios to become lower over the years. There is no sure way of choosing the aspect ratio, but one measure that can be used is that derived by Koch [10] which is based on a diuser analogy of the compressor blade passage. The overall length of the compressor may also inuence the choice of aspect ratio. Preliminary rules for the axial gaps between the blades will need to be established to allow sucient room for surge deections and the decay of the blade potential elds to reduce the vibration forcing on the blades. There is some evidence to suggest that there is an optimum (smaller) axial gap between blade rows that gives the best eciency (e.g. reference [11]). This happens because of the possibility of recovering some of the velocity defect in the blade wake as it passes through the downstream blade row and so reducing the wake mixing losses. However, the demonstrated eciency gains are small and it is generally the mechanical constraints that determine the minimum axial gap. Some decisions will also be made on blade incidence settings at this point. These are primarily dependent on the matching of the compressor and the surge margin requirements. Once preliminary blades have been set up at the design point the mean line programs can be used to predict a set of overall characteristics for the compressor. These use the blade numbers, stagger and cambers as input to correlations to predict losses and deviations.
C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

443

Correlations are also used to calculate annulus and secondary ow losses and blockage. At this point the estimation of surge margin becomes important. This needs to be assessed at part speed as well as at design to establish whether variable stators, handling bleeds or casing treatments are required to enable the compressor to operate satisfactorily over the speed range. The blade incidence settings at design may need adjusting at this point to compensate for the o-design operation. At part speed, front stages are forced towards stall while the rear stages are driven towards negative incidence. The methods used to determine the surge margin at this stage of the design process are heavily empirical. The initiation of stall is a complex, unsteady, three-dimensional phenomenon which is still not fully understood. At this point in the design process this ow phenomenon is not included in the models used to predict compressor performance and consequently the onset of stall is related, through correlations and experience, to the bulk loading and ow properties available. It is possible to establish stability criteria based on the performance of the individual stages such as those discussed in references [9] and [12]. These rely on the accurate prediction of stage characteristics and even then do not guarantee success. Other aspects of the ow eld that can be used to correlate with stall are blade loadings and incidence as well as limiting diusion (e.g. reference [10]). It must be remembered that in a multistage compressor it is possible for an individual stage to be stalled while the machine as a whole remains stable. Perhaps the most accurate method of assessing the surge or stall line is to calibrate the methods against the known performance of similar machines using a range of criteria such as those mentioned above. It is generally acknowledged that stall initiates in the endwall regions of compressors, particularly at rotor tips where the tip clearance plays a dominant role. There is some evidence that an optimum tip clearance exists that gives maximum eciency [13, 14]. This is not fully understood but is likely to be associated with the balance of losses associated with the tip clearance ow mixing out into the blade passage and the losses associated with the secondary ow in the corner of the blade suction surface and the endwall. The level of the optimum clearance is about 1 per cent of blade chord, a small value, which for most practical applications is dicult to achieve mechanically. Consequently, the practical approach is to try to have the smallest clearance that can be mechanically designed. This will also give the greatest surge or stall margin. Generally the preliminary design programs available cannot be expected to give the correct absolute values of eciency and surge margin, as well as other ow properties. In particular, the correlations used for blade and endwall losses are generally based on traditional blade prole types such as DCA or NACA without any three-dimensional design features such as endbends.
C02198 IMechE 1999

However, they can be used with some condence to predict relative changes between machines. During the preliminary design phase the decision will have to be made whether to have cantilevered or shrouded stator blade rows. To the authors knowledge there is no clear evidence to suggest that one solution is better than the other in all cases. Shrouds have the advantage of removing the tip ow and resultant losses associated with cantilevered designs. However, some leakage ow through the shroud will still be present and this will interact with the main annulus ow, changing the secondary ows around the hub and increasing the loss. It is possible, however, for the shroud design to run at a very small clearance because the seal ns can be allowed to rub more readily than the free end of a stator. This can lead to improved performance retention over the lifetime of the compressor as the clearances increase. On the other hand the cantilevered solution allows thinner stator blade sections near the hub, because of mechanical and vibration considerations, and this can be advantageous in high Mach number applications. The tolerance of the blades to damage from debris passing through the compressor in service also needs to be considered; a shrouded stator will need to crack through completely at two radial locations before any blade is lost, whereas it only needs one such crack to release part of a cantilevered stator. The fact that there are both shrouded and cantilevered compressor designs in service perhaps indicates that the choice is not a clear one. For the compressor designer the choice is often made to stay with the style of design that has worked adequately in similar compressors in the past. 4 THROUGHFLOW DESIGN Once the preliminary design phase has screened out some of the proposals it is necessary to examine the remaining options in more detail. This means introducing the radial or spanwise dimension into the design using a throughow procedure. The simplest of these again does not include the major, signicant ow features for similar reasons to the preliminary design methods. They are too complicated for computation and prediction and so again recourse is made to correlations and empirical rules. However, it is at this stage that the radial matching of the compressor is established and more attention can be given to the endwall regions. In the simplest throughow methods the eect of the endwall boundary layers is included by specifying a blockage and extra loss in the calculations. The blockage is equivalent to the displacement thickness of a boundary layer but in reality has a wider role than this because it is part of the semi-empirical input to the calculations that may be adjusted through experience to give better agreement between the calculations and experimental data. Blockage levels can be calculated using integral
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

444

S J GALLIMORE

boundary layer methods, one of the simplest and most accurate methods being that of Stratford [7]. Typical values for blockage can reach over 10 per cent of the annulus area in the rear stages of a multistage compressor. If the level of blockage specied is not correct then the compressor will be mismatched from front to back, with some stages not running at their design conditions at the overall compressor design operating point. This can lead to reduced eciency and surge margin. The need for the empirical blockage can be removed by modelling the endwall boundary layers in a more direct manner [15, 16 ] and more realistic spanwise variations in ow properties can be obtained by using a throughow including the eects of spanwise mixing [17, 18]. Spanwise mixing is particularly important in multistage compressors because it prevents the continuous growth of the endwall boundary layers through the machine by mixing the endwall losses towards mid-span. It also radially redistributes the high endwall temperatures caused by the endwall losses. The causes of spanwise mixing have been the subject of considerable research (e.g. references [19] and [20]), with one mechanism being a turbulent diusion type of process caused by the unsteady ow and wakes coming from upstream blade rows and another being the radial components of deterministic secondary ows in the blade rows. Both mechanisms have a role, with the relative magnitudes depending on the particular compressor and the operating point. What is clear, however, is that including some sort of spanwise mixing in the throughow model is important if accurate predictions of radial total pressure and temperature distributions are to be achieved. An example of the improvements that can be gained by taking into account these real eects is shown in Fig. 5, taken from reference [16 ], which shows a comparison of the axial velocity proles and relative ow angles measured downstream of a rotor in a low-speed compressor with the results from several calculations of the ow eld. The line labelled as design in both plots is that produced by a conventional throughow calculation, typical of those used in the past. The addition of

the real eects of endwall shear, tip clearance ow and spanwise mixing gives the much more realistic radial proles of the viscous throughow calculation. Indeed, this calculation gives results of similar accuracy to those from the Denton three-dimensional multistage CFD method [21]. The throughow will give more details of the endwall conditions. This will lead to predictions of endwall loadings, axial velocity proles, etc. due to the eects of radial equilibrium and streamline curvature eects. By changing the radial variation in stator exit angles and indeed the radial distribution of the stage pressure ratio, the endwall loadings can be controlled to give acceptable levels. A relatively common design feature is to change these radial distributions to promote increased throughow velocities in the hub region, which tend to ooad the blade rows there. Again, at this point the parameters used to judge the loadings, etc. are similar to those used in the preliminary design phase, such as the diusion factor, Dp/D, etc., except that radial distributions of these quantities are now available. Similar correlations to those in the preliminary design process can now be used to rene the performance prediction of the compressor, but now taking into account the endwall eects in more detail. 5 BLADING DESIGN ( TWO-DIMENSIONAL) Once the throughow design has been completed, the blading that is intended to achieve that air angle design can now be dened. In the past this was achieved by using correlations to dene the blades from a series of standard proles, but it is now more usual to use bladeto-blade calculation programs to dene the blade shapes. The data from the throughow calculations is split into sections along a streamline for each blade. The throughow eects are fed into the blade-to-blade design via the height of the stream tube associated with each streamline. These individual sections are then designed before being put together to dene the whole blade. Using a

Fig. 5 Measured and predicted rotor exit axial velocity and ow angle. (From Gallimore [16 ])
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

445

blade-to-blade program is essentially a two-dimensional approach to blade design and suers from similar problems to those described earlier near the endwall regions where the ow eld is certainly not two-dimensional. Towards the rear of multistage compressors, where the aspect ratios can be of an order of unity or even less, it is doubtful that any of the blade aerodynamics is really two-dimensional. In the front stages, where the annulus wall boundary layers are relatively thin and the aspect ratios are higher, it is reasonable to say that the majority of the blade is essentially two-dimensional with the threedimensional endwall eects being restricted to close to the annulus walls. Additional modications to the blades may be made in these endwall regions using the threedimensional techniques described in the next section. The essential parameters that need to be calculated in order to complete the two-dimensional design of the blading are the section incidence, deviation and the boundary layer parameters. Generally speaking the incidence setting will be decided upon by experience of how the compressor needs to be matched in order to meet a range of operating points. Choke margin is another parameter that is inuenced by incidence setting. This parameter is the dierence between the ow passing through the blade section and the theoretical choke ow for that section, expressed as a percentage of the choke ow. This is important for the front stages of machines because if the blade throats are designed too small the high-speed ow capacity and eciency of the compressor will be reduced. Typically, the rst rotor could be designed to have about 3 per cent of choke margin. The blade section deviation is now generally accepted to be that calculated by the blade-to-blade prediction programs (of course the real deviations may well be dierent from the section deviations discussed in this part of the paper because of secondary ow eects, particularly in the endwall regions). These programs calculate the ow through the blade passage and include the eect of the blade surface boundary layers either by integral methods or through full two-dimensional Navier Stokes calculations. For the integral methods the basic ow solver is inviscid and the eects of the blade surface boundary layers are incorporated through the displacement thickness of the boundary layer which is imposed on the blade shape either by moving the blade surface or by using a transpiration model. The boundary layer parameters are calculated using the integral boundary layer equations and the blade surface pressure distribution calculated by the Euler solver. It is recognized that the blade surface boundary layers are not twodimensional in reality, with signicant radial ows being present owing to centrifugal eects on rotors for example. However, it has been found that the predictions given are suciently accurate to give good compressor performance. It is also common for relatively simple boundary layer transition criteria to be used in these calculations, such as steady point or length transition,
C02198 IMechE 1999

although more complex unsteady criteria based on the real transition phenomena described earlier are now becoming available. Generally these methods are used in the design by analysis mode, although some methods are available that allow true inverse design to be used. In these cases the designer species the blade surface pressure distribution or desired boundary layer parameters along the blade chord and the methods calculate the blade prole that will achieve the desired result. A prime use of these calculations has been to allow the use of non-standard blade sections where the predicted boundary layer parameters can be controlled to give reduced losses by allowing the designer freedom to change the blade camber and thickness distributions. An early example of this new type of prole was the supercritical airfoil designs borrowed from aeroplane wing development (e.g. reference [22]). It was the intention of these designs to minimize the blade prole loss by controlling the blade boundary layer growth along the blade chord. This type of design also had signicantly lower deviations than the standard sections, so it was essential to be able to calculate these accurately, requiring a blade-to-blade calculation with the boundary layer modelled. Clearly it is essential to calculate the boundary layer in some way in order to calculate the change in loss as the blade prole is designed. As time has passed these initial attempts at designing the blade proles in detail have developed into proprietary rules and approaches with the same philosophy of minimizing blade losses but with adequate o-design operating range. An example of the improvements that can be made with these methods is given by Ginder [23] and reproduced in Fig. 6. In this case a double circular arc (DCA) blade has been modied to have a parabolic arc camber line. The calculated boundary layer displacement thickness and shape factor have been considerably reduced at the trailing edge for the parabolic blade, indicating a more rmly attached boundary layer with reduced prole loss. For reasonably loaded compressors it can be anticipated that reblading from conventional standard blade proles to modern ones will give some 1 per cent improvement in eciency without any change in the operating range of the machine. Further renements can be made to the basic methodology just described. For instance, the predicted blade losses and air exit angles can be fed back into the throughow calculation to give updated aerodynamics for a further renement of the blade proles [23]. This gives a quasi-three-dimensional design system for the compressor with an iterative link established between the throughow and blade-to-blade calculation. The design of the blade proles themselves can be automated so that, with a series of specied design rules, the whole operation can proceed with only the minimum amount of input from the designer, so freeing time for other tasks. The designer does not have complete freedom in the
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

446

S J GALLIMORE

Fig. 6 Example of improved blade section performance using a blade-to-blade prediction program. (After Ginder [23])

blade prole design. The blades must be mechanically sound and this leads to restrictions on minimum blade thicknesses as well as blade leading and trailing edge thickness. The leading edge thickness and shape can have an important eect on the prole losses and o-design performance and this should be controlled as accurately as the manufacturing process allows. If there are discontinuities in the blade surface they can alter the transition behaviour of the boundary layer, particularly on the suction surface, and hence the total amount of boundary layer growth and loss for the blade prole.

6 BLADING DESIGN ( THREE-DIMENSIONAL) With ever-increasing computing power it is possible to use fully three-dimensional NavierStokes CFD methods in multistage axial ow compressor design. Single blade row calculations have been available for some time, but recently the use of multistage calculations has become a practical proposition in the design process [24]. There are many details associated with the multistage CFD methods that are outside the scope of this paper. Among the issues that need to be addressed are the use of an appropriate turbulence model and the modelling of the mixing plane. This latter is still the subject of conProc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

siderable debate. The approach adopted by LeJambre et al. [24] was to model the upstream and downstream blade rows using an overlapping grid technique. Other methods such as that of Denton [21] rely on the more simple mixing plane approach, illustrated in Fig. 7, which shows a computational mesh for the six-stage high-pressure compressor used in the Rolls-Royce Trent engine. In both cases there is the issue of including the eect of the circumferential non-uniform ow eld of the upstream and downstream blade rows on the blade row under consideration. This may be achieved by using the approach of Adamczyk [25] whose analysis results in the inclusion of these eects as deterministic stresses (analogous to the Reynolds stresses derived in turbulence modelling) in the ow equations. The relative importance of these eects is still the subject of some debate in this new topic and it is perhaps still too early to state which approach gives the best balance between accuracy and computational cost. The use of three-dimensional CFD allows two major advances in the design process. Firstly, it is possible to design the blades in the three-dimensional ow eld and therefore reduce the secondary losses. Previous attempts at this had relied upon the experimental approach being based on observations from low-speed compressor rigs (e.g. reference [26 ]) or on semi-empirical methods based on annulus wall boundary layer theory (e.g. endbend
C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

447

Fig. 7 Example of a computational mesh for a six-stage compressor

designs). In these techniques the blades are modied in the endwall regions by recognizing the eects of the endwall boundary layers, for example by increasing the blade inlet angles in these regions where the reduced axial velocities cause the air inlet angles to be greater than they are towards mid-height and by adjusting the blade exit angles to take into account the inevitable overand underturning of the endwall ow as it passes through the blade row. These approaches suered by not having the physical modelling included in the design process, so it was quite possible to design one compressor successfully and the next one unsuccessfully. For example, it is now recognized that the three-dimensional nature of the ow eld is important in achieving successful three-dimensional designs and it is not sucient to consider sections of the blades at dierent radial heights independently from each other. This fact was rst recognized by Wadia and Beacher [27] who introduced the concept of radial relief. The authors noticed that the eective incidence on the endwall sections of a blade was reduced in a three-dimensional calculation of the ow through a blade row compared with that which would have been deduced from a purely two-dimensional analysis along each streamline separately. While it is still not possible to rely on the CFD exclusively, because its accuracy still leaves something to be desired, it is now reliable enough to predict the direction of any changes correctly while not predicting the magnitude correctly. This still means that the designer needs to exercise the
C02198 IMechE 1999

same type of skill and judgement as has been required throughout the rest of the design process. The other main advantage of these CFD methods is that they allow the eect of real geometries on the ow eld now to be included in the design. Examples of these are the eects of tip clearance, llet radii, bleeds, shroud leakages and any other leaks and axial gaps that may be a consequence of the mechanical design of the compressor. It has recently been realized that these can have a signicant inuence on the ow eld in a compressor and hence its performance. Indeed, it is likely that some of the discrepancies between prediction and experiment are not due fundamentally to the CFD modelling but rather to the lack of realism in the mechanical arrangement used in the CFD model (e.g. references [3] and [28]). For example, a recent re-analysis of an isolated rotor has shown that only a small axial gap with zero net ow just upstream of the hub leading edge can alter the pressure rise across the rotor over the bottom half of the blade span [28]. It is clear that including these real eects will be essential in future designs as well as focusing attention on the detrimental eects of such features on the ow eld. The use of CFD allows the design of three-dimensional blading that reduces endwall losses. Bowed stators have been used by Pratt and Whitney [24]. For these designs the endwall sections of the stator blades were shifted tangentially relative to the mid-height sections. This has the eect of reducing the loading on the endwall
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C

448

S J GALLIMORE

sections and reducing the separations there, thus reducing losses. This eect is a three-dimensional one but also has some detrimental eects, one of which occurs towards mid-height where the loadings are increased somewhat. To obtain a successful design these two opposing changes have to be balanced to give a net improvement and the only methods that allow this judgement to be made on a scientic basis are three-dimensional ones. An example of such a design is shown in Fig. 8, where the results of multistage CFD are presented for a conventional stator blade and a three-dimensional redesigned one. The predicted axial velocities just o the stator suction surface show that the amount of separation on the redesigned blade has been considerably reduced, particularly at the casing, leading to reduced losses. This type of work is the latest advance in compressor design and there is little doubt that fully threedimensional designs using multistage CFD are now the standard, with the rest of the design process described earlier becoming just part of the preliminary design system and used before the three-dimensional modications to the designs are incorporated. Because the CFD incorporates more of the real physics of the ow it should also give better predictions of the compressor performance, although eciency predictions accurate to within a couple of percentage points are still some way away.

7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE TRENDS This paper has been, by necessity, a brief survey of axial ow compressor design. None of the issues have been explored very deeply and even now signicant areas, such as casing or tip treatments, have not been discussed. It is hoped, however, that many of the areas that need to be considered during the design process have been

highlighted and that the interested reader will be able to explore specic topics in more depth. As computational power grows the certainty of compressor design increases, but this will be countered by the increased sophistication required to produce a competitive product. For example, advances in CFD have produced eciency gains of at least 2 per cent in the last decade owing to improved blade prole and three-dimensional design. Future developments would include improved understanding of the unsteady nature of the ow eld and its impact on boundary layer transition and secondary ows. This may lead to further loss reductions in blade designs by optimization of the blade and endwall boundary layer behaviour. Crucial will be the development of a method that accurately predicts the stalling of a compressor. This is still some way o because of the complex ow phenomena involved. It will require time-accurate, unsteady, threedimensional calculations. While such calculations are available now and are being used, it will be some time before sucient experience and understanding have been gained for them to be regarded as mainstream design tools. A better understanding of stall will allow higher blade loadings to be used, with a consequent reduction in parts count and hence cost as well as perhaps greater eciencies. However, it must be questionable as to how much eort is worth expending on improving the eciency of a compressor that has a polytropic eciency of 92 per cent, so it is likely that future improvements in compressor design practice will be used to reduce cost and lead times and improve reliability. This reects the current drivers in the commercial world of engine manufacture of cost and reliability but, of course, with the proviso that the product must retain a competitive performance. Further improvements in computational power will allow more automation and optimization in the design

Fig. 8 Axial velocity contours (m/s) close to the stator suction surface, predicted by multistage CFD
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C C02198 IMechE 1999

AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR DESIGN

449

process with a consequent reduction in costs and lead times as well as better designs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to thank Rolls-Royce plc for permission to publish this paper. However, the views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Rolls-Royce plc. REFERENCES
1 Cumpsty, N. A. Compressor Aerodynamics, 1989 (Longman). 2 Halstead, D. E., Wisler, D. C., Okiishi, T. H., Walker, G. J., Hodson, H. P. and Shin, H.-W. Boundary layer development in axial compressors and turbines: Parts 1 to 4. ASME paper 95-GT-461 to 464, 1995, to be published in J. Turbomachinery. 3 Shabbir, A., Celestina, M. L., Adamczyk, J. J. and Strazisar, A. J. The eect of hub leakage ow on two high speed axial ow compressor rotors. ASME paper 97-GT-346, 1997. 4 Howard, M. A., Ivey, P. C., Barton, J. P. and Young, K. F. Endwall eects at two tip clearances in a multi-stage axial ow compressor with controlled diusion blading. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1994, 116, 635. 5 Camp, T. R. and Day, I. J. A study of spike and modal stall phenomena in a low-speed axial compressor. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1998, 120, 393401. 6 Freeman, C. Eect of tip clearance ow on compressor stability and engine performance. Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Lecture Series 1985-05, 1985. 7 Stratford, B. S. The use of boundary layer techniques to calculate the blockage from the annulus wall boundary layer in a compressor. ASME paper 67-WA/GT-7, 1967. 8 Miller, D. C. and Wasdell, D. L. O-design prediction of compressor blade losses. IMechE Conference Proceedings CP 1987-6, paper C279/87, 1987. 9 Wright, P. I. and Miller, D. C. An improved compressor performance prediction model. IMechE Conference Proceedings CP 1991-3, paper C423/028, 1991. 10 Koch, C. C. Stalling pressure rise capability of axial ow compressor stages. Trans. ASME, J. Engng for Power, 1981, 98, 411. 11 Van Zante, D. E., Adamczyk, J. J., Strazisar, A. J. and Okiishi, T. H. Wake recovery performance benet in a highspeed axial compressor. ASME paper 97-GT-535, 1997. 12 Dunham, J. Non-axisymmetric ows in axial compressors. Mechanical Engineering Science, Monograph 3, October 1965.

13 Wennestrom, A. J. Experimental study of a high throughow transonic axial compressor stage. Trans. ASME, J. Engng for Gas Turbines and Power, 1984, 106, 552. 14 Dong, Y., Gallimore, S. J. and Hodson, H. P. Three-dimensional ows and loss reduction in axial compressors. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1987, 109, 354. 15 Howard, M. A. and Gallimore, S. J. Viscous throughow modelling for multi-stage compressor design. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1993, 115, 296. 16 Gallimore, S. J. Viscous throughow modelling of axial compressor bladerows using a tangential blade force hypothesis. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1998, 120, 662. 17 Adkins Jr, G. G. and Smith Jr, L. H. Spanwise mixing in axial ow turbomachines. Trans. ASME, J. Engng for Power, 1982, 104, 97. 18 Gallimore, S. J. Spanwise mixing in multi-stage axial ow compressors: Part IIThroughow calculations including mixing. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1986, 108, 10. 19 Gallimore, S. J. and Cumpsty, N. A. Spanwise mixing in multi-stage axial ow compressors: Part IExperimental investigation. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1986, 108, 2. 20 Wisler, D. C., Bauer, R. C. and Okiishi, T. H. Secondary ow, turbulent diusion and mixing in axial-ow compressors. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1987, 109, 455. 21 Denton, J. D. The calculation of three dimensional viscous ow through multistage turbomachines. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1992, 114. 22 Behlke, R. F. The development of a second generation of controlled diusion airfoils for multistage compressors. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1986, 108, 32. 23 Ginder, R. B. Design and performance of advanced blading for a high-speed HP compressor. ASME paper 91-GT-374, 1991. 24 LeJambre, C. R., Zacharias, R. M., Biederman, B. P., Gleixner, A. J. and Yekta, C. J. Development and application of a multistage NavierStokes solver: Part II Application to a high pressure compressor design. ASME paper 95-GT-343, 1995. 25 Adamczyk, J. J. Model equation for simulating ows in multi-stage turbomachinery. ASME paper 85-GT-226, 1985. 26 Wisler, D. C. Loss reduction in axial ow compressors through low speed model testing. Trans. ASME, J. Engng for Gas Turbines and Power, 1985, 107, 354. 27 Wadia, A. R. and Beacher, B. F. Three-dimensional relief in turbomachinery blading. Trans. ASME, J. Turbomachinery, 1990, 112, 587. 28 Escuret, P. F., Veysseyre, Ph., Villain, M., Savarese, S., Bois, G. and Naviere, H. Eect of a mismatch between the buttons of variable stator vanes and the owpath in a highly loaded transonic compressor stage. ASME paper 97-GT-471, 1997.

C02198 IMechE 1999

Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 213 Part C