A flexible method for geometric design of axial compressor blades

This paper proposes a method for the geometric design of axial compressor blades. First, a novel approach for creating 2D blade sections is proposed, where each 2D blade section is obtained by imposing the defined thickness distribution along the camber line. The camber line of each 2D blade section is defined by specifying the angle change of each point on the camber line. In order to make this method applicable to a wider range of blade section design, the camber line of each section can be designed in several (usually 2 or 3) segments. It takes into account the change rule of blade section along the flow channel, which is the most concerned in the aerodynamic design, rather than the specific curve form of blade section. Then, the 2D blade sections are mapped to the corresponding arbitrary rotational flow surface. Finally, the 3D blade model is generated by lofting the blade sections in the flow surfaces. Some typical examples are presented. It shows that this method has good applicability and flexibility to realize the geometric design of multiple types of blades.