Development of a throughflow-based simulation tool for preliminary compressor design considering blade geometry in gas turbine engine

Gas turbine engines are highly intricate machines, and every component of them is closely associated with one another. In the traditional engine developing process, vast experiment tests are needed. To reduce unnecessary trials, a whole gas turbine engine simulation is extremely needed. For this purpose, a compressor simulation tool is now developed. Considering the inherent drawbacks of 0D analysis and 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) calculation, the 2D throughflow method is an indispensable tool. Based on the circumferential average method (CAM), 3D Navier–Stokes is transformed into a 2D method. One phenomenon arising is that the lack of description about circumferential motion leads to the need for the blade force modeling in compressor simulation. Previous models are based on the assumption that flow passes through the average stream surface without entropy increasing, which is not applicable in the CAM. An improved model is proposed based on the result analysis from CAM and NUMECA method in a linear cascade. Whereafter, the model is applied in a highly loaded and low-speed fan, which has been tested for its performance characteristics. Utilizing the new model, the error of the adiabatic efficiency between CAM and experiment decreases from 4.0% to 1.0% and the accuracy of the mass flow, and pressure ratio remains unchanged. The time involved in the CAM simulation is nearly 70 times faster than that of the 3D simulation.