Numerical evaluation of tandem rotor for highly loaded transonic fan

Transonic tandem rotor was designed for highly loaded fan at a corrected tip speed of 381 m/s and another conventional rotor was designed as a baseline to evaluate the loading superiority of tandem rotor with three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulation. The aft blade solidity and its impact on total loading level were studied in depth. The result indicates that tandem rotor has potential to achieve higher loading level and attain favorable aerodynamic performance in a wide range of loading coefficient 0.55~0.68, comparing with the conventional rotor which produced a total pressure ratio of 2.0 and loading coefficient of 0.42.