Impact of manufacturing variability and non-axisymmetry on high-pressure compressor stage performance

Alexander Lange, Matthias Voigt, Konrad Vogeler, Henner Schrapp, Erik Johann, Volker Gümmer

abstract:

The present paper introduces an approach for considering manufacturing variability leading to a non-axisymmetric blading in CFD simulation of a high-pressure compressor stage.

A set of 150 rotor blades of a high-pressure compressor stage was 3D-scanned to obtain the manufacturing variability. The obtained point clouds were parameterized through a parametric blade model that uses typical profile parameters for transferring the geometric variability into numerical simulation. Probabilistic simulation methods allow for generation of a sampled set of blades that statistically corresponds to the measured one. This technique was applied to generate 4000 sampled blades to investigate the influence of a non-axisymmetric blading. It was found that the aerodynamic performance is considerably influenced by a change in passage cross section. Nevertheless, this influence will decrease with an increasing number of independently sampled blades and thus independently shaped passage cross sections. Due to taking the geometric variability into consideration more accurately than conventional approaches the presented methodology allows for a more realistic performance analysis of an HPC stage.

reference:

Alexander Lange, Matthias Voigt, Konrad Vogeler, Henner Schrapp, Erik Johann, Volker Gümmer
"Impact of manufacturing variability and non-axisymmetry on high-pressure compressor stage performance"
ASME Turbo Expo, GT2011-45718, Vancouver, 2011.