Module 2

Design of Compressor Blades

MEEN 646/MEEN 414- Aerothermodynamics of Turbomachinery

SANKARANARAYANAN RAVI (PG)

CHRIS ROBERT CASSIDY (UG)
TRAVIS POWERS WARREN (UG)

Texas A&M University

2/1/2011
Introduction

Design of compressor and turbine blades is the fundamental step in designing power generation
systems that operate on the gas turbine cycle. This report presents the steps followed in arriving
at a high lift coefficient compressor blade.

First the effect of lift coefficient on the camber line profile was generated. Then the blade profile
was generated by superimposing a base profile along the camber line.

Technical Procedure

Equation 1 calculates the camber line with varying the lift coefficient.

y – Cl x x x x
= · 1 – · ln 1 – + · ln
c 4 · c c c c
(1)

The stagger angle is computed as

Then for the suction surface,

Similarly for the pressure surface,

Notice that the equation is normalized with respect to the cascaded chord length, c. The camber
line was generated in MATLAB. The code is also attached in Appendix. The base profile was
superimposed along the chord length with thickness values found in Table1 in Appendix. This is
shown in Fig 1.

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 Figure 1: Superimposition Principle for Compressor Blade Profile Generation

Results

Figure 2 shows the camber line over the blade varying with the lift coefficient. As the lift
coefficient increases the camber line’s cascade flow deflection becomes greater.

0.2

Camber line For Various Lift Coefficients (C L)

0.15
y (for unit chord length)

0.1

0.05 CL= 1.0

CL= 0.1
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1

x (unit chord length)

Figure 2 Variation of camber line with the lift coefficient.

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Figures 3-5 show the same base profile super imposed on different camber lines with different
lift coefficients. The base profile, labeled as base profile 1, can be found in the appendix.

0.2
Blade Profile for CL= 0.1
0.15

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

-0.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1

Figure 3 Blade Profile with Lift Coefficient of 0.1

0.2
Blade Profile for C L= 0.5
0.15

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

-0.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1

Figure 4 Blade Profile with Lift Coefficient of 0.1

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 0.2
Blade Profile for CL= 1.0
0.15

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

-0.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1

Figure 5 Blade Profile with Lift Coefficient of 0.1

References

Schobeiri, M.T, 2005, Turbomachinery Flow Physics and Dynamic Performance, Springer Verlag, Berlin
Heidelberg, Germany

Appendix

Figure6 Superimposition Principle for Blade Profile Generation

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 Table 1 Base Profile Parameters

[x/c]max% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
[t/c]max% 8.4 11.1 13 14.4 14.9 15 14.4 13.5 12.4 11.2
[x/c]max% 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
[t/c]max% 10.1 8.9 7.7 6.7 5.7 4.7 3.8 3 2.1 0

MATLAB CODE
% this program creates the blade profile by superimposing the basefile on
% the camber line
clear all
clc
cl = input('enter the lift coefficient cl=');
c= input('enter the chord length c= ');
x=c*[0:1/20:1]; %generate points on the camber line
a= x/c;
y(1)=0;
y(21)=0;
for i=2:20
y(i)= -cl*c/(4*pi)*((1-a(i))*log(1-a(i))+a(i)*log(a(i)));%camber line
y(i)= real(y(i));
end
y= y';
x= x';
% superimpose baseprofile
t= c*[0;8.4; 11.1; 13; 14.4; 14.9; 15; 14.4; 13.5; 12.4; 11.2; 10.1; 8.9;
7.7; 6.7; 5.7; 4.7; 3.8; 3; 2.1; 0];
t= t/100;
for j= 1:21
slope(j)= (cl/(4*pi))*log((1-a(j))/a(j));
slope(j)= atand(slope(j));
end

for k=1:21
%pressure side
xp(k)= x(k) +(t(k)/2)*sind(slope(k));
yp(k)= y(k) -(t(k)/2)*cosd(slope(k));
%suction side
xs(k)= x(k) -(t(k)/2)*sind(slope(k));
ys(k)= y(k) +(t(k)/2)*cosd(slope(k));
end
xp= xp';
yp= yp';
xs= xs';
ys= ys';
%camber line length
camberlen=0;
for l=1:20
camberlen= camberlen+sqrt((x(l+1)-x(l))^2-(y(l+1)-y(l))^2);
end