The Relative Merits of an Inviscid Euler 3-D and Quasi-3-D Analysis for the Design of Transonic Rotors

It is the purpose of this paper to examine the flow fields in an advanced modern transonic rotor design using both axisymmetric and three dimensional techniques. Also, to determine the deviation of the axisymmetric flow from three-dimensional flow field and whether this seriously affects the results. Inviscid Euler solvers are now widely used to analyze transonic flows through turbomachines giving a reasonably accurate indication of the flow field in blade passages. Although viscous effects are important, the inviscid analysis provides significant knowledge of the flow field which is essential to transonic design. The blade-to-blade loading and work distributions are determined quite realistically by the 3-D and quasi-3-D inviscid analyses. Through-flow and blade-to-blade inviscid solutions are presented for a highly loaded transonic rotor. Numerical solutions for various transonic rotor designs operating at peak efficiency are also compared with test data.