A Study of Optimization of Blade Section Shape for a Steam Turbine

In this study, an optimization design method is established for a rotor blade of a Curtis turbine. Bezier curve is generally used to define the profile of turbine blades. However, this curve is not proper to a supersonic impulse turbine. Section shape of a supersonic turbine blade is composed of straight lines and circular arcs. That is, it has several constraints to define the section shape. Thus, in this study, a blade design method is developed by using B-spline curve in which local control is possible. The turbine blade section has been changed by varying three design parameters of exit blade angle, stagger angle and maximum camber. Then flow analyses have been carried out for the sections. Lift-drag ratio of the blade section is used as the object function, and it is maximized in the optimization. Second-order response surface model is employed to express the object function as a function of design parameters. Central composite design method is used to reduce the number of design points. Then, an evolution strategy is employed to obtain the optimized section of the Curtis turbine blade.