Inverse or Design Calculations for Nonpotential Flow in Turbomachinery Blade Passages

A new inverse or design calculation procedure has been devised for nonpotential flow fields and has been applied to turbomachinery blade row design. This technique uses as input quantities the surface pressure distribution and geometric constraints and may be used for two- or three-dimensional flows as well as inviscid or viscous flows. If a geometry satisfying both the constraints and the pressure distribution cannot be found, a solution satisfying the constraints and a relaxed pressure distribution is found. Calculational examples are presented for inviscid supersonic compressor cascade designs and the extension to three-dimensional flows discussed.