Abstract
In the present study, the preliminary design optimization of an
axial-compressor is considered. The axisymmetric flow solver is
developed to simulate the flow field within the compressor to
predict quickly some important drawbacks of the conceptual design
and treat them in preliminary design phase where the conceptual
design is made by the mean-line method and the free-vortex
assumption is utilized to find the radial distribution of the flow
deflection angles. The finite volume scheme is used in this
numerical procedure of the inviscid flow simulation where the
advection upstream splitting method is used to calculate the fluxes.
The focus is on the axial velocity changes along the
compressor, and the optimization target of the preliminary design is
to increase the minimum axial velocity with the criteria of keeping
the mass flow rate and the total pressure ratio constant. The results
demonstrate that this target is achieved by minor modification in
flow deflection angles to improve the variation of the axial velocity,
which can be more important especially in off-design performance
of the compressor.
