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VALIDATION OF A THROUGHFLOW TIME-MARCHING

FINITE-VOLUME SOLVER FOR TRANSONIC COMPRESSORS

Stephane Baralon
Lars-Erik Eriksson
1111111111 II 11111 II III III
BREAK
Chalmers University of Technology
Volvo Aero Corporation
Thermo and Fluid Dynamics
Military Engines Division
S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
S-461 81 Trollhattan, Sweden
email baralon@tfd.chalmers.se

Ulf Hall
Chalmers University of Technology
Thermo and Fluid Dynamics
S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

ABSTRACT the gain in CPU time associated with throughflow computations

An improved throughfiow method to treat transonic viscous
flows with shocks, using a finite-volume time-marching solver, is
presented. Effects due to deviation, secondary losses, endwall
skin friction and spanwise mixing are modelled. An alternative
blade blockage is used to better take into account the effect of the
blade on the transonic passage flow. A theoretical and numer-
ical study of the rucisymmetric shock showed that it is treated
as a normal blade passage shock by the blade row model. Two
different techniques to solve the numerical problems associated
with the leading edge singularity due to incidence are investi-
gated. The computation of an entire speed-line for a three stage
transonic fan has been conducted in order to further calibrate
and validate the various models. The validation showed that the
solver is capable of giving a reasonable meridional picture of the
transonic flow field for different operating points.
NOMENCLATURE
x, r, axial, radial, tangential directions
u, v, w axial, radial, tangential velocities
fv, fr, fe axial, radial, tangential forces
eo, 110
total internal energy, total enthalpy
density and pressure
P
fl rotor speed of rotation
0 blockage factor
INTRODUCTION
Despite the increasing use of fully three-dimensional steady
and even unsteady viscous computations during the design pro-
cess of turbomachines (Rhie et al., 1994), there is still a need
for advanced axisymmetric throughflow computations. Indeed,
when compared to 3D viscous blade-to-blade computations is
several order of magnitude larger. This difference is particularly
significant in a multistage environment. The designer, thereby,
considers the throughflow and 3D approaches as being comple-
mentary, the latter building on the results of the former. The
streamline curvature method is by far the most popular through-
flow approach and has a long successful history in the domain of
turbomachinery design. However, the extension of that method
to modern transonic fan stages is limited due to the occurrence of
shocks and choked flow conditions. For transonic and supersonic
fan stages and compressors an alternative throughflow method,
capable of handling high speed flows and still easily usable in
design process, is needed.
Time-marching throughflow solvers may be the answer to
this requirement. They have the ability to solve complex flow
fields with meridional discontinuities, using the axisymmetric
form of the time-dependent Euler or Navier-Stokes equations,
with added source terms for modelling the blade rows. Therefore,
the throughflow computation only requires a two-dimensional
grid and significantly less CPU time than a 3D solver. For this
reason, in a multistage environment, the throughflow computa-
tion can rapidly provide the designer with useful informations on
the transonic features of the meridional flow field, such as shock
patterns and choking conditions.
During the last decade, a few contributions to the through-
flow time-marching approach have been reported. Spurr (1980)
was one of the first to apply the throughilow time-marching
method to solve the unsteady Euler equations, both in the merid-
ional and blade-to-blade planes. More recently, Yao and Hirsch
(1995) modified a full 3D Navier-Stokes solver, based on a time-
marching finite-volume method, to perform throughflow calcu-

Presented at the International Gas Turbine & Aeroengine Congress & Exhibition
Stockholm, Sweden — June 2—June 5, 1998
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 lations. Their objective was to test the effect of various distri- [0
butions of blockage and mean flow an gles on the performance fr + 4 4
1 42
of both a sin gle rotor and a sin gle stage. Finally, Damle et al. G= ? ± 4
fr -I- Ur. 44p
(1997) reported recentl y the development of a simple throu gh- fe
flow time-marchin g finite-volume solver and showed the potential W
of that method for desi gning ducts and blades operating in the
where W, the work per unit volume done on the fluid b y blades, —7•1
transonic and supersonic ran ge.
is given by W = Mir.
A similar type of throughflow solver has also been developed
at Volvo Aero Corporation in Sweden. It is reco gnized that this ••
kind of throu ghflow method still suffers from the shortcomings NUMERICAL METHOD
inherent to the axisymmetry assumption, therefore rel ying heav- The code is based on a cell-centered finite volume method
ily on loss and deviation correlations. Thus, it is of the authors with a characteristic-upwind scheme of third order for the com-
opinion that the predictive capabilit y of these methods may be putation of convective fluxes and a compact second order scheme
enhanced only by resorting to blade-to-blade viscous calcula- for the diffusive fluxes. A pressure-controlled dissipative flux is
tions. These computations can provide the meridional approach also added for the handlin g of shocks (Eriksson, 1995). The
with the necessar y informations relative to the circumferential time integration is based on a three-sta ge explicit Run ge-Kutta
flow variations which can be modelled afterwards. scheme. The different computations were performed usin g
However, before couplin g the throu ghflow and blade-to- a structured bod y-fitted mesh based on transfinite interpola-
blade method, it appears necessar y to first investigate, both tion (Eriksson, 1985).
q uantitatively and qualitatively, the characteristics of that par-
ticular type of throughflow method.
For this reason, the objective of the work presented in BLADE MODELLING
this paper was to assess the potentials of a throu ghlow time- The blade row model is based on a volume force techni que.
marchin g approach for computin g transonic compressors and to The forces must be defined such that the flow conforms to an
investigate the behavior of the computed flow. For instance, a average blade shape for each blade row and must be ortho gonal
few questions can be addressed to such techni ques regarding , (1) to the mean surface in order to obtain a loss-free flow turnin g .
the most appropriate approach to calculate the blade blockage The blade mean surface and the forces are given b y,
in the context of transonic flows, (2) the nature of axis ymmetric O g „Jr = —T—
Og
shocks, (3) the modellin g of various phenomena such as endwall = g(r,r) fr = —T— • J8 •
Or
Jo (2)
02
skin friction, secondar y losses, spanwise mixin g and flow devi-
ation, (4) the effect of substantial incidence on the bod y force The circumferential volume force must be expressed so that it
blade modelling. satisfies the flow tan gency condition. As the "embeddin g" prin-
All these questions were studied usin g a single transonic fan ciple has been chosen, the problem is considered time-dependent
rotor test case. The resultin g models and conclusions were used so that only the steady state solution satisfies the flow tan gency
to compute a three-sta ge transonic fan flow field for different condition. Considerin g a rotor blade row, the volume force com-
operating points. The predictive capability of the present code ponent fe may be defined throu gh the time-dependent differen-
being limited, the computation of the multista ge compressor was tial equation,
mainly aimed at assessin g the limits and potentials of the various 09 Og
models in a multistage environment. —= Air — + — • pv - pw + (3)
at 02 Or
The present paper includes a description of both the de-
velopment of the models and the investi gations that have been Equation (3) can be interpreted as a description of a pressure
performed when computin g the two cases mentioned above. gradient formation between the blades whenever the flow does
not conform to the blade mean surface.
The dimension of A is [s - 2), i.e. the s quare of the inverse of a
GOVERNING EQUATIONS typical response time. Here, the response time for f o should be
The fully time-dependent axis ymmetric Euler e quations are of the same order of ma gnitude as a typical response time r for
solved in the code. They can be written in the followin g conser- the flow in a computational cell. Thus, a suitable expression for
vative form, volume forces and blockage factor included A is
[C H,2 d 2
A _4 7 -2 (4)
a a a (1) A22
+— + — - 0F] =- [0
[

at ]

0 Os 0 Or where Az is a typical grid cell size.

where It should be noted that the computation of the volume force
components is only done in the blade row region.
Pt'
P
Pu p PD"
Pv E= puv F= [ p,u2 ± p VISCOUS MODELLING AND FLOW ANGLES CONTROL
=
Pw pule Pvw The viscous modellin g and the methods used to control the
Peo phou phov flow angles have been thorou ghly elaborated and studied in a

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Figure 1: Sketch of the new type of blockage factor.
previous paper by the same authors (BareIon et al., 1997). The
qualitative and quantitative assessment of the parameters re-
quired by the models have been carried out for two test cases
: a single stage transonic compressor and the NASA 67 fan ro-
tor (Strazisar et al., 1989). In short, the spanwise mixing is
modelled by means of an eddy viscosity with a specified distri-
bution of mixing lengths. The endwall skin friction is included
as a force proportional to a specified friction coefficient. Finally,
other stagnation pressure losses are introduced by means of a
specified distribution of dissipative volume forces acting against
the flow.
In order to supplement the viscous modelling, an efficient
control of the flow and blade angles is required. The deviation
has been implemented as a progressive blade shape modification
over the last 40 % of the chord. The magnitude of the deviation
is given by correlations that have been developed in a previous
work (Barelon et al., 1997).
NORMAL BLADE BLOCKAGE
An alternative blade blockage, that we call normal blockage,
is proposed as a better estimate of the blade geometry effect
that is really felt by the flow in the blade-to-blade passage. The
blockage factor is calculated in the passage area orthogonal to the
mean flow direction, i.e. the cross-streamtube area. As regards
the flow in a blade. passage streamtube, this approach seems
more appropriate than one based on the area perpendicular to
the axial direction. Obviously, the two approaches would yield
the same blockage factor if there were no chordwise variation of
thickness and no blade turning.
Figure 1 illustrates the principle for the calculation of the
normal blockage. A mathematical expression can easily be de-
rived and for any point P of the mean surface, located between
A and B, we have
1 (ti cos 1Pi — /31 + ts cos102 / 9 1)
q5„ — 1
2 Scos /3
CZ
where S is the pitch, the mean flow angle, (31 and /32 the blade
angles and ti and t 2 the corresponding blade thicknesses.
The computation of this blockage is limited to the points
with an axial coordinate between X A and X8 in figure 1. For
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0.05
9.90 fr
10509010
0.15
Starslard SoCkaga
Nomul 1314:06;pe
990
0.75
0.70
0,000 0.010 0.020 0.000 0.040 0.00 0.060 0.070 9480 X
lug
Figure 2: Comparison between blockage factors.
the regions between the edges and points A and B, the blockage
is defined to vary linearly from the values OnA and (8103 to the
value of 1.
The blockage factor that we called standard blockage is ob-
tained by considering a passage area in an X-constant plane. It
is commonly used in throughflow calculations, as it appears to
be the most consistent with the axisymmetry assumption.
Figure 2 shows that the two ways of calculating the blockage
factor yield significantly different results. For one spanwise blade
section, the minimum passage area differs both in magnitude
and axial location. In transonic flows, these discrepancies might
have a major influence on the strength, the location and even
the occurrence of shocks. Moreover, in case of choked flow, the
mass flow will be directly dependent on the minimum passage
area.
AXISYMMETRIC PASSAGE SHOCK
Based on a time-marching method, the present solver is,
by definition, capable of capturing shocks in the blade passage.
However, in the context of the aidsymmetry assumption, the
location as well as the strength of the shock must be considered
with care.
The only shocks that can be calculated within the blade row
by the throughflow method are axisymmetric by definition and
thus, oblique in the blade-to-blade plane. Nevertheless, it has
been found that the loss generated by the axisymmetric shock
corresponds to that of a normal shock, for a similar upstream
Mach number. The reason is that the volume force constrains
the flow so that it conforms to the mean flow surface, which
modifies the jump conditions of the conservation laws to those
of a simple normal shock.
A theoretical demonstration has been derived which con-
(5)
firms the previous conclusions. If the steady axisymmetric Euler
equations expressed in the blade-to-blade plane are integrated,
volume forces included, over a domain of extent Az in the axial
direction and covering the passage shock, we obtain the following
 jump relations
COS a REL.
OS
flreL Math number
(pt) 2 = (1,4 % / jsokrtion modeled WO, 1.5
0.55 .1 i i
(Pu2 /3) 2 = (pu. 2 + p) + ft I
i i
.4
1 ! 1
(puw), = (puw), + Axle 0.5 1.3
I
(Phou)2 = (Phou)1 0.45 I I
! i .2
= — tan(a)h I Original Made I
i . j 1.1
04 ./ •
w = tan(a)u (6) 1 i
I
0.35
where a is the mean flow angle and stationary infinitely thin 0.9
blades are assumed. Note that the volume forces may not be M • bade
0.8
b3 (ineid. corri & &Malian)
neglected here since they are closely coupled to the flow quanti-
1 0.7
ties and thus may attain very large values around the shock. If 025
we now consider a transformation of equations (6) to a rotated .‘• 0.6
coordinate system with X' in the flow direction and O' in the 0.2
u.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 01
cross-flow direction, we obtain that w' and .f; equal 0. This in X
turn leads to the following jump conditions Figure 3 Variation of effective streamtube area for the tip
section of the 3 stage fan first rotor; blade blockage, a
= blade angle, x axial coordinate.
= ( pul 2 p) 1
= he mean blade surface locally in the leading edge region so that it
adapts in a smooth manner to the upstream flow angle. A more
These are the usual jump conditions for a normal shock in the complex approach is based on the introduction of discontinuities
blade passage. in the momentum flux normal to the leading edge, thereby al-
Hence, a shock occurring in the blade row is equivalent to a lowing for the control of both incidence and entropy generation.
normal shock which strength is only depending on the upstream
Mach number relative to the blade row.
Automatic Incidence Correction
In this technique, the blade angles of the first 20% of the
LEADING EDGE SINGULARITY chord are modified linearly, i.e. parabolically in (x,r8) coordi-
As described previously, the body forces are applied only in nates, so as to adapt progressively to the flow angle upstream
the blade row region. They force the flow to conform instan- of the I.e. This approach can be defined conceptually as 'in-
taneously to the mean surface. This means that no force, i.e. troducing' a length scale into the singularity problem. Indeed,
no.source term, is introduced for the cell just upstream of the when there is very little incidence, the blade force applied to the
leading edge (1.e.) whereas a force is included for the cell just cell just downstream of the 1.e. edge do not cause any oscilla-
downstream. This corresponds to a numerical singularity since tion thereby no entropy. Hence, it appeared natural to solve the
no length scale can be associated with that sudden application singularity approach by applying a progressive change in blade
of a body force. Independently of how much the grid is refined angles, i.e. in volume forces. The incidence correction is applied
at the 1.e., there will always be a sudden influence of the blade periodically during the time-marching of the computation. The
model, i.e. of the source terms, on the leading edge flow. computed flow then adapts itself smootly to the changes caused
It can be easily imagined that in case of significant incidence by the incidence correction.
(in practice more than 2 degrees), the strength of the leading The blade shape modifications may have a local effect on
edge singularity will be such as to generate non-negligible nu- the blade loading, but the uncertainty in blade loading is large
merical losses. anyway because the meanline constraint of the throughflow ap-
It should be emphasized that the amount of entropy gener- proach is already only an approximation of the real mean flow.
ated cannot be associated with any physical meaning. The real Furthermore, the turning that is of interest for performing the
incidence losses result mainly from the suction side boundary work is the turning of the flow itself and not of the blade.
layer which is a three-dimensional phenomena in the blade-to- Nevertheless, even if the automatic incidence correction is
blade plane. Furthermore, if any relation to physics had to be very efficient for subsonic flows, this approach may cause prob-
found for this singularity, it would be a physical discontinuity. lems for supersonic flows in terms of streamtube area variation.
Therefore, the effect of the 1.e. singularity should be con- Figure 3 shows, for the tip section of the first rotor of the 3
trolled. The incidence loss that may exist in the physical flow stage fan, the variation of 0 cos a, a being the flow angle and rt,
—Si
should be introduced by means of a specified stagnation pressure the blade blockage, which is proportional to the effective stream-
loss distribution. tube area. In that section, the area increases then decreases
Two different techniques were developed in order to rem- down to the throat area and finally increases. A supersonic flow
edy this problem. The simplest technique is to modify the given entering that blade section will first expand to a higher mach

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 number. This will lead to a shock lithe mesh region corre-
sponding to the divergent part is not refined enough to simulate
an isentropic expansion. In a previous section, it has been de-
rived that a shock occuring in the blade row is treated as a
normal passage shock by the blade modelling. Therefore, the
flow will become subsonic just after the shock in the region of
increasing area and will accelerate to Mach one at the throat
location since the area decreases. Finally, after the throat, the
supersonic flow will reaccelerate in the second increasing area
region and a second normal shock will occur. This is similar to a
one-dimensional supersonic flow case in a divergent, convergent
and divergent nozzle. This behavior corresponds exactly to the
second curve of the figure which describes the variation of Mach
number for the same tip rotor section at near choking condition.
This reasoning shows that, in case of significant incidence,
the modification of the blade geometry at the I.e. may trigger
a strong normal shock which is naturally followed by a second
one for reasons of streamtube variation. This behavior could
be associated with the real blade-to-blade flow of typical tran-
sonic rotor blades where, for high mass flows, a first bow shock
occurs at the I.e followed by a weaker normal shock (Strazisar
et al., 1989). However, the blade-to-blade bow shock is usually
an oblique shock. Therefore, it is believed that the two strong
normal shocks obtained in the throughflow solution may corre-
spond to an overproduction of shock losses in this case. It should
be emphasized that the problem of successive shocks is depend-
ing on the upstream Mach number, the blade geometry and the
local incidence. It may not arise in a different configuration.
Nevertheless, a different treatment of the singularity may
be needed to solve the problems related to the leading edge flow.
Momentum Discontinuity
In order to exert a full control on the 1.e. flow without
modifying the blade shape, an approach based on a discontinuity
in momentum is proposed.
The conservation of mass and energy are respected but ad-
ditional source terms are introduced in the momentum equations
in order to control both the flow angle downstream of the dis-
continuity and the generation of entropy.
The technique can be divided in two stages: first, we must
derive the 'target' forces that will be included in the momentum
fluxes to obtain the desired conditions at the discontinuity. Af-
terwards, we must derive at the flux calculation level the flow
state downstream of the I.e. with the forces included.
This technique has been validated on subsonic and super-
sonic applications using a quasi-one dimensional code with blade
modelling included. Mach number as high as 3 and incidence an-
gles up to 30 degrees were computed successfully with this ID
code. Computed total pressure and I.e. flow angle conditions
were exactly equal to those specified.
Discontinuity forces. It is important that the modified mo-
mentum fluxes are those normal to the leading edge expressed in
x, r, and 8 coordinates. Indeed, the sweep and lean angle must
be taken into account in order to enforce the normality of the
modified fluxes.
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The coordinate system normal to the I.e. can be represented
by three vectors, I along the I.e., if normal to the I.e. and 1 the
cross product of 1" and if These three vectors, expressed in the
(x, r, 9) coordinate system, are
tz
( t y• 71 ( nr (7)
to 0
If we write the steady axisymmetric euler equations in the coor-
dinate system defined by the three vectors 1 ff, 1, we obtain
P2til2 = tit
,2 •2
P3t2 ±P2 = Pithl ±PI
p214,4 = p1t4t4 +
pati2w12 = poi; + f;
p2ho2t4 = piholt4 (8)
where, 17 being the velocity vector, = 17 • if, v' = 9 • 1, w' =
VI. The subscript 1 and 2 refer to the conditions upstream and
downstream of the I.e. respectively. At that stage, we have eight
unknowns, i.e. p2, p2, V, f, for five equations. Therefore, in
order to close the problem, we need to introduce three additional
conditions. The first of them is the flow tangency condition
which must be verified at the 1.e. in order to conform the flow
to the I.e. blade angle. This condition can be expressed in the
coordinate system normal to the I.e. in the following manner
= Kx • us + Kr + fir (9)
where K. and K,. are functions of the blade mean surface (0 =
g(x,r)) and the vector components of 1 it, r.
The second condition is that no discontinuity should be
introduced in the direction aligned with the leading edge, i.e.
= 0. Indeed, there is no physical meaning in applying a dis-
continuous flow along the I.e. Finally, we introduce the last con-
dition by specifying the amount of total pressure loss, Pa2h 201.
Then, the system of equations can be solved to give the
sought variables p2, p2, V , T. When solving the system, we
obtain a complex polynom in terms of density that is solved by
an iteration procedure based on the Newton-Ftsphson method.
At that stage, we must specify whether the flow downstream of
the I.e. should be subsonic or supersonic. Once the density is
found, we can derive all the other variables and the discontinuity
forces.
Leading edge flux modification. Once the target forces are
computed, we must apply them to modify the fluxes in the I.e.
region. The numerical scheme used for the rest of the compu-
tational domain is no longer valid in the discontinuity region.
Therefore, the flux calculation has to be modified at the I.e. A
method based on ghost cells is used.
We use again Equations 8 in which the forces are now known.
Therefore, the system is composed of five equations for five un-
knowns, p2, 92 and pi. We compute the pressure pi in order to
respect the upstream propagation of acoustic waves. The quan-
tities pi, 171 and p2 are extrapolated from the upstream and
 Flow angle
P, (Pa) ) Mica
110000 LE 30 09 Scaled Total pressure Scaled leen
- else P, ratio IT efficiency 11
109000 • dec. Math 25
• disc angle
OS
108000 - -a- - no. disc P, 20 0.9
0.8
- -0- - no diso Mach 0.8
- 46
- - - 0-
107000 - -0- - no 40se. angle
IS
0.71
08
10 0.8 0.7
106000
0.7
5 x expel% 0.6
105000 0.7 • norm. block.
0 0.8:
104000
• Mend. block • 0.5
-6
0.8
103000 0.6 o I norm. block •
beee. 0-0-0-o e e o -10 O n slant block.
0.4
0.5
102000 1 I -IS
0.5 • 0.3
101000 0.5
20
0.2
100090 0.4!
D"-D-0 -0 • • 0-c-o -0 0.4
0.1
0. 10 0.4
99407 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11 0.12
X axial coonfmate 0,3
0.6 0.7
Scaled mass flow
0.8 0 a
Figure 4: Solution of a Le flow with or without discontinuity
modelling. Figure 5: 3 stage fan overall performance using normal and
standard blockage.

downstream cells respectively and projected in the coordinate

system normal to the I.e. When deriving the solution, we obtain
a quadratic polynom in density 192. The other variables are then
computed from p2 and projected back in the (x, r, 0) system. Fi-
nally, the new fluxes can be applied to the I.e. cells. The forces
are periodically applied using a time-marching approach based
on the three stage Runge-Kutta method.
Figure 4 is an example of a case where the discontinuity
• method has been applied to correct the incidence. The case is a
stator with no turning (flat plate). The upstream flow is subsonic
with a large incidence. No total pressure losses were specified
at the I.e. The figure shows that a perfect discontinuity was
obtained at the I.e. both in terms of total pressure and blade
angle. The dashed line curves correspond to a solution with
no I.e. singularity treatment. Oscillations occur leading to the
generation of entropy of numerical nature.
When using this technique, a few problems arise in the con-
text of quasi-three dimensional computations. At the first level
of the technique when iterating for n, the Newton-Raphson pro-
cedure has strong difficulties to converge for flows with a Mach
number very close to one. This flow condition corresponds to
an extremum for the polynom. This problem is of importance
in transonic applications where, by definition, such conditions
occur. Therefore, we have been unable until now to use this
method in a multistage case. Further improvements are glob-
ally required in the numerics of this technique and are currently
under study.
It is recognized that the use of the discontinuity approach
to solve the singularity problem requires some additional mod-
elling if the throughflow method is considered on its own. Some
correlations must be developed to specify realistic losses at the
1.e. On the other hand, if coupled with a blade-to-blade calcula-
tion, this approach may be a good alternative for the meridional
modelling of the transonic I.e. flow features, such as bow shocks.
The prediction of the meridional flow in the blade region would
thereby be improved as regards the passage shock position and
strength.
TEST CASES
The computations performed on two cases will be used to
illustrate the validation of the different models.
The NASA 67 transonic fan rotor test case has been com-
puted (Strazisar et al., 1989). The rotor has a tip velocity of 429
m/s and an inlet tip relative Mach number of 1.38. The rotor
design pressure ratio is 1.63 at a 1018-SS 110‘9 of 33.25 kg/s. Its as-
pect ratio is 1.56 with 22 blades. Only the near peak efficiency
condition has been computed. The computation was in good
agreement with the experiment both in terms of radial profiles
of flow quantities and overall performance. This is fully detailed
in a previous paper of the same authors (Baralon et al., 1997).
The second case is a three stage transonic fan of a military
engine. The engine is rather similar to the GE F404 turbofan.
Few measurements were available for that case. Only the overall
performance for the speed line corresponding to 95% of maxi-
mum speed and some measurements of tip wall static pressure
for one operating point were provided.
INFLUENCE OF THE NORMAL BLOCKAGE
For the rotor 67 test case, the computation showed signifi-
cant differences in chokedmass flow when using either the stan-
dard or the normal blockage. When lowering the outlet static
pressure, the computation performed with standard blockage
yielded a chokedflow rate of 33.93 kg/s whereas the one per-
formed with normal blockage led to a chokedmass flow of 34.7
kg/s. This gives a difference with the measured choked flow rate
(34.96 kg/s) of 3% and 0.75% respectively.
Figure 5 shows the effect of using the standard blockage in-
stead of the normal blockage on the overall performance of the
three stage fan. For each computed operating point, the models
that had been tuned when using the normal blockage were kept
the same and only the blockage was modified. It can be seen
that, when using the standard blockage, the speed line is shifted
to lower mass flows in the compressor map. For a same operat-

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BLADE-TO-BLADE
MACH HUMBER
Figure 6: Rotor 67 Blade-to-blade Mach number contours.
ing point, a typical difference of 13.7 % in terms of mass flow is
obtained. This shows that the standard blockage substantially
overestimate the blade blockage which is a critical feature for
compressors operating at high speeds. A further investigation
was performed regarding the influence of the specified loss level
for the flow computed with standard blockage. For a choked op-
erating point computed with standard blockage, the losses were
removed, yielding a choked mass flow increase of 0.15% when
compared to the same choking point computed with standard
blockage and losses. In order to obtain the same choked mass
flow as when using the normal blockage, an increase of approx-
imately 14% should be necessary. This remark shows that the
difference in mass flow obtained when using the different blade
blockages can only be associated with the discrepancy in passage
areas and is not influenced by the specified loss level.
In light of these analyses, the standard blockage should be
used in transonic throughflow calculations with care.
AXISYMMETRIC SHOCK INVESTIGATION
The following analysis of the axisymmetric shock structure
consists of a comparison of the rotor 67 throughfiow calculation
with a circumferentially averaged 21) Euler blade-to-blade solu-
tion, for a section at 10% span from tip.
Figure 6 shows the shock pattern in the solution of a 21)
Euler blade-to-blade calculation performed at 10% span from tip,
with boundary conditions specified according to the throughflow
calculation. The Mach number upstream of the passage shock
is approximately 1.7. A pitchwise mass-weighted averaging has
been applied to the blade-to-blade solution, which is consistent
with the x-constant axisymmetry assumption.
It can be seen in figure 7 that the same upstream Mach num-
ber has been obtained for the throughflow solution at the same
radial location. The difference in the two curves is only due to
the pitchwise averaging which gives a damped out blade-to-blade
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PIP ?
84000
(1.3000
82090
81000
80000
Math 9-63.0
Math !Aught 79000
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78000
0.9
77000
0.8
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0.7
0.6 0.025 0.05 0.075
X axial coordinate
Figure 7: Rotor 67: comparison of entropy and relative mach
number axial distribution between throughflow and averaged
blade-to-blade solutions at 10% span from tip.
shock in the meridional plane. It is visible, in that figure, that
both shocks yield a similar downstream Mach number. Thus, it
can be concluded that the blade-to-blade and throughflow shocks
have the same strength.
In figure 7, the curve of entropy for the blade-to-blade com-
putation shows first a slight increase due to the weak bow shock
followed by a smooth jump caused by the stronger passage shock.
Since at present the effect of a bow shock is not included in
the throughflow computation, only the entropy jumps associ-
ated with the strong passage shock should be compared. Fig-
ure 7 shows that the difference in entropy between the flow up-
stream and downstream of the passage shock is the same for
both computations. It should be pointed out that no additional
losses have been applied to the last 50% of span from hub in the
throughllow calculation. Since the blade-to-blade calculation is
based on the Euler equations, it can be stated that the entropy
increase observed in both solutions is due to the shock only.
From figure 6 it appears reasonable to consider the com-
puted blade-to-blade passage shock to be normal to the flow.
Therefore, the former conclusion that a shock located in the
blade row is treated by the blade model as a normal shock seems
to be verified. It has the same strength with the corresponding
entropy increase.
THREE STAGE FAN SOLUTION
This solution does not correspond to a full prediction in the
sense that the various models have been tuned in terms of mag-
nitude in order to match the overall fan performance. The com-
putation of the three stage fan was aimed essentially at further
calibrating this models and at testing whether it was possible to
compute an entire speed line for such a complicated flow.
The approach chosen for the computation was first to spec-
ify for each blade row some radial profiles of deviation similar to

M2ff!Ef
.1.5 =103
reesnum
01 0.4 00 0.4 I 12 1 4 1.0
Figure 8: Relative Mach number contours for the 3 stage fan
at near choking flow condition.
those developed in previous calibrations (Baralon et al., 1997)
but further tuned in order to match the loading of each blade
row. The loading was assessed from the static pressure measure-
ments at the shroud. Next, some losses were introduced also
based on preceding calibrations which provided us with typical
loss profiles. The magnitude of the loss coefficients was estimated
from the overall performance data. Regarding the spanvrise mix-
ing and the endwall skin friction, the same magnitude and dis-
tribution of parameters as those derived in previous calculations
were applied.
The first operating point to be computed was the near chok-
ing condition. The others were obtained afterwards by modifying
the back static pressure and the loss coefficients to take into ac-
count the variations of incidence. The deviation profiles, i.e. the
loading distribution, were not modified.
Figure 5 shows that we obtained a very good agreement
between our computations and the measured performance in
terms of total pressure ratio, isentropic efficiency and mass flow.
It should be emphasized that in a throughflow time-marching
method the mass flow is generally not specified but results from
the boundary conditions and the computation. Therefore, it is
believed that a reasonable picture of the transonic flow has been
achieved in this multistage fan configuration.
Figure 8 shows the meridional shock pattern for the near
choking flow condition. The first rotor is submitted to the influ-
ence of two strong shocks whereas the second rotor has only a
weaker shock at the Le. The flow upstream of the third rotor is
hardly supersonic. It can also be seen from the figure that the
second rotor is likely to be the first one to be choked for that
speed line.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, various problems inherent to the throughflow
time-marching finite-volume method were investigated and some
solutions were proposed.
An alternative blockage factor based on a streamtube ap-
proach rather than a conventional axisymmetric one was found
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to be of major importance for obtaining a good overall perfor-
mance in the context of transonic flows.
A theoretical and numerical study of the axisymmetric
rarran1 shock showed that it is treated as a normal blade passage shock
by the present model.
The leading edge singularity problem has been investigated
and two different techniques were proposed. One is based on
the modification of the blade geometry at the leading edge and
the other one introduces discontinuities in the momentum flux
normal to the Le. The first approach has its limitations in the
case of a supersonic flow with high incidence whereas the second
method works perfectly theoretically but its numerical robust-
ness needs to be improved.
The computation of the entire speed line of a three stage
transonic fan case was described. A reasonable picture of the
transonic flow was obtained which shows the potential of the
throughflow time-marching method for multistage calculations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was supported by an NFFP (National Flight
Research Program) funding and performed in Sweden at the
Chalmers Univerty of Technology, in cooperation with Volvo
Aero Corporation.
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