Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2003
Proceedings of :
DESIGN OF THE BLADE GEOMETRY OF SWEPT TRANSONIC FANS BY 3D
INVERSE DESIGN
H Watanabe
Advanced Design Technology Ltd
Monticello House, 45 Russell Square
London WC1B 4JP, U.K.
ABSTRACT
The application of sweep in the design of transonic fans has
been shown to be an effective method of controlling the
strength and position of the shock wave at the tip of transonic
fan rotors, and the control of corner separations in stators. In
rotors sweep can extend the range significantly. However, using
sweep in conventional design practice can also result in a
change in specific work and therefore pressure ratio. As a result,
laborious iterations are required in order to recover the correct
specific work and pressure ratio.
In this paper, the blade geometry of a transonic fan is designed
with sweep using a 3D inverse design method in which the
blade geometry is computed for a specified distribution of blade
loading. By comparing the resulting flow field in the
conventionally and inversely designed swept rotors, it is shown
that it is possible to apply sweep without the need to iterate to
maintain pressure ratio and specific work when using the
inverse method.
INTRODUCTION
The recent progress in design procedure on the turbomachinery
blading aided by CFD and some geometry optimization
techniques provide an opportunity to the designers to
investigate three-dimensional effects in detail and to improve
the performance.
The blade sweep is one of the most usual three-dimensional
blading design techniques applied in the axial fan and
compressor design recently. Simon et al, (2002) showed that
sweep was effective at reducing the cross passage flow near the
hub and interaction between the hub endwall and profile
boundary layers in axial compressor rotors. Sasaki and
Breugelmans, (1997) investigated the sweep and dihedral
effects on compressor cascade performance experimentally and
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Power for Land, Sea, and Air
ASME TURBO EXPO 2003
June 16–19, 2003, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
June 16-19, 2003, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
GT2003-38770
GT-2003-38770
M Zangeneh
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University College London
London WC1E 7JE, U.K.
showed that sweep reduced the corner stall and the secondary
flow at the endwall region.
From the analogy to the swept wing theory, swept blading in
the transonic fan or compressor were aiming to reduce the
shock losses. Wadia et al, (1998) investigated the effects of
forward and backward sweep on the shock formation and
performance of fan rotor experimentally and analytically. They
reported the forward swept rotor showed better results than
backward swept one in efficiency and stall margin by the
reduced shock boundary layer interaction. Blaha et al, (2000)
also showed there was no improvement in performance and in
stall margin with aft-swept compressor stage.
Denton and Xu, (2002) investigated the genuine effects of
sweep or lean on the flow and the performance of the fan by
using the identical profiles at each spanwise position in each
swept, lean and datum fan. They concluded there was very
small benefit in fan efficiency by using sweep but significant
influence on the stall point of the fan. As in the case of Wadia et
al, (1997), they showed the forward sweep increased the stall
margin of the fan, while it decreased the choke margin at the
same time. The improvement in the stall margin by applying
forward sweep was explained by the fact that stall tends to
occur soon after the pressure side shock reaches the leading
edge at the tip and the forward sweep made this occur at a lower
mass flow rate.
Considering the benefit in the stall margin, forward sweep
application seems to be more preferable in the transonic fan
design. At the same time, the choke margin is decreased by the
forward sweep, and moreover, the specific work of the blade
and therefore pressure ratio will be changed. To recover these
defects of forward sweep, a designer must be forced to modify
another design function such as chord length, blade angles etc
in conventional design practice. As a result, laborious iterations
are required in order to optimize the sweep fan geometry in
order to achieve the correct specific work and pressure ratio.
1 Copyright © 2003 by ASME
 Xing et al, (2001) suggested numerical optimization procedure α Angular co-ordinate of blade surface
of the swept leading edge curve combined with CFD and blade ρ density
profile generator in which incidence, radial distribution of work
input, max thickness, edge thickness, blade stress are held equal. Subscript
Their optimization procedure could improve the design process bl on the blade
of swept fan, however, optimizing blade profiles as well as the m meridional direction
curve shape of swept leading edge should be necessary to r radial component
reduce the shock losses further. In order to reduce the shock s static
losses, it is necessary to design blade profiles to produce more t total or at the blade tip
smooth streamwise pressure field. The direct design approach, z axial component
which involves a direct control of certain geometric parameters θ tangential component
of three-dimensional geometry, will be inefficient to design 0 inlet of the fan
blades that could produce very smooth three dimensional 2 exit of the fan
pressure fields. 3D inverse design method in which the blade
geometry is computed for a specified distribution of blade Superscript
loading should be very efficient to optimize the fan geometry. ￣ pitchwise averaged value
The present paper describes the application of the 3D inverse ～ mass avaraged value
method TURBOdesign-2 developed by Tiow and Zangeneh, + relative to blade pressure surface
(2000), to the design of swept transonic fan geometry. This 3D － relative to blade pressure surface
inverse design method solves the full 3D Euler equations with
viscous effects with the design procedure based on mass-
Description of the inverse design method
averaged swirl as suggested by Hawthorne et al. (1984). The 3D inverse design method TURBOdesign-2 was used in the
Adoption of the 3D inverse design method for swept transonic present study. In this method the blade geometry is computed
blade design should make it possible to improve the based on a specified distribution of the mass averaged swirl
performance by controlling the streamwise loading distribution velocity rV~ and the normal thickness distribution. The method
to be very smooth, reducing the strength of shock developed θ
from the hub to tip in the blade. Furthermore, the 3D inverse computes the necessary blade changes directly from the
method promises to be efficient, since it has no need for direct discrepancies between the target and initial rV~ distribution, see
θ
control of geometrical parameters such as blade camber, chord Tiow and Zangeneh (2000).
and exit angle in order to realize a given blade circulation. The rV~ at the blade leading edge and trailing edge should be
The rotor 67 designed by NASA was chosen as the example of θ
this study which was tested extensively by Strasizer et al. set based on the required specific work for the design
(1989), and has been taken as a good example to investigate the application.
flow field analytically (Jennions et al.(1993), Adamczyk et al. There is a direct relationship between the pressure difference
~
(1993), Hah et al. (1992)). In addition, the rotor 67 has been the and the meridional derivative of rV~ or ∂rVθ / ∂m . In fact it has
θ
subject of study in AGARD report AR275. been shown by Zangeneh (1991) that the enthalpy jump across
the blade for inviscid flow over a thin blade is given as
2π ∂rVθ
NOMENCLATURE h+ − h− = Vmbl (1)
B ∂m
B number of blades
where superscripts “+” and “-“ correspond to values on the
f blade wrap angle(θ value of the blade)
h static enthalpy pressure side and the suction side of the blade, B is the number
m meridional coordinate
of the blades, Vmbl is the meridional velocity on the blades and
m& mass flow rate
P pressure ∂rV θ is the tangentially averaged swirl, m is in the direction of
R Gas constant ∂m
Rt rotor tip radius
r radius streamline in the meridional plane. So the blade loading can be
(r, θ, z) cylindrical-polar co-ordinate system,
∆S Entropy change from inlet to trailing edge of controlled by means of the distribution of ∂rV θ in equation (1).
∂m
the blade
U blade tip speed The blade surfaces α ± are defined as:
V absolute velocity 2π n = 1,2 ,3,.....N
W relative velocity α± = θ − f ±( r,z ) = n (2)
N

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 where f ± = f ± t θ is the tangential coordinate of the points on edge and 29 points in the span-wise direction from hub-to-
2 shroud. Tip clearance flow has very important role in this kind
the pressure and the suction surfaces. of fan application, but no tip clearance model is used in this
The method first of all computes the flow field of the initial study.
blade geometry, which is then modified by the application of an
inviscid slip condition requiring that the local velocity vector
must be aligned with the blade surfaces. 0.28
The inviscid slip condition can be expressed as:
Forward sweep dz Original
V ± ⋅ ∇α ± = 0 . (3) 22% Axial chord SW1
at the tip
Expanding the expression on the both side of the blades as: 0.24
 t  t
∂ f + θ  + ∂( f + θ )
 2  V 2
Upper surface: V z+
= θ − Vr+ (4) 0.20 Leading
∂z r ∂r
edge
 t 

R [m]
∂ f − θ  t
∂( f − θ )
Lower surface: V −  2  Vθ− − 2 (5)
z = − Vr 0.16
Trailing
∂z r ∂r
edge
o
Applying the equations to an initial camber f and adding (4)
0.12
and (5) gives,
o ∂f
o
1 ∂t rV o o ∂f
o
1 ∂t
V zbl + ∆V zo θ = θbl − Vrbl − ∆Vro θ (6)
0.08
∂z 4 ∂z 2 ∂r 4 ∂r
r -0.04 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12
+ −
where V = V + V and ∆V = V + − V − . Z [m]
bl
2
To modify the blade camber line shape so it achieves the target 0.100
~ ~* ~o
rVθ , the correction term [ rVθ − rV ] is introduced into the
θ
Original
equation to give a first approximation of the new camber 0.075
Tip profile
SW1
1
geometry, f ,
~ ~
∂f 1 1 ∂t rV o + [ rVθ* − rVθo ] o ∂f
1 ∂t
− ∆Vro θ (7)
1 0.050
o
V zbl + ∆V zo θ = θbl − Vrbl
∂z 4 ∂z 2 ∂r 4 ∂r
r
rθ [m]

Subtracting equation (6) from (7), the final blade update

equation is 0.025
~ ~
o
1
∂( f − f o
) o
1
∂( f − f o
) rVθ* − rVθo (8)
V zbl + Vrbl =
∂z ∂r r2 0.000
dz Hub profile
where the equation is integrated to give the necessary blade d(rθ ) Sweep to the
Chordwise direction
changes [ f 1 − f o ]. in z - rθ plane
The required blade modification is calculated by integrating the -0.025
0.000 0.025 0.050 0.075 0.100 0.125
equation (8) along the meridional projections of the streamline
Z [m]
on the blade surface. For this integration, the distribution of
wrap angle f must be specified along a quasi-orthogonal, as the
initial condition. This initial wrap angle condition is called a Fig.1 Definition of the sweep application
stacking condition in 3D inverse design terminology.
The Euler solver with the modeling of viscous effects is used to
compute the flow field in the inverse design cycles. Viscous The effects of sweep
modeling in the solver is based entirely on the mixing length Although the effects of the application of sweep on axial fan has
model proposed by Denton(1990). The solver was well been reported in many previous studies (Blaha et al.(2000),
validated using the transonic annular turbine nozzle and NASA Denton et al.(2002), Wadia et al.(1998)), the confirmed results
rotor 67 in the report by Tiow and Zangeneh, (2000). will be shown here in the case of NASA67 fan rotor in advance
The computational domain consists of 118581 grid points; 29 of the inverse design application.
points in the blade-to-blade direction, 141 points in the stream- The definition of the sweep used in this study is explained by
wise direction with 77 points from the leading edge to trailing fig.1. In the meridional plane, the sweep makes the profile shift

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 1.8 42
Original (33.58 kg/s)
39
1.7 SW1 (33.08 kg/s)

rV θ 2 [m 2/s]
Pressure ratio

36
Peak efficiency point
1.6 33

Original 30
1.5 SW1 27
Original (fine mesh) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
1.4
Span
31 32 33 34 35
42
Mass flow rate [kg/s] Original (33.58 kg/s)
39
0.94
SW1 (33.08 kg/s)

rV θ 2 [m 2/s]
36
0.92 Peak efficiency point
33
Efficiency

0.90
30

0.88 27
Original
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.86 SW1
Span
Original (fine mesh)
0.84 Fig.3 Spanwise distribution of the blade
31 32 33 34 35 work (rVθ) and pressure ratio at the trailing
Mass flow rate [kg/s] edge plane, comparison at the peak
0.32 efficiency point for the each fan
42
Original (33.58 kg/s)
39
0.28
rV θ 2/RtUt

SW1 (33.62 kg/s)

rV θ 2 [m 2/s]

36

0.24 Original 33

SW1 30
Original (fine mesh)
0.20 27
31 32 33 34 35 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Span
Mass flow rate [kg/s]
1.80

Fig.2 The performance of the fan 1.75

Pressure ratio

1.70
in the axial direction in which the maximum shift dz is at the tip. 1.65
In the cylindrical (z-rθ) plane, profiles at each spanwise 1.60
Original (33.58 kg/s)
position move along the local camber, so that it is composed of
1.55 SW1 (33.62 kg/s)
the axial shift dz and the tangential shift d(rθ). This sweep
1.50
definition is basically the same as was used by Denton et al.
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(2002) and produce no additional blade stress in the radial
Span
direction if the blade profiles are not modified.
Forward sweep is chosen in this study for its advantage in the Fig.4 Spanwise distribution of the blade
characteristic in the lower flow rate region and stall margin. The work (rVθ) and pressure ratio at the trailing
sweep is applied at the half of the blade above the midspan and edge plane, comparison at the same flow
the maximum axial shift at the tip is 22% of the axial chord at rate condition
the tip and 0% at the midspan. Firstly, there is no change in the Fig.2 shows the performance of the original NASA67 fan
profile at each spanwise position to investigate only the sweep geometry (Original) and sweep geometry (SW1) which were
effects. analyzed using TURBOdesign-2 Euler code with viscous
modelling. The mass averaged value of total pressure and total

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 1.6
1.4
1.2
1

Ps /Pt0
0.8
0.6
Tip 0.4 : Original (33.58 kq/s)
0.2 : SW1 (33.08 kg/s) Tip
Peak efficiency point
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Meridional distance

1.6
1.4
1.2
1

Ps /Pt0
Midspan 0.8
0.6 Midspan
0.4 : Original (33.58 kq/s)
: SW1 (33.08 kg/s)
0.2
Peak efficiency point
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Meridional distance

1.6
Hub
1.4
1.2
1
Ps/Pt0
0.8
(a) Original, m=33.58 kg/s (b) SW1, m=33.08 kg/s 0.6
: Original (33.58 kq/s) Hub
0.4
Fig.5 Blade-to-blade Mach number contours 0.2
: SW1 (33.08 kg/s)
Peak efficiency point
0
temperature at the inlet and exit boundary plane were used to 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
calculate the pressure ratio and the efficiency. The inlet Meridional Distance
boundary locates at about 70% of the hub axial chord upstream
from the leading edge plane. The exit boundary locates at one
axial chord of the hub downstream from the trailing edge plane. Fig.6 Surface pressure distribution
The performance curve of the SW1 indicates a shift towards the total pressure between 0% to 60% span were slightly increased
lower flow rate from the Original fan blade. That is, the choke in SW1 but total pressure decreased near the tip. These figures
flow is reduced and the efficiency at the lower flow is increased
from the Original fan. The peak efficiency of the SW1 is show rVθ and total pressure were decreased especially at the
slightly worse than Original fan. The blade work for the SW1 tip side by the sweep.
fan is 5.3% lower than that of Original at the peak efficiency Fig.5 shows the blade-to-blade Mach number contours near the
& = 33.58 kg/s).
point for the Original ( m hub and at the midspan and near the tip, at the peak efficiency
Also shown in Fig.2 is the predicted characteristic of the point of the Original and SW1 fan. In both cases strong passage
Original fan using finer mesh (454005 grid points). The analysis shock takes place near the tip section. The shock location in
results performed with a 118581 (29×141×29) points shows SW1 moved toward the trailing edge as compared to the
very good agreement with the results by fine grid. From these Original case.
results, 118581 points grid was used in the inverse design In the midspan, the leading edge shock becomes stronger in
process and in performance analysis. SW1 than Original. This change in shock structure at the
midspan is observed in the Original fan if the flow rate is
Fig.3 shows the pitchwise averaged rVθ and total pressure slightly reduced from the peak efficiency point. In other words,
distribution at the trailing edge plane of Original and SW1 fan although the flow rate of the peak efficiency point is decreased
at the peak efficiency points for each fan. Fig.4 is the from the 33.58 kg/s in the Original case to 33.08 kg/s for SW1
comparison of same variables of each fan at the peak efficiency case, the characteristics of the shock structure at the tip section
point of Original fan. At the peak efficiency point, rVθ and

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 changes as if the flow is closer to the choke flow rate. This
Shock formation
causes the drop in rVθ and total pressure around the tip.
Fig.6 shows the surface pressure distributions near the hub, at
the midspan and near the tip. The abrupt increase in the
pressure corresponding to the shock formation moves further
downstream in SW1 case as compared to the Original case.

The effects of forward sweep are summarized here, as follows.

(a) Decreasing the choke margin.
(b) Work and total pressure near the tip is decreased
(c) Improving the performance at the lower flow rate.
(d) The peak efficiency is slightly decreased.
(e) Shock near the tip moves more toward the trailing edge.

To improve the characteristic of the swept fan, two kinds of

design modifications are investigated. First design is to recover
the work at the choke flow side lost in SW1. Second design is
to improve the streamwise loading distribution in such a way to
suppress the shock developed in the passage. These design
modification have been investigated by using 3D inverse design. Fig.7 Loading distribution of the
SW1 fan geometry
RESULTS OF INVERSE DESIGN
Design of the first case SW1IV1
First design example is aimed to recover the characteristic at the
choke flow side by simply increasing the blade work lost by
sweep.
: SW1
At the peak efficiency point of the Original fan, the work : SW1IV1
decreased by 5.3% in the SW1 case. In the SW1IV1 design, the
specified work is increased by this amount from the SW1 case
to keep the same work as the Original fan at the peak efficiency 99% span
point of Original fan.
The specified loading distribution used in the inverse design is 74% span
similar to the distribution obtained in the SW1 loading at its
peak efficiency point as shown in fig.7, but the rVθ at the
trailing edge is simply increased by 5.3%. This is quite easy to
do by using TURBOdesign-2, since the rVθ distribution is
specified.
There is an abrupt jump in the loading distribution near the tip 50% span
and this corresponds to the location where the shock takes place.
If the geometry could be obtained by the inverse design
procedure with the very smooth (smeared out the abrupt 1% span
change) loading distribution, the shock must be suppressed in
that inverse designed geometry. In the first example, there is no
attempt to smooth out the loading distribution shown in fig.7, Fig.8 Comparison of the blade profiles
and similar loading distribution as SW1 is used. After 25 blade
updates in the inverse design cycle, blade geometry is Design of the second case SW1IV2
converged within the 1% error in rVθ from the specified The second case of inverse design is to improve the sweep fan
performance by modifying the streamwise loading distribution
distribution. Fig.8 shows the profile comparison between the
to be very smooth in order to reduce the strength of the shock
SW1 and SW1IV1 (inverse designed one). There is the increase
that develops in the passage. In fig.9 the loading distribution
in camber in SW1IV1 from the hub to midspan, however, only a
near the tip (93.3% span) of the SW1 case is compared with the
small change at the tip section is found.
more smooth distribution specified in the design of SW1IV2
case. This figure indicates an abrupt increase in loading from

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 0.22 to 0.4 meridional distance for the SW1 design and this
corresponds to the onset of the shock wave at this location. This
loading distribution is pitchwise averaged value, then the
location of 0.22 meridional distance is the point where the
shock attached on the pressure surface. In this second inverse
design case, a very smooth loading distribution, as shown by the
red line, is specified as the target loading distribution, with the
aim of reducing the strong shock structure in the passage.
Fig.10 shows the target loading distribution throughout the
blade of the second inverse design case. The non-zero value of
d ( rVθ ) / dm at the leading edge (Meridional distance =0)
implies some amount of incidence has been considered in the
design. If d ( rVθ ) / dm =0, that means zero incidence, while
d ( rVθ ) / dm >0 corresponds to positive incidence and vice
versa.
The feature of the loading distribution around the hub (Radial
index < 10) is its very big value at the leading edge and this
means big incidence at the leading edge has been set. This
loading distribution around the hub is very much similar to the
SW1 case (see Fig.7) and little modification has been made to
the loading of the original blade at the hub. It could be possible
Fig.10 Target loading distribution
to improve the efficiency by reducing the incidence at the hub, for the fan SW1IV2
however this idea is not adopted for that could reduce the choke
margin by closing the throat.
The loading around the midspan is modified to reduce the high
loading at the fore part of the blade. The abrupt change in the
loading distribution around the tip region is smoothed out in the : SW1
specified loading distribution for the design. The basic features : SW1IV2
of the loading distribution of the SW1 fan such as evenly
distributed loading at the hub, fore-loaded at the midspan and
aft-loaded at the tip, are kept the same as SW1. The inverse
design computation starts with the SW1 geometry as the initial 99% span 74% span
geometry and converged after 96 blade updates within the 1%
error in rVθ from the specified distribution.
Fig.11 shows the comparison of the blade profiles between the
SW1IV2 and SW1 at the four spanwise positions from hub to

1600
50% span
1400 SW1 fan with strong shock

1200
1% span
d(rV )/dm [m/s]

1000
Specified smooth
800 loading distribution
to suppress shock
Fig.11 Comparison of the blade profiles
600
(SW1IV2 fan)
400 tip. This figure shows quite a large modification in the blade
profile of SW1IV2 as compared with SW1 design from 74% to
200 Abrupt increase
(effect of strong shock) 100% span. An interesting feature of the SW1IV2 design at
0 around 74% span, is the presence of a so-called “de-camber”
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 region which helps to reduce the shock strength near the suction
Span surface.
Fig.9 Loading distribution at the 93.3% span

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Suction side Pressure side
(a) SW1, m=33.08 kg/s
Suction side Pressure side
(b) SW1IV2, m=33.37 kg/s
Fig.12 Mach contour near the suction and the pressure surfaces
In fig.12, the Mach number contour near the suction and the
pressure surfaces of the SW1IV2 and the SW1 fan geometry are
compared. From the figures on the suction side, one can find the
shock wave developed in the SW1 become very mild in
SW1IV2 from the midspan to the tip. This can be observed near
the pressure surface above 75% span.
Fig.13 and fig.14 show the Mach number contour and the
surface pressure distributions at the 50%, 74% and 99% span of
the SW1IV2 design. The Mach number at the suction side
changes very smoothly from the throat towards the trailing edge
at the 50% and 74% span. The de-camber profile at the 74%
span effectively works to disperse the compression wave of the
leading edge shock on the suction surface.
At the 99% span, shock wave near the pressure surface become
mild, however the maximum Mach number near the suction
surface just upstream of the shock increased above 1.55. This
increases the loss concerned to the shock-boundary layer
interaction on the suction surface, so the wake region develops
further than SW1.
In fig.15 the spanwise enthalpy loss distribution at the trailing
edge plane is presented. The figure shows that the predicted
loss at the trailing edge of SW1IV2 has improved as compared
to the SW1 case and Original case from 20% to 80% of span.
The reason for no improvement in loss near the hub is because
similar loading as SW1 is used for the SW1IV2 design. Near
the tip region, as a result of using higher loading and the
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99% span
74% span
50% span
Fig.13 Blade-to-blade Mach number contours of SW1IV2 fan
formation of above mentioned stronger shock-boundary layer
interaction than SW1, more loss is generated in SW1IV2.
Comparison of the fan performance
Fig.16 shows the performance comparison between SW1IV1,
SW1IV2, SW1 and Original fan geometry. Although the work
of the SW1IV1 at the peak efficiency point of the Original
become the same as Original, efficiency drops from the SW1
and there is no improvement in the choke flow rate.
Denton et al. (2002) described in his paper on the detailed
investigation on the characteristic of the sweep and lean fan, the
change in choke mass flow of the sweep or lean blades was
merely caused by the change of the total throat area. In the case
of forward sweep applied at the tip, annulus area is decreased
around the tip section and this reduces the throat area around
the tip. Thus, the choke mass flow reduces. To compensate this
decrease in throat area around the tip, throat area at the other
section could be increased. For example, shifting the blade
profiles in some area above the hub side to increase the annulus
area around that region could recover the total mass flow when
the forward sweep is adopted around the tip region.
The reason for no improvement in choke mass flow rate of
SW1IV1 can be explained that the throat area does not change
and efficiency is not improved although the pressure ratio is
increased.
The peak efficiency of the SW1IV2 is improved by 0.5 point
from the original and the characteristic in the choke flow side
also recovered much from SW1IV1 for its improvement in
efficiency, though it is not complete compared with the Original
8 Copyright © 2003 by ASME
 1.6
99% span 0.12
1.4
Original
0.10
1.2 SW1

Loss ( ∆ H/U2)
1 0.08 SW1IV2
Ps/Pt0

0.8 0.06
0.6 0.04
0.4 : SW1 (33.08 kq/s)
: SW1IV2 (33.37 kg/s) 0.02
0.2 Peak efficiency point
0.00
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Span
Meridional distance

1.6 Fig.15 Spanwise enthalpy loss distribution

1.4 74% span at the trailing edge plane
1.2 1.8
1
Ps/Pt0

0.8 1.7

Pressure ratio
0.6
0.4 : SW1 (33.08 kq/s) 1.6
Original
: SW1IV2 (33.37 kg/s)
0.2 SW1
Peak efficiency point 1.5 SW1IV1
0 SW1IV2
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
1.4
Meridional distance 31 32 33 34 35
Mass flow rate [kg/s]
1.6 0.94
1.4 50% span
0.92
1.2
Efficiency

1 0.90
Ps/Pt0

0.8 0.88 Original

0.6 SW1
: SW1 (33.08 kq/s) 0.86 SW1IV1
0.4 : SW1IV2 (33.37 kg/s) SW1IV2
0.2 Peak efficiency point 0.84
0 31 32 33 34 35

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Mass flow rate [kg/s]

Meridional distance 0.32

Fig.14 Surface pressure distribution 0.28

rV θ 2/RtUt

fan. It is possible to recover the full choke margin of Original

Original
fan by using a higher value of trailing edge rVθ . 0.24
SW1
SW1IV1
SW1IV2
CONCLUSIONS 0.20
The 3D inverse method TURBOdesign-2 was applied to the 31 32 33 34 35
design of swept transonic fan geometry.
The forward sweep itself works to improve the performance at Mass flow rate [kg/s]
the lower flow rate but at the same time, decreases the choke
margin as compared to the Original fan. Fig.16 Comparison of the fan performance

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 In order to improve the characteristic of the swept fan by
recovering the choke margin lost by sweep, 3D inverse design is
applied in which the blade geometry is computed for a specified
loading distribution and blade work.
The first inverse design example SW1IV1 fan, designed by
using similar loading distribution as the original swept fan but
simply increased the blade work lost by sweep, showed no
improvement in the choke flow rate. The reason for no
improvement in choke mass flow rate of SW1IV1 can be
explained that the throat area does not change for its same axial
chord as swept fan, and efficiency is not improved although the
pressure ratio is increased.
The second inverse designed fan SW1IV2, designed by using
very smooth loading distribution in order to reduce the strength
of the shock, showed 0.5 point improvement in efficiency from
the Original fan and the characteristic in the choke flow side
also recovered much from swept fan, although it does not
exactly match the choke margin of the Original fan.
In this paper it was shown that the 3D inverse design method,
TURBOdesign-2, provides an efficient and effective method of
designing swept fans which can result in:
• Recovery of the specific work and pressure ratio of
swept fan to the level of the Original fan
• Improvement in efficiency of the swept fan by better
control of streamwise blade loading distribution.
Work is currently underway to investigate the effect of tip
leakage flow on the blade geometry and flow field of the
optimized fan.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Mr Paul Hield of Fan Systems, Rolls
Royce Plc who first brought some of the problems associated
with the use of sweep in practical design to the attention of the
authors.
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10 Copyright © 2003 by ASME