AlAA 90-2242

TURBOGRID: T urbomachinery Applications of

Grid Generation
B. Soni and M. Shih
Mississippi State Univ.
Mississippi State, MS

AIAA/SAE/ASME/ASEE
26th Joint Propulsion Conference
July 16-18, 1990 1 Orlando, FL
For permission to copy or republish, contact the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024

TURBOGRID: Turbomachinery Applications of Grid Generation
by
Dr. Bharat K. Soni* and Ming-Hsin Shih**
Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation
Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762
Numerical grid generation algorithm associated with the field
region about turbomachinerysystems is presented. The algo-
rithm is incorporated as a module, TIGER (Turbomachinery
Interactive Grid genERation) of the modular general purpose
computer code GENIE. Interactive definitions of the mathe-
matical description of blades, hub and shroud with minimal
user interactions, adaption of'the weighted transfiniteinterpo-
lation technique for efficient generation of grid blocks/zones,
automatic construction of the Bezier curves to accomplish
slope continuity, and efficient utilization of IRIS-graphics ca-
pabilities are the salient features of this algorithm which re-
sults in a significant time savings for a given turbomachinery
geometry-grid application.
INTRODUCTION
During this decade, numerical grid generation has evolved as
an essential tool in obtaining numerical solutions of the partial
differential equations of fluid mechanics. A systematic grid
generation procedure which can provide computational a d s
for a wide range of practical geometriesrelated to external/in-
ternal flow problems has been developed by Soni (Refs. 1-5).
The process uses several techniques either separately or in
combination to quickly and economicallygenerate 3D compu-
tational grids for arbitrary geometries. The interactive com-
puter code INGRID (Arnold Engineering Development Cen-
ter AEDC) - initial version) and GENIE (Mississippi State
University - updated version with additional capabilities and
user friendly graphics) have been developed by Soni et. a1
(Refs. 1-5). The built-in geometry modeling capabilities, the
development of a weighted transfinite interpolation tech-
nique, and the state-of-the-art forcing functions for elliptic
solver are the salient features of these codes.
With the advent of supercomputers with very large storage
and high speed, and due to recent advances in computational
fluid dynamics, it has become possible to numerically com-
pute unsteady flow field associated with rotating blade sys-
tems (Refs. 6-8). Numerical grid generation associated with
the field region about turbomachinery systems is difficult be-
cause of the geometrical complexities in the blade shapes
(highlyswept and twisted blades), number of blade rows, and
the multiblock strategies under consideration. A multitude of
techniques (Refs. 9-13) has been developed to address grid
generation associated with rotating blade systems. However,
practical applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
involving turbomachinery applications demand composite
comp~tationalgrids to be generated for very complex 3D con-
figurations in a timely fashion. With respect to this demand,
there arises a strong need for a customized software system
which can address multiblock grid generation associated with
complex turbomachinery related configurations efficiently
*Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering
Senior Member - AIAA
Member - SIAM
**GraduateStudent, Aerospace Engineering
Student Member - AIM
Copyright@ 1990 by Bharat K. Soni. Published by the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. with permission.
AIAA-90-2242
and in a timely fashion. This fact serves as the motivation for
the present research. This paper describesthe results of an on-
going program designed to economically generate "optimal"
grids by enhancing the computer code, GENIE, for such turbo-
machinery applications.
To this end, a module, TIGER (Turbomachinery Interactive
Grid genERation) of the modular general purpose code GE-
NIE has been developed. This customizationhas been accom-
plished with following objectives/features in mind:
Mathematical description of blade into polar as
well as cartesian coordinates allowing interactive
blade definition and geometry perturbations.
Minimum input (user interactions) requiremenis
associated with hub geometry, field outer geome-
try, definition of blocks/zonal or sub-blocks, and
distribution of points on the solid surfaces as well
as in the field.
C-H and H-type grids (user selection).
Reliable and accurate intersection routines (itera-
tive Newton-Raphson or analytical) to allow effi-
cient merging of blades/fins/wings with hub/bo-
dY
Efficient-automatic generation of logical sub-grid
blocksor blocks/zones utilizing weighted transfi-
nite interpolation technique.
Slope continuity at sub-grid block or block/zone
junction surfaces.
Complete control over balanced orthogonal/
smooth grid characteristics.
Interactive graphical visualization of the entire
generation process.
The notation G(NZ, II -+ IF, JI+ JF, KI + KF) is used through-
out this paper to denotea volume, surface, or curve pertinent
to zone (block) number NZ. For example, G(L, I1 + 12, J1
+ J1, K1 + K2), I1 +- 12, K1 # K2 denotes a surface patch
representing a computational sub-plane I1 5 I 12, Kl 5 K
I K2 of the J = Jl plane in zone number L.
Tiger is a full three-dimensional module for grid generation
associated with the turbomachinery applications. It gener-
ates, with much less constructionwork, the composite compu-
tational grids around the complex turbomachinery geometry
with an accuratemathematical description of all solid surfaces
and appropriate grid distribution with respect to the flow
characteristics expected. It is executableon the IRI-D work-
station utilizing user-friendly p o p u p menus and real-time
interactive image visualization. It sets up a linkage between
the framework of the interactive grid generation code GENIE
and the data description of the bladeand hub for the turboma-
chinery. TIGER applies Bezier curves for boundaries and sur-
faces where the slope gradient is very significant for a better
smooth grid distribution.
The paper is organized as follows: The overall TURBOGRID
generation process is discussed including computational
mapping, geometry modeling, and computational modeling.
The mathematical details and discussions on the Bezier curve
is provided in the Appendix. Practical examples are presented
demonstrating the success of the methodologies.
TIGER: OVERALL GENERATION PROCESS
The turbomachinery problems arise in aerodynamic/propul-
sion and hydraulic/marine applications.
The creation of computational grid requires:
1. Computational Mapping - establishing an appropriate
mapping from physical to computational space allowing
proper multiblock strategies,
2. Geometry Modeling - defining an accurate mathematical
description of all solid surfaces in the computational do-
main, and
3. Computational Modeling - Generating an "appropriate"
grid around these surfaces according to some criterion
usually with a specified multiblock strategy, point distri-
bution, smoothness and orthogonality.
COMPUTATIONAL MAPPING
The establishment of a mapping from physical to computa-
tional space is the first step towards generation of computa-
tional grid. This is accomplished by subdividing a complex 3D
flow regime into a collection of contiguous simply connected
blocks or sub-blocks (zones or subvolumes). This subdivision
is customized for turbomachinery configurations. For exam-
ple, an automatic subdivision of a typical two-block propfan
application is presented in Figure 1. The dotted line indizating
"cut" represents the interface surfacebetween two blocks. The
respective mapping from physical to computational space is
presented in Figure 2. Note that the pictorial view presented
here demonstrates only one blade passage and various possi-
blesub-blocks. These sub-blocks are automaticallycreated by
TIGER. Periodicity involved in most of the turbomachinery
applications is utilized to create remaining blocks.
Intermedote
Front Block Block
/Hub. Body of Revolution
Cuwe.
#I Segment #2
'Stro~ght.
- !
!
!
1
Segment #3
"Stiaght"
I Segm nt #4
Figure 1 Automatic block sub-division. Two blade propfan
example.
GEOMETRY MODELING
Geometry modeling is considered as the most time and cost
critical part of any grid generation application. This involves
the mathematical description of all solid surfaces associated
with sub-blocks or blocks visualized by the physical to com-
putational mapping. Each sub-block is bounded by six sur-
faces. Each of these surfaces in turn may be subdivided into
several segments that map into rectangular segments of the
boundary face in the computational space. TIGER has
adopted a "bottom-up" approach to geometry creation, mov-
ing from lowest order entities (points and lines) to surface and
volumes. A typical turbomachinery problem has three major
components: blades, hub, and the shroud. These components
must be accurately defined with proper distribution of points.
To achieve optimal point distribution the surfaces of these
components are treated with application of spline, transfinite
interpolation, Bezier curves, analytical expressions and body
of revolution.
The blade surface is defined by stacking several 2D blade sec-
tions. A pictorial view of the of the typical blade section is pro-
vided in Figure 3 where each point on the blade is described
by its:
Diameter, which is also the parameter for normal-
ization.
Blade angle at 3/4 of the blade radius, which is the
major reference angle of the blade.
Section Radius, which is thedistance of currentsec-
tion away from the rotational axis
Blade changing angle, which is the twisting angle
of current section to the blade angle at 3/4 of the
blade radius.
Distance along the chord line from the point on the
chord line closest to the pitch change axis to the
leading edge. This is a distance parameter which
influences the locations of data points.
Perpendicular distance form the pitch change axis
to the leading edge. This is also a distance parame-
ter which influences the locations of data points.
Chord length of current station, which is to be mul-
tiplied to the blade shape parameters.
Blade shape parameters, which define the location
Rear Block
of the data points. Note that they have normalized
by the chord length of current section.
I
Inflow Outflow
Surfac Surface
"StralghY
Rear Hub
Surface
Front Blade Rear Blade
Figure 2 Computational domain presenting single blade
passage.

PITCH CHANGE AXIS
Figure 3 Blade section.
This information is utilized to generate cartesian coordinate
surface of the blade. The hub geometry is defined using the
body of revolution. A two-dimensional curve is defined using
analytical expressions or discretized set of points and spline
fitting them. Body of revolution is applied specifying therevo-
lution angle and the desired distribution to this curve to for-
mulate hub geometry.
The distribution of points on the geometrical entity under con-
sideration is accomplished by appl ying exponential (for invis-
cid flows) and hyperbolic tangent (for viscous flows) stretch-
ing functions. The stretching parameters are either computed
automaticallyor they are supplied by the user in an interactive
fashion. Analytical forumulation or Newton iterarive method
(Refs. 14-15)is then applied to merge (intersect)the blade and
the hub.
After this merger, the hub and blade surfaces are regenerated
with proper distribution of points. Shroud is treated as the out-
er boundary surface and is defined either by using the geo-
metrical tools available in GENIE (Refs. 1-5) or by reading a
prescribed data file. Bezier curves, discussed later, are used to
guarantee slope continuities. in case of free form solution the
outer boundary surface is automaticallydefined as a function
of the front blade diameter and the type of computational do-
main (H-type or C-H type) under consideration. Due to peri-
odicity in turbomachinery application only one blade passage
of grids is generated in the sub-block containingblades, the re-
maining are created by rotation. Due to these customizations,
geometry models are accomplished with a minimum of user
interactions in an interactive fashion.
applications supported by GENIE (Ref. I) and the two dimen-
sional interactive package developed at NASA/Lewis Re-
search Center (Ref.13). The definition of Bezier curve is auto-
mated for turbomachinery applications in the present
research. The mathematical description of the Bezier curve is
presented in Appendix A. The definition of Bezier curve re-
quired two end points and two control points which form a
four-sided polygon. The advantage of Bezier curve is that it
goes through two end points and takes the other two control
points to generate the direction vectors originated at the end
points. The curve then retains the end points and tangent vec-
tors at two end points same as directional vectors and is
bounded within the polygon formed by four control points.
These properties make Bezier curve attractive for establishing
slope continuities and orthogonality. Key examples of Bezier
definition utilized in TIGER to achieve slope continuities and
orthogonality are presented in Figure 4a-b. Extreme care
must be taken in defining a Bezier curve on thesurface. For ex-
ample, in Figure 4b, the indicated Bezier curves must lie on the
hub surface. This is accomplished by projecting a three dimen-
sional Bezier curve on a two dimensional surface. The projec-
tion is accomplished either analytically or by Newton's iterac-
tive method. The intermediate control points are
automatically evaluated as shown in Figures 4a-b.
The surface patch grids as well as sub-block grid are gener-
ated by utilizing weighted transfinite interpolation (Ref. 1-5).
This technique is formulated as follows:
4a Blade tiptreatment slope continuity of grid lines
emerging off blade tip.

COMPUTATIONAL MODELING
Once the solid boundary surfaces (blades-hubshroud or out-
er boundary surface) are defined with appropriate point dis-
tribution the next step is to evaluate the associate six-bounda-
ry surfaces of each block or sub-block and then generate field
grid within each sub-block. Initially, as presented in Figure 1,
a two blade row application is divided into two-block grid
system. However, in order to accomplish interface surface
smoothness and slope continuities associated with grid lines
emerging off the solid objects (blade tip, blade-hub intersec- 4b Slope continuity of grid lines emerging off leading-
tion, blade-shroud) the entire field is decomposed into vari- trailing edge.
ous subblocks. To this end, automatic generation of Bezier
curve is developed. Bezier curves are widely used in complex Figure 4 Bezier curve control point evaluation.
Surface Grid = (Physical surface eometry) +
(Transfinite interpo%tion) +
(Surface distribution mesh)
where
Surface Distribution Mesh =
(Normalized arc length distribution on
associated four boundaries) +
(Transfiniteinterpolation)
Sub-block Grid = (Outer six surface grids) +
(Transfinite interpolation) +
(Volume distribution mesh)
Volume Distribution Mesh =
(0uter.si.x surface distributions mesh) +
(Transf~nlteinterpolation)

Detailed discussion and appropriate definition can be found
in Refs. 1-5 and 17.
Normalized arc length distribution evaluated from the respec-
tive surfacedistribution mesh is utilized as parameters for cal-
culating discretized Bezier curve representation. For example,
consider the surface patch G ( L.11 12.J1 J2.R- K ) and
+ -+
lot (S i j, Ti j), i = 11,. . . ,I2; j = J1, . . . ,J2 represent the surface
distribution mesh for this surface patch. Note that
Figure 5 Tiger: Console screen.
See page 9 for full console screen.
APPLICATIONS
The successful development of TIGER is demonstrated by
presenting four practical applications. The Hamilton stan-
dard SR7 single rotation propfan with an 8-blade row is dem-
onstrated in Figures 6a-7. Each blade passage is treated as a
single block (94 x 16 x 36). However, the grid generation was
accomplished in eight sub-blocks as it is demonstrated in Fig-
ure 6c. H-H and C-H types of grid were generated. Figure

Then the parameters used for Bezier curve defini-

tionG(L.Il 412.7- y,R+m will beSij fori=I1, ...,12. NO-
tice that

and

Once this curve is defined, the surface grid on the patch is de-
fined by generating two surface patches
G(I,.Il+I2.J147,R+KI and G ( L . ~ ~ + I ~ . J + ~ ~ . K + K I . 6a Flow field region - C-H type configuration.
Even though grid is created in two patches, an application of
weighted transfinite interpolation and properly distributed
points on defined intermediate Bezier curve gives a good
smooth grid on the surface patch. Elliptic solver with proper
forcing functions, if needed, is applied for further smoothing
or orthogonalize the field grids associated with grid blocks.
The graphics capabilities of GENIE have been extended to pro-
vide the user real-time interactive visualization with editing
capability in the IRIS environment. The Silicon Graphic Li-
brary is also applied in TIGER to achieve the p o p u p menu in- 6b Solid surfaces.
put capability. The console screen is decomposed into three
portions by TIGER - a full-screen graphic window serves as
the background with a text window located on the left upper
comer and a graphic window located on the left-lower comer.
A global menu located on the right upper comer of the win-
dow which allows the user to change the global defaults. A
pictorial presentation of the console screen is presented in Fig-
ure 5. The local p o p u p menu entry which allows the user to
choose the option from themenu by toggling the buttons of the
mouse. 6c Sub-block structure for one blade passage.
 The second example is of General Electric counter rotation
propfan with 8 x 8 F4A4 blade design. Each blade passage is
treated as a two block (71 x 16 x 26,61 x 16 x 26) grid system.
However, the grid generation for each blade passage was
achieved in 14 subblocks as it is demonstrated in Figure 7d.
6d Hub definition. The behavior of grid lines on the hub surfaceare demonstrated
in Figure 8a-b. A cross-section presenting a passage and a
crosssection representing all blocks with complete rotation
are presented in Figure 8c. Flow field region demonstrating

6e Behavior of grid lines near the blade leading - trailing edge

on the hub.

7a Flowfield region C-H type configuration.

6f Grid concentration on J = constant surface.

7b Flowfield region H-H type configuration.

6g Behavior of grid lines near the blade.

Figure 6 Hamilton SR-7 standard configuration. 7c Solid surfaces hub and blades.

6f illustrates the surface GO, 1-94,16 + 16,1 -+ 36) for C-H

type grid system. Note that the grid lines are concentrated
near blade as well as near nose. The close-up view of C-H
type grid is presented in Figure 6f. A hub geometry
representing the surface G(L, 1 +94,1+ 16, 1 -+ 36), L = 1,
2, . . . ,8 of all eight blade passage is provided in Figure 6 d.
7d Sub-block structure - one blade passage.
Observe the concentration of points near blade tip, constant
radius blade-tip cut, and overall smoothness of the grid. Figure 7 F4A4 - Counter Rotating propfan configuration.
C-H type and H-H type grid configurationsare presented in
Figure 7a-b. Figure 7c demonstrates the distinct views indi-
cating solid surfacesmodeling hub and bloades. Figures 9a-b
represents the J=constantsurface for both C-H and H-H type
grids. Observe the concentration of grid lines near blades,
nose and hub. The close-up of hub surfaceshowing blade bot-
tom is shown in Figure 8b. Observe the Bezier curve joining
the trailing edge of the front blade and the leading edge of the
rear blade. Grids shown in Figures 8-9 demonstrates the
smoothness, near orthogonalityand point distribution accom-
plished in these applications.
8a Grid concentration on hub.
8b Behavior of grid lines near blade leading-trailing edges.
8c Grid lines behavior I = constant surface.
Figure 8 F4A4 - Grid line behavior.
9a C-H type configurationconcentrationnear blades and hub.
9b H-H type configuration concentration near blades and
hub.
Figure 9 Grid line behavior J = constant surface F4A4
configuration.
Overall configuration of the missile with fins/wings/counter
rotating prop fans is presented in Figure 10a. The solid sur-
faces associated with rnissile/wings/fins/blades is shown in
Figure lob. The smoothness and well distributed grid pres-
ented in Figure 10cdemonstrates the J=constantsurface in the
blocks containingblades. A cross section of J=constantsurface
and I=constant surface is presented in Figure 10d.
Final example represents the internal flow configuration in-
volving rot&47geometry. In this example, shroud (Figures
lla-e) is treated as the outer boundary. The axial and radial
crosssections are presented in ~ i g u r ellb-c.
i Figures lld-e
demonstrates the grid concentration on hub and shroud as
well as applicatioiof Bezier curves in resolving slope conti-
nuities. Observe the Bezier curves between blade tips proj-
ected on the shroud surface (Figure lle). Well distributed
smooth and near orthogonal grids presented in Figures I l k
demonstrate the success of the presented methodologies.
10a Missile with wings / fins / counter rotating propfans
physical configuration.
 lob Solid surfaces body / wings / fins / blades.

SUMMARY
A numerical grid generation algorithm associated with the
field region about turbomachinery system is developed. The
algorithm is cast into a module, TIGER of the modular general
purpose grid generation code GENIE. Real time visualization
of overall grid generation process, interactive definitions of
the mathematicaldescription of turbomachinerycomponents,
automatic construction of Bezier curve to accomplish slope
continuities and orthogonality, weighted transfinite interpo-
lation techniques, efficient utilization of IRIS graphics capabil-
ity, and the creation of input history file for quick regeneration
of the grid involving perturbatidns and stretching
changes are the salient features of this code which results in a
significant time saving for turbomachinery grid applications.
Various examplesare presented to demonstrate the methodol-
ogies. These examplesillustrate the flexibilityof mesh concen-
tration, control of grid smoothnessand efficiency of the overall
grid generation process.
APPENDIX A - BEZIER CURVE
Bezier curves are widely used in computer aided design/com-
puter aided engineering (CAD/CAE). A (n + 1) tk order (n t h
degree) parametric Bezier curve is defined as

10c Grid concentration near blades.

where

(iQ $bi (1) > 0

and the Pi's are vertices of the Bezier control polygon. The
following properties of Bezier curves are quite useful in grid
generation as it can be observed in Figure A.l:
;a
which implies that Bezier curve is invariant under translation
and rotation. In other words, the curve is independent of the
choice of the coordinate system
This property guarantees that the curve will lie within the con-
vex well generated by the vertices of its control points which
in turn gives an indication of the shape of the curve.
b'(0) = n (PI-Po)
(iii)
b'(1) = n (P. -P,,)
This provides the control over the direction of the curve at end
points.
A cubic Bezier curve is widely applied in the present applica-
tion. The matrix form of the cubicBezier curve is b (t) =
TBP where
T - primitive polynomial basis = (? 1' 1 1)
B - basis change matrix

and P - control points vector

l l c Radial cross section.

10d J = constant and I = constant surfaces.

Figure 10 Missile configuration.

l l d Grid distribution on the hub

l l a Geometry description: shroud hub, blades.

l l e Grid distribution on the shroud.

l l b Axial cross section demonstrating grid concentration. Figure 11 Rotor - 67 configuration.

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