Automatic and Rapid Throughflow-Based Optimal Design Method for Multi-Stage Axial-Flow Compressors

  • LEI Fan ,
  • ZHANG Xiawen ,
  • JU Yaping ,
  • ZHANG Chuhua
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  • 1. Department of Fluid Machinery and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
    2. State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
    3. Production and Environmental Department, China Huaneng Group., Co., Ltd., Beijing 100031, China

Online published: 2025-01-09

Supported by

This work is financially supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant No. 2017-II-0006-0020), National Key Research and Development Project of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0200901), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51776154) and Shaanxi Key Research and Development Project (Grant No. 2018KWZ-01).

Copyright

Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024

Abstract

Throughflow design has the advantages of less time consumption and large optimization space, and thus is the corner stone of advanced design system of multi-stage axial-flow compressors. The majority of relevant studies were limited to the throughflow inverse designs, and quite few works have been till now devoted to the throughflow optimal designs. In this work, an automatic and rapid throughflow-based optimal design method is proposed for axial-flow compressors in which a throughflow inverse design solver is embedded in optimal genetic algorithm to improve the design efficiency of axial-flow compressor. Two types of design parameters in the throughflow inverse design of axial-flow compressors, i.e., swirl and shroud curve, are simultaneously used to optimize both the blade shape and flow path. The proposed method is validated by the redesign optimization of the benchmark axial-flow compressor NASA Stage 35, and the CFD predictions show that the throughflow-based optimization leads to 1.18% efficiency benefit at design condition. The proposed method is then utilized to the two-dimensional throughflow optimal design of a large-scale 6.5-stage axial-flow industrial compressor. The optimal design results are confirmed by CFD predictions, indicating that the proposed method can effectively improve the design adiabatic efficiency of the compressors by 1.09% within a few minutes on desk-top computer. Two throughflow design implications are also obtained for advanced axial-flow industrial compressors. This work could enhance the capability of throughflow design method and has engineering application value to explore the throughflow optimization space of multi-stage axial-flow compressors.

Cite this article

LEI Fan , ZHANG Xiawen , JU Yaping , ZHANG Chuhua . Automatic and Rapid Throughflow-Based Optimal Design Method for Multi-Stage Axial-Flow Compressors[J]. Journal of Thermal Science, 2025 , 34(1) : 77 -91 . DOI: 10.1007/s11630-024-2005-1

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