Effects of Manufacturing Deviations on Core Compressor Blade Performance

Abstract

There has been recent incentive for understanding the possible deleterious effects that manufacturing deviations can have on compressor blade performance. This is of particular importance in today's age, as compressor designs are pushing operating limits by employing fewer stages with higher loadings and are designed to operate at ever higher altitudes. Deviations in these advanced, as well as legacy designs, could negatively affect the performance and operation of a core compressor; thus, a numerical investigation to quantify manufacturing deviations and their effects is undertaken. Data from three radial sections of every compressor blade in a single row of a production compressor is used as the basis for this investigation. Deviations from the compressor blade design intent to the as-manufactured blades are quantified with a statistical method known as principle component analysis (PCA). MISES, an Euler solver coupled with integral boundary-layer calculations, is used to analyze the effects that the aforementioned deviations have on compressor blade performance when the inlet flow conditions produce a Mach number of approximately 0.7 and a Reynolds number of approximately 6.5e5. It was found that the majority of manufacturing deviations were within a range of plus or minus 4 percent of the design intent, and deviations at the leading edge had a critical effect on performance. Of particular interest is the fact that deviations at the leading edge not only degraded performance but significantly changed the boundary-layer behavior from that of the design case.