An improvement on the efficiency of a single rotor transonic compressor by reducing the shock wave strength on the blade suction surfaces

It is well known that increasing the rotational velocity is an effective way to increase the total pressure ratio. With increasing flow velocity especially under the condition of transonic flow in the supersonic region, where exist strong shock waves, the shock wave loss becomes main and important. Simultaneously, there occurs boundary layer separation due to the shock wave / boundary layer interaction. In the present paper the transonic compressor blades were studied and analyzed to find a proper and simple way to reduce the shock wave loss by optimizing the suction surface configuration or controlling the gradient of isentropic Mach number on the suction surface. A Navier-Stokes solver combined with a modified design algorithm was developed and used. The NASA single rotor for transonic flow compressor was served as a numerical example to show the effectiveness of this method. Two cases for both original and modified rotors were analyzed and compared.