Design Method for Turbomachine Blades With Finite Thickness by the Circulation Method

This paper presents a procedure to extend a well-developed fully three-dimensional inverse method for infinitely-thin blades to handle blades with finite thickness. In this inverse method, the prescribed quantities are the blade pressure loading and the blade thickness distributions, and the calculated quantity is the blade geometry. The method is formulated in the fully inverse mode whereby the blade shape is determined iteratively using the flow-tangency condition along the blade surfaces. This technique is demonstrated here in the first instance for the design of cascaded blades in inviscid and incompressible flows. Design calculations are presented for an inlet guide vane, an impulse turbine blade, and a compressor blade. Consistency checks are carried out for these design calculations using a panel analysis method and the analytical solution for the Gostelow profile.