Multidisciplinary Design of a Three Stage High Speed Booster

The paper describes a multidisciplinary conceptual design of an axial compressor, targeting a three stage, high speed, high efficiency booster with a design pressure ratio of 2.8. The paper is outlined in a step wise manner starting from basic aircraft and engine thrust requirements, establishing the definition of the high speed booster interface points and its location in the engine. Thereafter, the aerodynamic 1D/2D design is carried out using the commercial throughflow tool SC90C. A number of design aspects are described, and the steps necessary to arrive at the final design are outlined. The SC90C based design is then carried over to a CFD based conceptual design tool AxCent, in which a first profiling is carried out based on a multiple circular arc blade definition. The design obtained at this point is referred to as the VINK compressor. The first stage of the compressor is then optimized using an in-house optimization tool, where the objective functions are evaluated from detailed CFD calculations. The design is improved in terms of efficiency and in terms of meeting the design criteria put on the stage in the earlier design phases. Finally, some aeromechanical design aspects of the first stage are considered. The geometry and inlet boundary conditions of the compressor are shared with the turbomachinery community on a public server. This is intended to be used as a test case for further optimization and analysis.