
254 AIRCRAFT ENGINE DESIGN
of that information in one chapter, the readers are urged to use the open literature
generously in their work. Special attention is drawn to Refs. 1 and 2, which are
textbooks covering turbomachinery and many related propulsion design subjects.
They also contain excellent lists of references for those who wish to listen directly
to the masters.
To restrain the growth of this textbook, material on such nonaxial turbomachin-
ery components as centrifugal compressors, folded combustors, and radial turbines
has not been included. These devices play an important role in propulsion, partic-
ularly in small engines, and can be a part of the best design solution. References
2 and 8-11 will provide a starting point for their study.
Finally, when discussing the parts of compressors and turbines, one finds a
proliferation of terminology in the open literature. In particular, the stationary
airfoils, which are usually suspended from the outer case, are frequently referred
to as stators, vanes, or nozzles, whereas the rotating airfoils, which are usually
attached to an internal disk, are often called rotors or blades. We have attempted
to use uniform, generic terms, but great care is advised as you move through this
thicket.
8.2 Design Tools
This material outlines the development and summarizes the results for several
key building blocks used in the design of axial flow rotating machines. These
tools are consistent with those used throughout this textbook in the sense that they
correctly represent the dominant physical phenomena. The results will therefore
faithfully reproduce the main trends of the real world, as well as numbers that
are in the right ballpark, but without the excessive costs that accompany extreme
accuracy. An additional benefit of this approach is an analytical transparency that
leads to clearer understanding and sounder reasoning.
These analyses provide all of the procedures required to reach usable results.
Their development draws heavily on the material found in Ref. 11. This includes,
in particular, the compressor and turbine nomenclature and velocity diagram nota-
tion, both of which are consistent with that found in the standard turbomachinery
literature, and with the detailed axial flow compressor and turbine design programs
of AEDsys designated, respectively, as COMPR and TURBN.
8.2.1 Fan and Compressor Aerodynamics
8.2. 1. I Axial flow, constant axial velocity, repeating stage, repeating
row, mean-line design.
The primary goal of this section is to describe a method
that will allow you to rapidly create advanced fan and compressor stage designs
and automatically generate very reliable initial estimates for the truly enormous
amounts of technical data required as input for COMPR. This shortcut is the critical
ingredient that allows you to make your own design choices, while revealing the
essence of how fan and compressor stages behave. If the method strikes you as
outrageously effortless, you may find comfort in the fact that similar methods are
used as the starting point in industry.
The basic building block of the aerodynamic design of axial flow compressors is
the cascade, an endlessly repeating array of airfoils (Fig. 8.1) that results from the
conceptual "unwrapping" of the stationary (stator) or rotating (rotor) airfoils. Each