A New Streamline Curvature Throughflow Method for Radial Turbomachinery

This paper describes a newly developed streamline curvature throughflow method for the analysis of radial or mixed flow machines. The code includes curved walls, curved leading and trailing edges, and internal blade row calculating stations. A general method of specifying the empirical data provides separate treatment of blockage, losses, and deviation. Incompressible and compressible fluids are allowed, including real gases and supersonic relative flow in blade rows. The paper describes some new aspects of the code. In particular, a relatively simple numerical model for spanwise mixing is derived, the calculation method for prescribed pressure ratio in compressor bladed rows is described, and the method used to redistribute the flow across the span due to choking is given. Examples are given of the use and validation of the code for many types of radial turbomachinery and these show it is an excellent tool for preliminary design. NOMENCLATURE c = absolute flow velocity cd = dissipation coefficient f = mixing factor Fd = dissipation force h = specific enthalpy iu = unique incidence i, j = indices (calculating planes and streamlines) m = distance along meridional direction m& = mass flow rate M = Mach number N = number of outer iteration