%0 Journal Article %T Application of the Ball-Spine Algorithm to Design Axial-Flow Compressor Blade %J Scientia Iranica %I Sharif University of Technology %Z 1026-3098 %A Madadi, A. %A Kermani, M. J. %A Nili-Ahmadabadi, M. %D 2014 %\ 12/01/2014 %V 21 %N 6 %P 1981-1992 %! Application of the Ball-Spine Algorithm to Design Axial-Flow Compressor Blade %K Ball-Spine algorithm %K Inverse design %K Compressor blade profile %K Target pressure distribution %K Computed pressure distribution %R %X In this paper, a novel inverse design algorithm called as Ball Spine algorithm is developed to design the blade to blade flow passage of axial-flow compressors. The algorithm considers the blade surfaces as a set of virtual balls that move freely along the specified directions, called ‘spines’. To start the solution an initial guess for the blade geometry is required. Then the blade-to-blade flow field is solved using an in-house inviscid solver. Comparing the computed pressure distribution (CPD) with the target pressure distribution (TPD) over the blade surfaces, gives guidelines in differential movements for the balls to obtain a modified geometry. For the modified geometry, new grids are automatically generated by an algebraic-elliptic grid-generator. The sequence is repeated until the target pressure is met. An error parameter, ∆PD, indicating the difference between CPD and TPD along the suction and pressure surfaces is computed while the blade geometry evolves toward the target geometry. For the initial guess, ∆PD is obtained as 13700 Pa, while after 100 generations, ∆PD is reduced to 222 Pa. %U https://scientiairanica.sharif.edu/article_3590_895425928dd1c01243c5e0b9a6ec3bf6.pdf