Multi-Row Inverse Method Based on the Adjoint Optimization

The conventional inverse method possesses several disadvantages: experience-dependence, inconvenience for multi-row application and lots of human intervention. This hinders it from becoming a routine design tool. In the present paper, those mentioned shortcomings are conquered by combining the inverse method with a multi-row adjoint method, which could give an automatic and optimized design in a multi-row enviroment. The principles of the inverse method and adjoint method are first introduced. Then a derivation for the adjoint equation based on the Euler inverse method is conducted, and the corresponding adjoint boundary conditions are deeply discussed. After that, the developed inverse method is validated by recovering a turbine stator from a different initial shape. And the validity of the proposed adjoint based inverse method are illustrated by the redesign of a 1-1/2 turbine stage. Finally a comparison is made between the inverse method, the adjoint method based inverse method and the adjoint method based direct method.