Journal of Thermal Science Vol.31, No.

1 (2022) 179188

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-022-1522-6 Article ID: 1003-2169(2022)01-0179-10

Influence of Hub Contouring on the Performance of a Transonic Axial

Compressor Stage with Low Hub-Tip Ratio

LI Xinlong1,2,3,4, LIU Shuaipeng1,2,3,4, GENG Shaojuan1,2,3,4*, ZHANG Hongwu1,2,3,4

1. Advanced Gas Turbine Laboratory, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
100190, China
2. Innovation Academy for Light-Duty Gas Turbine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
3. Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy and Power, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
4. School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

© Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer
Nature 2022

Abstract: The rotor blade height with low hub-tip ratio is relatively longer, and the aerodynamic parameters
change drastically from hub to tip. Especially the organization of flow field at hub becomes more difficult. This
paper takes a transonic 1.5-stage axial compressor with low hub-tip ratio as the research object. The influence of
four types of rotor hub contouring on the performance of transonic rotor and stage is explored through numerical
simulation. The three-dimensional numerical simulation results show that different hub contourings have obvious
influence on the flow field of transonic compressor rotor and stage, thus affecting the compressor performance.
The detailed comparison is conducted at the rotor peak efficiency point for each hub contouring. Compared with
the linear hub contouring, the concave hub contouring can improve the flow capacity, improve the rotor working
capacity, and increase the flow rate. The flow field near blade root and efficiency of transonic rotor is improved.
The convex hub contouring will reduce the mass flow rate, pressure ratio and efficiency of the transonic rotor.
Full consideration should be given to the influence of stator flow field by hub contouring.

Keywords: transonic compressor, low hub-tip ratio, hub contouring, aerodynamics performance, numerical
simulation

1. Introduction necessary to develop a new aerodynamic design

technology for high performance transonic compressors,
Currently, the inlet stage of multi-stage axial one of which is to adopt specific hub contouring.
compressor is generally designed with highly loaded I n r e c e n t ye a r s , w i t h t h e i mp r o v e me n t o f
transonic stage, whose blade twist along height and three-dimensional design level, designers realize that the
meridional flow path change greatly. As the compressor hub contouring with uniform axial shrinkage is not the
aerodynamic load increases, not only the reverse pressure optimal design. Different hub contourings will produce
gradient in the flow direction increases, but also the different design performance. LeJambre et al. [1] used
circumferential pressure gradient increases, which will the concave hub contouring for a 11-stage high pressure
lead to more serious secondary flow. Therefore, it is axial compressor rotor. The results show that the radial

Article type: Contributed by Asian Congress on Gas Turbines 2020 (August 18–19, 2021, China).
Received: Oct 15, 2021 Corresponding author: GENG Shaojuan E-mail: gengsj@iet.cn
www.springerlink.com
180 J. Therm. Sci., Vol.31, No.1, 2022

Nomenclature  Solidity
D diffusion factor  Reaction
i* total enthalpy/J·kg–1 Subscripts
i static enthalpy/J·kg–1 1 inlet of compressor
m mass flow rate/kg·s–1 2 outlet of rotor
p* total pressure/Pa 3 outlet of compressor
SM stall margin Nor normalized mass flow
T* total temperature/K r rotor
w relative velocity/m·s–1 r-in inlet of rotor
 isentropic efficiency s stage
 *
total pressure ratio t tangential component

force generated by the hub contouring can inhibit the root compressor blockage and make the stages matching more
corner separation trend on blade suction surface. And the reasonable. Li et al. [8] optimized hub contouring of the
compressor pressure and efficiency are improved. On the inlet transonic rotor of a four-stage compressor. The
basis of LeJambre’s research, Stringham et al. [2] results show that the optimized contouring can improve
adopted the hub contouring technique in a 9-stage axial the shock structure and compressor performance. Sun et
compressor. The results show that the thickest part of al. [9] studied three shapes of hub contouring in a
boundary layer moves upward from the corner of the hub transonic rotor with high load and low reaction. The
suction surface near the middle chord, and the boundary results show that the slope of the endwall affects the
layer in the corner is almost eliminated from the last 20% location and intensity of corner separation. In addition,
chord. Hoeger et al. [3] conducted a comparative the hub contouring will also change the axial velocity
experiment on the flow characteristics of transonic and static pressure distribution along the flow direction,
cascades with linear and concave hub contourings, which thereby affecting the maximum load position on blade.
reveal that concave hub contouring can unload the blade The above researches about hub contouring focus on
boundary layer near the hub to reduce the loss coefficient.
subsonic and transonic compressor rotor, high-load
In addition, the hub contouring not only affects the flow
compressor cascade. Generally, it will have a significant
near the hub, but also affects the flow from the hub along
impact on the flow field of the next row of rotor blade
the span to a considerable distance. Huang et al. [4]
when the hub contouring changes. In addition,
adopted the asymmetric endwall contouring method to
compressor designers prefer to use low hub-tip ratio
optimize a high-load compressor cascade. Compared
design to obtain greater flow capacity recently.
with the planar cascade, it can change the secondary flow
structure of the endwall. In addition, the asymmetric Consequently, the relative thickness of endwall boundary
endwall generates a corner vortex near the suction layer will also be reduced at the same time. The effect of
surface, which inhibits the development of passage hub contouring on a low hub-tip ratio compressor needs
vortex to the suction surface and reduces the flow to be studied further. Therefore, in order to study the
separation near the suction surface. Xu et al. [5] studied above problems, this paper takes a 1.5-stage transonic
the effects of four different hub contourings on the compressor with low hub-tip ratio and aspect ratio as the
performance of transonic rotor at the inlet of a research object. Firstly, the influence of hub contouring
compressor. The results show that the hub contouring on rotor performance is studied. Secondly, the influence
mainly changes the performance by changing the load of hub contouring on stator flow field is considered to
distribution on blade surface, reducing or increasing the explore its influence on compressor stage performance.
root blockage and changing the strength of the radial flow.
Yang et al. [6] optimized the hub contouring of a 2. Research Object and Hub Contourings
transonic inlet fan by using the traditional area rule
method of external flow. The results show that the flow The research object of this paper is the inlet transonic
field near rotor blade tip is improved, which results in a 1.5 stage of a high pressure multi-stage axial compressor,
decrease in the overall loss. Cui et al. [7] proposed the which consists of three rows of blades, the inlet guide
blockage area rule of hub contouring for multistage axial vane, the rotor blade and the stator vane. The basic
compressor. On this basis, the hub contouring of a design parameters of the compressor are shown in Table
four-stage axial compressor was optimized. The results 1. The three-dimensional model of the compressor is
show that the hub contouring modification can reduce the shown in Fig. 1.
LI Xinlong et al. Influence of Hub Contouring on the Performance of a Transonic Axial Compressor Stage 181

Table 1 Design parameters of 1.5 stage transonic compressor 3. Numerical Method

Number of Hub-tip Aspect
Solidity
blade ratio ratio In this paper, the NUMECA Fine/Turbo solver is used
IGV 42 0.39 1.04 5.54 for steady three-dimensional numerical simulation. The
Rotor 16 0.37 1.58 1.4 finite volume scheme and the Spalart-Allmaras
Stator 40 0.44 1.28 4.2 turbulence model are used to solve the three-dimensional
compressible Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes
equations of each component in the relative coordinate
system, and the working fluid is perfect air. The
steady-state flow solution is achieved at the convergence
of a four stage explicit Runge-Kutta integration scheme,
and the multi-grid method is used to accelerate the
convergence. The inlet is the standard atmospheric
condition, and the total temperature, total pressure and
flow angle are given. Mass flow rate is given as outlet
boundary at design condition and static pressure is given
Fig. 1 Three-dimensional model of the compressor at other conditions. The solid wall is adiabatic and
non-slip condition. For the four types of hub contouring,
In order to study the influence of hub contouring on the same grid topology is adopted. The calculation
the flow field and performance of the transonic conditions are consistent, so as to eliminate the influence
compressor, four hub contourings are designed in this of factors such as grid and boundary set on the
paper: linear, convex and two concave types, as shown in calculation results.
Fig. 2. The original hub contouring of rotor blade is To assess the influence of computational grid size on
linear, named Linear. Concave 1 and Concave 2 are both the accuracy of calculation results, the study of grid
Concave curves, which are symmetric curves about the independence was carried out on four different amount of
black dotted line. The green dotted curve is convex, grids. It is found in Fig. 3 that the simulation results tend
which is the symmetric curve of Concave 1. In order to to be consistent when the grid size exceeds 3 million. The
ensure the smoothness and continuity of the four curves, computational grids of the four hub contourings are all
all of them are constructed by two segments of 3 order about 3.2 million, and the grid of the rotor domain is
Bezier curves. The hub curves at leading edge and about 1.4 million. The rotor tip clearance is 0.4 mm, and
trailing edge of rotor blade are connected by transition
curves with the rest of hub curve to ensure that the
curvature of the entire hub curve is continuous [10]. The
cases with different configurations are listed in Table 2.

Fig. 3 Grid independence verification

Fig. 2 Schematic of four hub contourings

Table 2 Cases with different configurations

Case Hub contouring
A Linear
B1 Concave 1
B2 Concave 2
C Convex
Fig. 4 Computation grid of 1.5-stage axial compressor
182 J. Therm. Sci., Vol.31, No.1, 2022

17 layers of grids are arranged radially in the clearance to stage. In this paper, under the same section area of the
capture the change of clearance flow as accurately as rotor inlet and outlet, the reason for the change of flow
possible. The grid diagrammatic sketch is shown in Fig. 4. capacity of the four hub contourings is only the change of
The transonic compressor of NASA rotor 37 is used as throat area near rotor root. The result of Case A is used as
the research object to verify the numerical calculation baseline for comparison. As concave hub contourings,
method. The comparison between the calculated Case B1 and Case B2 improve the flow capacity. The
performance curve and experimental data [11, 12] is total pressure ratio-mass flow rate curve moves to the
shown in Fig. 5. The total pressure ratio is in good upper right compared with Case A. At the same mass
agreement with the experimental results, where the flow rate, the pressure ratio of Case B1 is larger than
calculated peak efficiency is about 2% lower than the Case B2 near choke condition, but slightly lower than
experimental value. The above results are mainly Case B2 at small flow rate. A convex hub contouring is
consistent with the calculation results given in Refs. [13, used in Case C, whose pressure ratio curve shifts to the
14], which indicates that the calculation method used in lower left. From the perspective of efficiency change, the
this paper is reliable. peak efficiency of Case C is the lowest, and the peak
efficiency of the other three cases are almost the same.
The characteristic curves show that changing the hub
shape can improve the efficiency of the compressor at
large mass flow rate. Case B1 has the maximum
improvement, followed by Case B2, and the efficiency of
Case C is lower than that of Case A. The definition of
compressor stall margin in this paper is as follows:
  *  ref
* 
SM   NS *
 1  100% (3)
  ref mref 
*
where  NS is total pressure ratio at near stall point;
*
 ref is total pressure ratio at design flow point; mNS is
Fig. 5 Performance curves of NASA rotor 37 mass flow rate at near stall point and mref is mass flow
rate at design flow point. Compared with Case A, the
4. Results and Discussions relative changes of stall margin of other hub contourings
are –4.39%, –1.70% and 29.6% for Case B1, Case B2
In order to explore the reasons for the influence of hub and Case C.
contouring on compressor performance, the following Hub contouring is only used at the root of rotor, so it is
analysis will be carried out from the aspects of necessary to investigate its effect on rotor performance
compressor stage characteristics change, rotor separately. In this paper, the rotor performance
characteristics change and stator characteristics change. characteristics are calculated from compressor inlet to
And flow field analyses at rotor peak efficiency points rotor outlet. The calculation results are shown in Fig. 7.
are conducted to reveal the causes for above changes. The rotor total pressure ratio (  r* ) and isentropic
4.1 Influence on compressor performance map efficiency (r) are respectively defined as:
The 1.5-stage compressor performance maps with four  r*  p2* p1* (4)
 k 1
hub contourings are shown in Fig. 6. The stage total
p 
* k
2 p1* 1
pressure ratio (  s* ) and isentropic efficiency (s) are r  (5)
respectively defined as: T
*
2 
T1*  1
 s*  p3* p1* (1) where p2* is mass weighted averaged absolute total
 k 1
p 
k
*
p1* 1 pressure at rotor outlet and T2* is mass weighted
3
s  (2) averaged absolute total temperature at rotor outlet.
T
3
*
T1*  1 For rotor total pressure ratio, the four hub contourings
where p1* and p3* are mass weighted averaged have the similar influencing trend as the effects on stage
total pressure ratio. There is a big gap between the effects
absolute total pressure at inlet and outlet of stage on rotor efficiency and stage efficiency. In terms of rotor
respectively and T1* and T3* are mass weighted efficiency change, Case B2 has the highest peak
averaged absolute total temperature at inlet and out of efficiency, followed by Case A, Case B1 and Case C.
LI Xinlong et al. Influence of Hub Contouring on the Performance of a Transonic Axial Compressor Stage 183

Case C has the lowest efficiency under large flow below 40% blade span. Below 10% blade span, the
conditions. The efficiency of Case B1 is the lowest at efficiency of concave hubs (Case B1 and Case B2) is
small flow conditions, and the efficiencies of the other higher. On the contrary, Case C has the highest efficiency
three cases have little difference.
Table 3 Relative change of performance parameters at rotor
peak efficiency point
Mass Stage Rotor Rotor
Stage
Case flow pressure efficiency pressure
efficiency/%
rate/% ratio/% /% ratio/%

B1 0.303 504 0.132 345 –0.062 22 –0.054 25 0.1405

B2 0.325 687 0.181 462 –0.061 06 0.136 19 0.2575
C –0.562 64 –0.289 25 –0.159 –0.171 62 –0.308

Fig. 6 Stage performance of 1.5-stage compressor

Fig. 7 Rotor performance of 1.5-stage compressor

Fig. 8 Spanwise distribution of isentropic efficiency at rotor
4.2 Influence on rotor performance and flow field outlet
In this section, the peak efficiency points in rotor
characteristic lines of four hub contourings are selected
to study the changes of rotor performance and flow field.
Table 3 lists the relative characteristics changes of the
three cases compared to that of the baseline (Case A)
under rotor peak efficiency condition. The mass flow rate
and total pressure ratio of Case B1 are improved, and the
rotor and stage peak efficiency drops slightly. All the
performance characteristics of Case C have declined to
some extent. The mass flow rate, stage and rotor total
pressure ratio and rotor peak efficiency of Case B2 have
improved, but the stage peak efficiency has decreased
slightly. Both Case B1 and Case B2 are better than Case
A when small efficiency losses are ignored.
Comprehensively considered, Case B2 is the best hub
contouring.
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show the spanwise distribution of
isentropic efficiency at rotor outlet and stage reaction.
From the efficiency distribution curve, it can be seen that
the regions where efficiency changes are concentrated Fig. 9 Spanwise distribution of compressor stage reaction
184 J. Therm. Sci., Vol.31, No.1, 2022

between 10% and 40% blade span, Case B1 has the even mainstream zone. For the baseline compressor A,
lowest efficiency and Case B2 is equivalent to Case A. It there is a small corner separation at blade root near
can also be seen from the efficiency distribution that the trailing edge, and there is also an obvious separation of
high loss region appears above 80% blade span and the the suction surface at 30% blade span. For case B1,
flow field affected by hub contouring is in the region although the suction surface separation of 30% blade
with high efficiency. In conclusion, influence of hub span was improved, the corner separation of blade root
contouring on low hub-tip ratio compressor has limited became more serious. For Case B2, the corner separation
efficiency improvement, which only concentrated on the of blade root and the suction surface separation at 30%
region near hub. In the compressor, reaction is the static blade span are almost eliminated. For Case C, the corner
pressure rise distribution of rotor in the stage separation was weakened, but the separation range on
environment. The reaction of compressor is defined as: suction surface at 30% blade span was significantly
i i enlarged.
  *2 1* (6) Fig. 11 is the distribution of pitch averaged relative
i3  i1
Mach number at 5% blade span. For the linear hub of
where i1* , i3* are mass weighted average total enthalpy baseline compressor Case A, the flow process through
at inlet and outlet of stage respectively; i1 and i2 are static blade passage is mainly divided into three stages: first
enthalpy at rotor inlet and outlet. The compressor in this deceleration, then acceleration and deceleration at last.
paper is designed with high reaction. From blade root to For Case B1, the hub expands downward first and then
tip, the reaction gradually increases. The reaction of four shrinks. This will extend the first deceleration and
cases has little difference above 50% blade span. Case following acceleration of the airflow. The results show
B2 has a significant decrease in reaction compared with that such hub contouring will intensify corner separation
other hubs near blade root. This indicates that Case B2 of rotor root. For Case B2, the hub shape shrinks at a
reduces the static pressure rise capacity near rotor blade slope lower than Case A and rapidly shrinks at the
root. trailing edge with large slope. This will shorten the
Fig. 10 is the limiting streamline of four hub airflow itinerary of first deceleration and following
contourings on blade suction surfaces and S1 surface at acceleration. Due to the rapid contraction of hub shape
0% and 30% blade span. Due to the apparent secondary near trailing edge, the airflow turns to accelerate, and the
flow phenomenon at rotor outlet, hub contouring has a corner separation is eliminated. For Case C, the convex
significant impact on the flow field near blade root and hub shape causes more severe radial flow due to hub

Fig. 10 Limiting streamline of four hub contourings on blade suction surface and S1 surface at 0% and 30% blade span
LI Xinlong et al. Influence of Hub Contouring on the Performance of a Transonic Axial Compressor Stage 185

upward contraction. In addition, the convex hub will also

cause the airflow in blade passage to be accelerated,
which caused the peak velocity larger than the inlet
relative velocity. This will increase the deceleration
gradient of airflow, leading to the rapid development of
boundary layer on suction surface and aggravating corner
separation. In summary, hub contouring mainly changes
the velocity distribution of airflow in blade passage by
changing the flow area along streamwise direction,
thereby affecting the compressor performance.

Fig. 12 Spanwise distribution of diffusion factor for rotor

blade

4.3 Influence on stator performance and flow field

The hub contouring only occurs at rotor blade root,
and the geometric conditions of stator domain are the
same. Therefore, the change of stator performance is
Fig. 11 Distribution of pitch averaged relative Mach number mainly caused by the change of rotor outlet airflow
at 5% span characters. Fig. 13 shows the spanwise distribution of
total pressure loss for stator. The majority of loss
When the hub contouring changes, the rotor load will concentrates below 15% blade span. Among the four hub
be redistributed along the span. Fig. 12 shows the contourings, Case B2 has the largest loss; Case C has the
spanwise distribution of rotor diffusion factor. The rotor smallest loss, and Case B1 almost has the same loss as
diffusion factor is defined as: Case A. Fig. 14 shows the spanwise distribution of
w2 wt absolute Mach number at stator inlet. The change of
D  1  (7)
wr-in 2 wr-in stator inlet Mach number is concentrated below 40%
where wr-in and w2 are relative velocity at inlet and outlet blade span. Case B2 has the largest Mach number, which
of rotor respectively;  is the solidity of rotor blade and is due to air flow acceleration caused by sudden
wt is difference of the tangential component of relative contraction of rotor hub at outlet. Combined with Fig. 11,
velocity. The spanwise distribution of rotor load is the Mach number changes of the other three hub
redistributed due to the change of hub shape. There is contourings are exactly the opposite to the diffusion
little difference in radial distribution of rotor load variation of airflow in rotor blade root. The analysis of
between Case A and Case B1. For Case B2, the load near Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 shows that the influence of hub
blade root decreases significantly. The reason for the load contouring on the flow field in stator domain mainly
reduction is that the sudden contraction of flow passage locates below 40% blade span, which is close to the
near trailing edge and the airflow changes from affect region of rotor domain.
deceleration to acceleration, which causes significant In order to further expound the influence of hub
reduction of blade load. For case C, it has the highest contouring on stator load, the spanwise distribution of
blade load at hub region and the lowest blade load at stator diffusion factor is analysed, as shown in Fig. 15.
mid-span. It can be found from the rotor load change of The overall change of stator load is small, which occurs
four cases that when the hub contouring causes the rotor below 50% blade span. Similar to the rotor blade, based
root load change, the opposite change occurs at mid-span. on the load distribution of Case A, when the stator root
This means that the load distribution along the radial load decreases, the load of mid-span increases. As shown
direction of the rotor blade is redistributed due to the hub in Fig. 16, the distribution of isentropic Mach number on
contouring. stator blade surface at 5% span is taken as an example to
186 J. Therm. Sci., Vol.31, No.1, 2022

illustrate the reasons for load change. The velocity

change on pressure surface is small, but the velocity
gradient of suction surface changes a lot. From the
perspective of diffusion factor definition, the greater the
deceleration of airflow in the vane passage, the higher the
load of vane. Combined with Fig. 14, the higher the inlet
Mach number, the greater the maximum velocity of the
suction surface. In conclusion, the larger the Mach
number at stator inlet, the larger the load of stator blade
will be.

Fig. 15 Spanwise distribution of diffusion factor for stator

vane

Fig. 13 Spanwise distribution of absolute total pressure loss at

stator outlet

Fig. 16 Distribution of isentropic Mach number on stator

blade surface at 5% span

It is well known that for compressor cascades, as the

load increases, so does the loss. It is mentioned that when
the load of rotor blade root changes, the load of mid-span
will do the opposite change. The results in Fig 15 show
that when the load at stator mid-span changes, the total
pressure loss changes little. When the stator root load
changes, the total pressure loss changes significantly.
There are two reasons for this change: (1) the load level
of stator root is at a high level, and the loss change is
sensitive to load; (2) Corner separation exists in the stator
root. When the load changes, the separation will be
intensified, resulting in greater losses. Fig. 17 shows the
limiting streamline of hub and stator vane suction surface.
Fig. 14 Spanwise distribution of absolute Mach number at Obviously, there are large corner separations at the root
stator inlet of stator suction surface of four cases.
LI Xinlong et al. Influence of Hub Contouring on the Performance of a Transonic Axial Compressor Stage 187

Fig. 17 Limiting streamline of four hub contourings on hub and vane suction surface

5. Conclusions contouring on stator performance should be considered

comprehensively, especially when the load of stator root
Rotor hub contouring plays an essential role in is large.
compressor designing process. The effects of four hub
contourings on performance of a 1.5-stage transonic axial Acknowledgements
compressor have been studied. Further, detailed flow
field analysis of different cases at rotor peak efficiency The authors gratefully acknowledge for the support of
condition is performed. Some conclusions are the National Science and Technology Major Project
summarized as follows: (2017-II-0006-0020, 2017-II-0007-0021).
(1) For stage performance, the concave hub contouring,
as Case B1 and B2, are conducive to improving the References
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