A software tool for parametric design of turbomachinery blades

This paper presents a software tool for the conceptual design of turbomachinery bladings named "T4T" (Tools for Turbomachinery). It provides the ability to interactively construct parametric 3D blade rows of various types, including for multistage machines. The design procedure is parametric and a variety of different rotating machinery components may be produced. The design parameters used for the blades as well as the hub and shroud surfaces construction correspond to 2D sections. However, the resulting geometries are modeled as NURBS 3D surfaces and can be imported to other CAD or analysis software via standard exchange protocols. The geometry definition is empowered by the object oriented structure of the software and an easy-to-use graphical interface, which makes the design phase a straightforward procedure. The software's structure and geometric algorithms, the blading design procedure, along with sample designs which demonstrate the capabilities of the software, are presented in this paper. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.