Effects of meridional channel contouring on aerodynamic performance of a low-reaction transonic rotor

For a highly-loaded low-reaction transonic rotor, meridional channel contouring is a key point in the design process. To find a superior meridional channel contouring, the effects of different meridional channel contouring on the aerodynamic performance of a low-reaction transonic rotor were studied preliminarily using the numerical method. As a result, compared with straight line, the shock strength can be decreased by applying the sinusoid and the rotor efficiency increases by 0.84%. The reasonable meridional channel contouring should guarantee that the Mach number before the shock wave is not too high and also that the axial velocity could increase rapidly after the shock wave to avoid the reattachment of boundary layer separation.