Influence of leading edge with real manufacturing error on aerodynamic performance of high subsonic compressor cascades

To investigate the influence of real leading-edge manufacturing error on aerodynamic performance of high subsonic compressor blades, a family of leading-edge manufacturing error data were obtained from measured compressor cascades. Considering the limited samples, the leading-edge angle and leading-edge radius distribution forms were evaluated by Shapiro-Wilk test and quantile–quantile plot. Their statistical characteristics provided can be introduced to later related researches. The parameterization design method B-spline and Bezier are adopted to create geometry models with manufacturing error based on leading-edge angle and leading-edge radius. The influence of real manufacturing error is quantified and analyzed by self-developed non-intrusive polynomial chaos and Sobol’ indices. The mechanism of leading-edge manufacturing error on aerodynamic performance is discussed. The results show that the total pressure loss coefficient is sensitive to the leading-edge manufacturing error compared with the static pressure ratio, especially at high incidence. Specifically, manufacturing error of the leading edge will influence the local flow acceleration and subsequently cause fluctuation of the downstream flow. The aerodynamic performance is sensitive to the manufacturing error of leading-edge radius at the design and negative incidences, while it is sensitive to the manufacturing error of leading-edge angle under the operation conditions with high incidences.