Overview of the System

The system is based on three linked programs.

MEANGEN is a one-dimensional mean-line code that, given the basic design parameters, calculates the flow on a mean stream surface. The data input may be either from the screen or from a file. MEANGEN makes a simple guess of the blade profiles, and twists the blades to produce free vortex flow. It then writes an input file for the next program STAGEN.

STAGEN is a blade geometry generation and manipulation program. It reads in the data set produced by MEANGEN, allows the blade sections to be refined and stacked and combines them into a multistage machine. The input is intended to be as simple as possible so many parameters are set by defaults which can be changed by editing the program. STAGEN then writes an input file for the 3D solver MULTALL.

MULTALL is a 3D Navier-Stokes solver developed specifically for turbomachinery. It accepts the output file written by STAGEN and usually runs without the need to make any further changes to it. MULTALL can also be run as a quasi-3D blade-to-blade solver and as an axisymmetric throughflow solver. It predicts the overall machine performance as well as the detailed 3D flow field, run times for a 3D solution are of order 10 minutes per blade row, depending on the number of grid points chosen.

Version. 20.6 , added May 2020, allows inverse blade design on a quasi-3D blade-to-blade stream surface. This is described in detail in the downloads and test cases for most types of turbomachine blade are provided.

Details of the system can be found in ASME paper GT2017-63993, or in more detail, in the user manuals, which can be downloaded as described in the next page.