Turbine blade design by lofted B-spline surfaces (Q1576460)

Surfaces with a set of parallel planar curves as parametric lines are called lofted surfaces. Turbine blades in a lofted representation have the advantage that modelling caused by hydraulic or aerodynamic requirements can be carried out easily. If turbine blades are developed on the bases of planar profile curves in parallel planes it is assumed that the turbine is working in a parallel flow. But the model of a parallel flow is a little bit far from reality. The flow in the turbine is at least cylindrical but in general conical with rotation symmetry to the axis of the turbine. Therefore, in the presented paper the lofting process is also extended to cylindrical and to conical isoparametric lines. Some concrete examples illustrate the considered turbine blade representations.