Two modern single-stage fans have been designed to meet the same set of performance objectives. The most significant difference between the two designs is the fan rotor leading edge sweep. The baseline rotor has a moderately aft swept leading edge while the redesigned rotor has a more complex sweep distribution, including moderate forward sweep in the tip region. Each stage consists of the fan rotor, full span stator, and split mid-frame, and is designed for a medium bypass ratio turbofan application. The stator and the mid-frame are identical for the two configurations. The primary purpose of this study is to validate the CFD methodology, in this case a steady ANSYS-CFX approach, to predict the fan stage performance at the operating point at two tested speeds and also to predict the stalling throttle condition. Numerical predictions and engine test results are presented and show good agreement. These predicted results are compared with high quality test data including thorough measurements of total pressure and total temperature at both the rotor and stator exits allowing for a detailed understanding and comparison of the individual blade row performance. The analytical model identifies the key performance trends, including an increase in flow capacity and stability margin with equivalent stage pressure ratio and efficiency for the redesigned fan relative to the baseline.
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