Engineers at Lyulka Design Bureau have developed a new design for the high-pressure compressor (HPC) rotor of a gas turbine engine. The power plant features 7 stages with modified flow path geometry.

The rotor will have a supersonic profile for the working blades of the first 2 stages. Subsonic profiles are used for the other five stages.

The rotor's flow path is divided into 3 zones to coordinate the operation of the stages and reduce the influence of manufacturing and operational clearances.

The design will also feature a drum-disk scheme. Disks from the 1st to 5th stages are combined into an inseparable section, while the 6th and 7th stages are made separately and connected to adjacent elements by flanges and a spacer ring. This solution should simplify assembly and repair of the structure.

The Design Bureau's developers claim a reduction in pressure pulsations behind the impellers, an increase in the gas-dynamic stability of the HPC, and a decrease in loads on the disks. This, in turn, should increase the engine's service life. The possibility of replacing damaged blades through special access windows without replacing the entire rotor is also provided.