  Geometric variability increases performance variability and degrades the mean
performance of turbomachinery compressor blades. These detrimental effects can
be reduced by using robust optimization to design the blade geometry or by
imposing stricter manufacturing tolerances. This paper presents a novel
computational framework for optimizing compressor blade manufacturing
tolerances, and incorporates this framework into existing robust geometry
design frameworks. Optimizations of an exit guide vane geometry are conducted.
The single-point optimal geometry is found to depend on the manufacturing
tolerances due to a switch in the dominant loss mechanism. Multi-point geometry
optimization avoids this switch so that the geometry and tolerance optimization
problems are decoupled.
