A Simplified Method for 3-D Potential Flow in Turbomachinery Using Vortex Sheet Boundary Conditions
Within the framework of inviscid flow theory, the character of three-dimensional flow in turbomachinery blade row is discussed. One of the important differences between 3-D and 2-D flow in turbomachinery is the discontinuity of velocity at the two sides of trailing edge and across downstream boundary. The inconsistency of the traditional periodicity conditions for downstream boundary and of the axisymmetric assumption for outlet flow with the three-dimensionality of turbomachinery flow is discussed also. For 3-D potential flow, the vortex sheet boundary conditions (VSBC) for downstream boundary and a fully 3-D condition for outlet flow are presented. A simplified method is developed by implementation of VSBC on a fixed vortex boundary in order to predict the fully 3-D flow in blade passage as well as downstream of blade row. In the present investigation two calculations are carried out. In one calculation the traditional boundary conditions are imposed while in another one the VSBC are used to demonstrate the capability of the newly develped boundary conditions. The agreement between some calculated results and the theoretical analysis is very well.