Numerical Simulations of Advanced Transonic Compressor Stages Using an Unsteady Quasi-Three-Dimensional Flow Solver
This study presents the results of numerical simulations of single stage transonic axial-flow compressors. The numerical scheme used solves the unsteady quasi-three-dimensional thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations. In the first part of the study, the validation of the numerical scheme for advanced transonic axial-flow compressor stages is presented. The results of a numerical simulation are compared to an experimentally tested transonic compressor stage of DFVLR. Further simulations are performed on an advanced transonic compressor stage design to investigate the effect of airfoil geometry re-scaling, in order to save computing time, on the numerical results. Two cases are simulated: a modified geometry where less stator blades are simulated and an exact geometry where the exact geometry is modeled. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental and numerical results for the first test case, indicating the validity of the quasi-three dimensional method. The last two simulations show that any significant re-scaling of the stage geometry will have an adverse effect on overall results. All of the simulations show that the unsteady rotor-stator interactions have a significant effect on stage performance.