Flow quality improvement of the wind tunnel testing for a highly-loaded compressor cascade at high incidence

To obtain reliable and accurate experimental data in cascade testing, the influencing factors and the improving method of the flow quality of a highly-loaded compressor cascade under high incidence were investigated through a series of numerical simulations and experiments. The numerical method was validated by experimental data and agreed well at both incidence angles of 0° and 6°. Under the original upper end wall, both experimental and numerical results indicated an unsatisfactory flow quality of the cascade with an obvious nonuniformity of inlet Mach number, and the incidence of the central blade is 3.6° larger than the theoretical value. Using a small curved upper wall can reduce the severe flow separation on the upper wall and achieve a maximum improvement in flow quality under the critical installation angle, where the incidence deviation of the central blade was reduced to 2.1°. Using the combination of adjustable tailboards and a small curved upper end wall can further improve the cascade flow quality. Under the optimal angle of the tailboards, both the inflow uniformity and the outflow periodicity of the three middle blade passages the test requirements, and the incidence deviation of the central blade is reduced to 0.2°.

Effects of Rotation on the Flow Structure in a Compressor Cascade

In turbomachines, rotors and stators differ by the rotation of the former. Hence, half of each stage is directly influenced by rotation effects. The influence of rotation on the flow structure and its impact on the performance is studied through Wall-Resolving Large Eddy Simulations of a rotor with large relative tip gap size. The simulations are performed in a rotating frame with rotation accounted for through a Coriolis force term. In a first step experimental results are used to provide validation. The main part of the study is the comparison of the results from two simulations, one representing the rotating configuration, one with the Coriolis force removed, without any other change. This setup allows very clean assessment of the influence of rotation. The turbulence-resolving approach ensures that the turbulent flow features are well represented. The results show a significant impact of rotation on the secondary flow. In the tip region the Tip Leakage Vortex is enlarged and destabilised. Inside the tip gap the flow is altered as well, with uniformization in the rotating case. At the blade midspan, no significant effects are observed on the suction side, while an earlier transition to turbulence is found on the pressure side. Near the hub, rotation effects are shown to reduce the corner separation significantly.

Stochastic aerodynamic analysis for compressor blades with manufacturing variability based on a mathematical dimensionality reduction method

It is essential for engineering manufacture and robust design to evaluate the impact of manufacturing variability on the aerodynamics of compressor blades efficiently and accurately. In the paper, a novel quadratic curve approximation method based on the scanning points of blade design profiles was introduced and combined with Karhunen–Loève expansion, a mathematical dimensionality reduction method for modeling manufacturing variability as truncated Normal process was proposed. Subsequently, Sparse Approximation of Moment-based Arbitrary Polynomial Chaos (SAMBA PC) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were applied to build a computational framework for stochastic aerodynamic analysis considering manufacturing variability. Finally, the framework was adopted to evaluate the aerodynamic variations of a high subsonic compressor cascade under the design incidence. The results illustrate that the SAMBA PC method is more efficient than the traditional methods such as Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) for stochastic aerodynamic analysis. Through uncertainty quantification, the impact of manufacturing variability on the global aerodynamic performance is primarily reflected in the fluctuation of aerodynamic losses, and the fluctuation of the total losses is mainly contributed by the fluctuation of the separation loss after the suction peak (a negative pressure spike near the leading edge (LE)) and the boundary-layer loss on the suction surface (SS). With sensitivity analysis, the most important geometric modes to aerodynamics can be revealed, which provides a useful reference for manufacturing inspection process and helps reduce computational cost in robust design.

Optimization study on the influence of little blades’ spatial position on a compressor cascade performance

To reveal the importance of little blades’ spatial position to improve the cascade performance at different condition, the pitchwise and axial direction of the little blades on the end-wall are adopted as the optimization variables to complete a double-objective optimization. Meanwhile, the three-dimensional flow field characteristics of the cascade with and without little blades are analyzed comparatively. The study found that as the optimal solutions are obtained at the three bigger incidences (3°, 5°, and 7°), the optimal position is always close to the leading edge of blade and far away from the blade suction surface, and the more intuitive design suggestions are given in this article. Moreover, at the near design conditions (−1°, 0°, and 1°), little blades increase the total pressure loss and reduce the static pressure, which are considered unsuitable for improving the cascade performance. If the stable operation range are the main performance indicators, the optimization of the little blades’ spatial position should be completed at the near stall condition (7° incidence). If the conditions with mid-range incidences (2°< i <5°) are the main performance index, the parameter optimization of little blades should be achieved at 5°. Based on the further flow field analysis of the optimization results obtained at 3°, 5°, and 7° incidences (named Opt_Act3, Opt_Act5, and Opt_Act7), the induced vortices resist the effect of axial reverse pressure gradient and pass through the blade passage, which is the main reason for the total pressure loss reduction. Appropriate spatial position of little blades not only strengthens the capability to prevent the low-energy fluids accumulating in the corner region near the end-wall, but exhibits sufficient advantage to weaken the boundary layer.