Aeroelastic Flutter Analysis of Linear Cascade Blades: STC5

Study of aerodynamic flow and aeroelastic stability in vibrating blades of cascade is the main objective of this study. Standard test configuration (STC-5) was chosen for this study as it involves transonic flow regime in compressor blade cascades. CFD analysis were carried out for 11 test cases of STC-5 configuration and pressure coefficient values were compared with test data. The range of incidence angles vary from 2° to 10° and reduced frequency varies from 0.14 to 1.02. Inflow Mach number was fixed at 0.5 and Reynolds number was fixed at 1.4 × 10⁶. Analysis of vibrating blades and comparison of test data results of axial compressor with linear cascade stator blades of fifth standard configuration at high subsonic speed is compared with CFD results. While doing this vibration of only the center blade is concerned when all the other blades in the cascade are fixed. Fluid structure interaction approach is used here to evaluate the unsteady aerodynamic force and work done for a vibrating blade in CFD domain. Energy method and work per cycle approach is adapted for aerodynamic damping prediction. A framework has been developed to estimate the work per cycle and aerodynamic damping ratio. Final sensitivity study was carried out to evaluate the influence of blade incidence and frequency on blade damping values.