The development of techniques that reduce the losses in the endwall region is an important area of research as it supports an increase in the turbine design space through the use of higher lift blade designs while maintaining high efficiency. Several active and passive shape contouring methods that reduce losses generated by the secondary flow have been developed and investigated on a high-lift front-loaded low-pressure turbine research profile in a low-speed linear cascade configuration. This paper summarizes and compares alterations to the three-dimensional secondary flow field by the application of three different techniques: blade profile contouring, optimized endwall shape contouring, and localized low mass coefficient jets. Each method was applied to identical research blade profiles and compared in the same linear cascade wind tunnel resulting in a unique perspective into the loss reduction mechanisms associated with each technique. The design strategy will be discussed along with a detailed description of changes to the secondary flow field using in- and out-of-passage total pressure loss measurements and high-speed stereoscopic particle image velocimetry. The key findings include the loss reduction mechanisms associated with each approach and the manipulation of key endwall flow structures such as the passage vortex and a strong suction surface corner separation.

Challenges in turbulence modeling in the tip region of turbomachines include anisotropy, inhomogeneity, and non-equilibrium conditions, resulting in poor correlations between Reynolds stresses and the corresponding mean strain-rate components. The geometric complexity introduced by casing grooves exacerbates this problem. Taking advantage of a large database collected in the refractive index-matched liquid facility at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), this paper examines the effect of axial casing grooves on the distributions of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), Reynolds stresses, anisotropy tensor, and TKE production rate in the tip region of an axial turbomachine. The comparisons are performed at flowrates corresponding to prestall and best efficiency points of the untreated machine. Common features include high TKE near the tip leakage vortex center and in the shear layer connecting it to the blade suction side tip corner. The turbulence is highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous, with the anisotropy tensor shifting from one-dimensional (1D) to 2D and 3D structures over small distances. With the grooves, the flow structure, hence the distribution of Reynolds stresses, becomes more complex. Additional sites with elevated turbulence include the corner vortex that develops at the entrance to the grooves, and in the flow jetting out of the grooves into the passage. Consistent with trends of the production rates of normal Reynolds stress components, the grooves increase the axial but reduce the radial velocity fluctuations as the inflow and outflow from the groove interact with the passage flow. These findings might assist the development of Reynolds stress models suitable for tip flows.

Control of corner separation in axial compressor blade rows has attracted much interest due to its potential to improve compressor efficiency and the energy utilization in turbomachinery. This paper investigates the effectiveness and mechanisms of boundary layer suction in controlling the corner separation of a highly loaded axial compressor cascade. Numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the effect of different suction schemes on the loss downstream of the cascade and the change in incidence characteristics with the variation of the suction flowrate. The results show that the effectiveness of flow suction in controlling the flow separation depends heavily on the proportion of the blade for which it is applied. It was found that suction along part of the blade span on the suction surface could effectively remove the separation at the region of the span influenced by the suction slot. However, this resulted in a deterioration of the flow field at other parts of the span. The full-span suction scheme on the suction surface not only eliminated the separation of the boundary layer in the middle of the blade but also significantly improved the flow uniformity near the end-wall. Despite the improvement in flow uniformity using the full-span suction scheme, a three-dimensional (3D) corner separation still existed due to the strong cross-passage pressure gradient. To improve the flow field uniformity further, two combined suction schemes with one spanwise slot on the suction surface and another slot on the end-wall were designed in order to fully remove both the separated flow on the blade suction surface and the 3D corner separation. It was found that the total pressure loss coefficient was reduced significantly by 63.8% with suction flowrates of 1.88% and 0.82% for the slots on the suction surface and the end-wall, respectively. Further work showed that the behavior of the loss coefficient is different as the combination of suction flowrates is changed for different incidence. The cascade loss at high incidence operation can be more effectively reduced with suction control on the end-wall. When implementing combined suction, it is necessary to determine the best combination of suction flowrate according to the incidence level.

In the published paper, the expressions listed under (51) were miswritten. And the following sentence should be: “Hub and tip minimum velocity ratios are divided by a factor of 1.3 due to the ability of the blade row to operate stably in spite of the presence of corner stall.”

Compressor corner stall is a phenomenon difficult to predict with numerical tools but essential to the design of axial compressors. Predictive methods are beneficial early in the design process to understand design and off-design limitations. Prior numerical work using Navier–Stokes computational methods has assessed the prediction capability for corner stall. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations using several turbulence models have shown to over-predict the region of corner hub stall where large eddy simulations (LES) and detached eddy simulations (DES) approaches improved the airfoil surface and wake pressure loss prediction. A linear compressor cascade designed and tested at Ecole Centrale de Lyon provides a good benchmark for the evaluation of the accuracy of numerical methods for corner stall. This paper presents results obtained with Lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) coupled with very large-eddy simulations (VLES) approach of PowerFLOW and compares them with the experimental and numerical work from Ecole Centrale de Lyon. The ability to achieve equivalent accuracy at a lower computational cost compared to LES scale resolving methods can enable multi-stage design and off-design compressor predictions. A methodical approach is taken by first accurately simulating the upstream flow conditions. Geometric trips are modeled upstream on the endwalls to match both the mean and fluctuating inflow boundary layer conditions. These conditions were then applied to the simulation of the linear compressor cascade. The benchline experimental study includes trips on both the pressure and suction of the airfoil. These trips are also included for the current simulation. The significance of capturing both inflow conditions and including trips on the airfoil is assessed. Detailed comparisons are then made to airfoil loading and downstream losses between experiment and previous RANS and LES simulations. LBM-VLES corner stall results of pitchwise averaged total pressure match LES agreement relative to experimental data at 50 times lower computational cost.

Effects of non-axisymmetric endwall profiling on total pressure loss, heat transfer, and film cooling effectiveness of a transonic rotor blade were numerically investigated. The numerical methods, including the turbulence model and grid sensitivity, were validated with the existing experimental data. To reduce the thermal load on endwall, non-axisymmetric endwall profiling near leading edge and at pressure-side corner area was performed with a range of contour amplitudes. Heat transfer and flow fields near the profiled endwalls were analyzed and also compared with the plain endwall configuration. On the profiled endwall, three kinds of cooling holes, i.e., cylindrical holes, rounded-rectangular holes, and elliptical holes, were arranged, and film cooling effect was investigated at three blowing ratios. Results indicate that, with endwall profiling, the area-averaged Stanton number on endwall is reduced by 7.71% and total pressure loss in cascade is reduced by 11.07%. Among three kinds of cooling holes, the arrangement of the elliptical hole performs the best film cooling effect on the profiled endwall. Compared with the plain endwall, non-axisymmetric endwall with elliptical cooling holes improves film cooling coverage by 10.87%, reduces the Stanton number by 8.88%, and increases the net heat flux reduction performance by 4% at M = 0.7.

Three-dimensional corner separation significantly affects compressor performance, but turbulence models struggle to predict it accurately. This paper assesses the capability of the original shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model to predict the corner separation in a linear highly loaded prescribed velocity distribution (PVD) compressor cascade. Modifications for streamline curvature, Menter’s production limiter, and the Kato-Launder production term are examined. Comparisons with experimental data show that the original SST model and the SST model with different modifications can predict the corner flow well at an incidence angle of −7 deg, where the corner separation is small. However, all the models overpredict the extent of the flow separation when the corner separation is larger, at an incidence angle of 0 deg. The SST model is then modified using the helicity to take account of the energy backscatter, which previous studies have shown to be important in the corner separation regions of compressors. A Reynolds stress model (RSM) is also used for comparison. By comparing the numerical results with experiments and RSM results, it can be concluded that sensitizing the SST model to helicity can greatly improve the predictive accuracy for simulating the corner separation flow. The accuracy is quite competitive with the RSM, whereas in terms of computational cost and robustness it is superior to the RSM.

Blade end slots were proposed to control corner separation in a highly loaded compressor cascade in our previous studies. This study focuses on the evaluation of compressor blading with blade end slots and full-span slots. First, the two-dimensional configuration performance is evaluated both for the datum and slotted profiles. The slotted configuration could effectively suppress separation, especially under positive incidence conditions when the separation is large. Thus, two three-dimensional blading with full-span slots and blade end slots (20% span height from the endwall) are compared. Results show that blading with full-span slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise under relative high incidence angles, while blading with blade end slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise above an incidence angle of −4 deg. Blading with slots alters the flow structures and reorganizes the flow in the blade end regions. The self-adaptive jets from the slots reenergize the low-momentum flow downstream and restrain its migration toward the mid-span, so that the corner separation is reduced and the performance is enhanced. The loss for the end slotted blade is lower than that of the full-span slotted blade under incidence angles within 4 deg. This is because the additional mixing loss of the jet and the main flow are caused by the full-span slots at the mid-span regions where the flow remains attached for the blade end slots.

When a multistage high-speed compressor is operated away from its design point, extreme incidence is caused in some blade rows. This results in large, localized separations that are three dimensional in nature. In this paper, topological reasoning is used to describe the behavior of these three-dimensional separations. It is shown that two classes of separation exist: one in which the flow progresses from attached to separate in a smooth way and another where there is a discontinuity in the response of the flow topology. It is shown that the global structure of the flow depends on the type of topological response that occurs. When the response is discontinuous, nonaxisymmetric cells of separated blades are formed. When the response is smooth, the resultant separated flow is axisymmetric. The paper is split into two broad sections: The first section presents examples of the two different classes of topological response that can occur in a single blade row, and it also shows how an engineer can achieve a different response by altering the blade design. The second section covers the analysis of a multistage high-speed compressor. The compressor initially presents the discontinuous behavior with rotating cells of separations. It is then redesigned to reduce the severity of the cell behavior or remove it entirely.

Secondary flow limits the aerodynamic loading level of turbomachinery. Vortex generators (VGs) offer the potential to attenuate secondary flow when implemented at the endwall of the blade passage. Customary design usually relies on computational fluid dynamics (CFD); however, VG geometry modeling and mesh generation are challenging. This paper presents an efficient method for designing the optimal VG layout. In this approach, first, a mathematical model (BAYC) is introduced to replace the actual VGs; hence, simulation can be carried out without detailed VG gridding. Second, an optimization procedure with response surface methods is employed to determine the optimal VG layout. To illustrate the proposed method, compressor cascades with one and three VGs are used as the test cases. The results demonstrate that the optimal VG layout may effectively weaken the secondary flow and can decrease the aerodynamic loss by 15–25% in almost all incidence angle ranges, particularly at positive incidence angles. Flow mechanism analysis indicates that VGs can enhance the boundary layer kinetic energy, thereby elevating the capability to withstand adverse pressure gradients.

This paper describes the role of tip leakage flow in creating the leading edge separation necessary for the onset of spike-type compressor rotating stall. A series of unsteady multipassage simulations, supported by experimental data, are used to define and illustrate the two competing mechanisms that cause the high incidence responsible for this separation: blockage from a casing-suction-surface corner separation and forward spillage of the tip leakage jet. The axial momentum flux in the tip leakage flow determines which mechanism dominates. At zero tip clearance, corner separation blockage dominates. As clearance is increased, the leakage flow reduces blockage, moving the stall flow coefficient to lower flow, i.e., giving a larger unstalled flow range. Increased clearance, however, means increased leakage jet momentum and contribution to leakage jet spillage. There is thus a clearance above which jet spillage dominates in creating incidence, so the stall flow coefficient increases and flow range decreases with clearance. As a consequence, there is a clearance for maximum flow range; for the two rotors in this study, the value was approximately 0.5% chord. The chordwise distribution of the leakage axial momentum is also important in determining stall onset. Shifting the distribution toward the trailing edge increases flow range for a leakage jet dominated geometry and reduces flow range for a corner separation dominated geometry. Guidelines are developed for flow range enhancement through control of tip leakage flow axial momentum magnitude and distribution. An example is given of how this might be achieved.

The flow field in a ribbed triangular channel representing the trailing edge internal cooling passage of a gas turbine high-pressure turbine blade is investigated via magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) and large eddy simulation (LES). The results are compared to a baseline channel with no ribs. LES predictions of the mean velocity fields are validated by the MRV results. In the case of the baseline triangular channel with no ribs, the mean flow and turbulence level at the sharp corner are small, which would correspond to poor heat transfer in an actual trailing edge. For the staggered ribbed channel, turbulent mixing is enhanced, and flow velocity and turbulence intensity at the sharp edge increase. This is due to secondary flow induced by the ribs moving toward the sharp edge in the center of the channel. This effect is expected to enhance internal convective heat transfer for the turbine blade trailing edge.

Experiments in a refractive index-matched axial turbomachine facility show that semicircular skewed axial casing grooves (ACGs) reduce the stall flowrate by 40% but cause a 2.4% decrease in the maximum efficiency. Aiming to elucidate mechanism that might cause the reduced efficiency, stereo-PIV measurements examine the impact of the ACGs on the flow structure and turbulence in the tip region near the best efficiency point (BEP), and compare them to those occurring without grooves and at low flowrates. Results show that the periodic inflow into the groove peaks when the rotor blade pressure side (PS) overlaps with the downstream end of the groove, but diminishes when this end faces the suction side (SS). Entrainment of the PS boundary layer and its vorticity generates a vortical loop at the entrance to the groove, and a “discontinuity” in the tip leakage vortex (TLV) trajectory. During exposure to the SS, the backward tip leakage flow separates at the entrance to the groove, generating a counter-rotating circumferential “corner vortex,” which the TLV entrains into the passage at high flowrates. Interactions among these structures enlarge the TLV and create a broad area with secondary flows and elevated turbulence near the groove's downstream corner. A growing shear layer with weaker turbulence also originates from the upstream corner. The groove also increases the flow angle upstream of the blade tip and varies it periodically. Accordingly, the circulation shed from the blade tip and strength of leakage flow increase near the blade leading edge (LE).

Current design-cycle Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have the tendency to over-predict corner-stall events for axial-flow compressors operating at off-design conditions. This shortcoming has been demonstrated even in simple single-row cascade configurations. Here we report on the application of hybrid RANS/large eddy simulation (LES), or detached eddy simulation (DES), for simulating the corner-stall data from the linear compressor cascade work conducted at Ecole Centrale de Lyon. This benchmark data set provides detailed loss information while also revealing a bimodal behavior of the separation which, not surprisingly, is also not well modeled by RANS. The hybrid RANS/LES results presented here predict bimodal behavior similar to the data only when special treatment is adopted to resolve the leading-edge endwall region where the horseshoe vortex (HV) forms. The (HV) is shown to be unstable, which produces the bimodal instability. The DES simulation without special treatment or refinement in the HV region fails to predict the bimodal instability, and thus the bimodal behavior of the separation. This, in turn, causes a gross over-prediction in the scale of the corner-stall. The HV region is found to be unstable with rolling of the tertiary vortex (TV) over the secondary vortex and merging with the primary HV. With these flow dynamics realized in the DES simulations, the corner stall characteristics are found to be in better agreement with the experimental data, as compared to RANS and standard DES approaches.

This paper describes the flow mechanisms of rotating stall inception in a multistage axial flow compressor of an actual gas turbine. Large-scale numerical simulations of the unsteady have been conducted. The compressor investigated is a test rig compressor that was used in the development of the Kawasaki L30A industrial gas turbine. While the compressor consists of a total of 14 stages, only the front stages of the compressor were analyzed in the present study. The test data show that the fifth or sixth stages of the machine are most likely the ones leading to stall. To model the precise flow physics leading to stall inception, the flow was modeled using a very dense computational mesh, with several million cells in each passage. A total of 2 × 10 9 cells were used for the first seven stages (3 × 10 8 cells in each stage). Since the mesh was still not fine enough for large-eddy simulation (LES), a detached-eddy simulation (DES) was used. Using DES, a flow field is calculated using LES except in the near-wall where the turbulent eddies are modeled by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes. The computational resources required for such large-scale simulations were still quite large, so the computations were conducted on the K computer (RIKEN AICS in Japan). Unsteady flow phenomena at the stall inception were analyzed using data mining techniques such as vortex identification and limiting streamline drawing with line integral convolution (LIC) techniques. In the compressor studied, stall started from a separation on the hub side rather than the commonly observed leading-edge separation near the tip. The flow phenomenon first observed in the stalling process is the hub corner separation, which appears in a passage of the sixth stator when approaching the stall point. This hub corner separation grows with time, and eventually leads to a leading-edge separation on the hub side of the stator. Once the leading-edge separation occurs, it rapidly develops into a rotating stall, causing another leading-edge separation of the neighboring blade. Finally, the rotating stall spreads to the upstream and downstream blade rows due to its large blockage effect.

Regions of three-dimensional separations are an inherent flow feature of the suction surface-endwall corner in axial compressors. These corner separations can cause a significant total pressure loss and reduce the compressor's efficiency. This paper uses wall-resolved LES to investigate the loss sources in a corner separation, and examines the influence of the inflow turbulence on these sources. Different subgrid scale (SGS) models are tested and the choice of model is found to be important. The σ SGS model, which performed well, is then used to perform LES of a compressor endwall flow. The time-averaged data are in good agreement with measurements. The viscous and turbulent dissipation are used to highlight the sources of loss, with the latter being dominant. The key loss sources are seen to be the 2D laminar separation bubble and trailing edge wake, and the 3D flow region near the endwall. Increasing the freestream turbulence (FST) intensity changes the suction surface boundary layer transition mode from separation induced to bypass. However, it does not significantly alter the transition location and therefore the corner separation size. Additionally, the FST does not noticeably interact with the corner separation itself, meaning that in this case the corner separation is relatively insensitive to the FST. The endwall boundary layer state is found to be significant. A laminar endwall boundary layer separates much earlier leading to a larger passage vortex. This significantly alters the endwall flow and loss. Hence, the need for accurate boundary measurements is clear.

Three-dimensional design is central to all modern compressor design systems, but many of these methods still rely on a two-dimensional and sectional view of aerodynamics at their core. This paper argues that this view fundamentally limits design by not considering the effect, on separation and loss, of the pressure gradient on the surface of the blade perpendicular to the meridional direction, here known as the transverse pressure gradient. The first part of the paper details how altering the transverse pressure gradient, by changing a blade's 3D stacking, switches the way in which the blade aerodynamically “fails,” from a open corner separation to a trailing edge separation. It also shows how the transverse pressure gradient significantly changes the blade profile loss. In the second part, the effect of the transverse pressure gradient on the uncertainty inherent in the compressor design space is investigated. It is shown that as blade pitch–chord ratio is raised and the amount of 3D stacking is lowered, the uncertainty of predicting a compressor's operating range is significantly raised. By increasing 3D stacking and the strength of the transverse pressure gradient, it is shown that this uncertainty can be significantly reduced.

This paper presents a numerical and experimental assessment of a plasma actuation concept for controlling corner stall separation in a highly loaded compressor cascade. CFD simulations were first carried out to assess actuator effectiveness and determine the best actuation parameters. Subsequently, experiments were performed to demonstrate the concept and confirmed the CFD tool validity at a Reynolds number of 1.5 × 10 5 . Finally, the validated CFD tool was used to simulate the concept at higher velocities, beyond the experimental capability of existing plasma actuators. These results were used to obtain a preliminary scaling law that would allow approximation of the plasma actuation requirements at realistic operating conditions. Several configurations were examined, but the most effective setup was found to be when plasma actuators were mounted upstream of the separation point on both the suction surface and the endwall. Most of the improvement in total pressure loss stemmed from the suction surface actuator. Comparison with experimental data showed that the CFD simulations could capture the flow features and the effect of plasma actuation reasonably well. Simulations at higher flow velocities indicated that the required plasma actuator strength scales approximately with the square of the Reynolds number.

This paper discusses the impact of a nonsteady outflow condition on the compressor stator flow that is forced through a mimic in the wake of a linear low-speed cascade to simulate the conditions that would be expected in a pulsed detonation engine. 2D/3C-PIV measurements were made to describe the flow field in the passage. Detailed wake measurements provide information about static pressure rise as well as total pressure loss. The stator profile used for the investigations is highly loaded and operates with three-dimensional flow separations under design conditions and without active flow control. It is shown that sidewall actuation helps stabilize the flow field at every phase angle and extends the operating range of the compressor stator. Furthermore, the static pressure gain can be increased by 6% with a 4% loss reduction in time-averaged data.

The present work aims at evaluating the effect of the impeller–diffuser interaction on the control of a hub corner separation, which develops in the radial vaned diffuser of a centrifugal compressor designed and built by Turbomeca, Safran group. Unsteady numerical simulations of the flow in the aspirated centrifugal compressor are then performed. Numerical results are validated by comparison with the available experimental results. The analysis of the numerical flow field shows that the hub-corner separation is not completely removed by the suction, on the contrary to the steady-state results that were obtained in previous work. The boundary layer separation is only translated downstream. Its location is explained by the scrolling of the pressure waves generated by the impeller–diffuser interaction, which strengthen when crossing the diffuser throat. This result highlights the major role played by the impeller–diffuser interaction, which should be taken into account for developing control strategies in radial vaned diffusers, and stresses the shortcoming of the steady-state numerical model when suction is applied.