The flow through a transonic compressor cascade shows a very complex structure due to the occurring shock waves. In addition, the interaction of these shock waves with the blade boundary layer inherently leads to a very unsteady flow behavior. The aim of the current investigation is to quantify this behavior and its influence on the cascade performance as well as to describe the occurring transonic flow phenomena in detail. Therefore, an extensive experimental investigation of the flow in a transonic compressor cascade has been conducted within the transonic cascade wind tunnel of DLR Institute of Propulsion Technology at Cologne. In this process, the flow phenomena were thoroughly examined for an inflow Mach number of 1.21. The experiments investigate both the laminar and the turbulent shock wave boundary layer interaction within the blade passage and the resulting unsteady behavior. The experiments show a fluctuation range of the passage shock wave of about 10% chord for both cases, which is directly linked with a change of the inflow angle and of the operating point of the cascade. Thereafter, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations have been performed aiming at the verification of the reproducibility of the experimentally examined flow behavior. Here, it is observed that the dominant flow effects are not reproduced by a steady numerical simulation. Therefore, a further unsteady simulation has been carried out to capture the unsteady flow behavior. The results from this simulation show that the fluctuation of the passage shock wave can be reproduced but not in the correct magnitude. This leads to a remaining weak point within the design process of transonic compressor blades because the working range will be overpredicted. The resulting conclusion of this study is that the use of scale-resolving methods such as LES or the application of DNS is necessary to correctly predict unsteadiness of the transonic cascade flow and its impact on the cascade performance.
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September 2019
Research-Article
The Present Challenge of Transonic Compressor Blade Design
Alexander Hergt,
Alexander Hergt
1
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: alexander.hergt@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: alexander.hergt@dlr.de
1Corresponding author.
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J. Klinner,
J. Klinner
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: joachim.klinner@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: joachim.klinner@dlr.de
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J. Wellner,
J. Wellner
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: jens.wellner@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: jens.wellner@dlr.de
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C. Willert,
C. Willert
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: chris.willert@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: chris.willert@dlr.de
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S. Grund,
S. Grund
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: sebastian.grund@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: sebastian.grund@dlr.de
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W. Steinert,
W. Steinert
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: Wolfgang.Steinert@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: Wolfgang.Steinert@dlr.de
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M. Beversdorff
M. Beversdorff
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: manfred.beversdorff@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: manfred.beversdorff@dlr.de
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Alexander Hergt
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: alexander.hergt@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: alexander.hergt@dlr.de
J. Klinner
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: joachim.klinner@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: joachim.klinner@dlr.de
J. Wellner
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: jens.wellner@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: jens.wellner@dlr.de
C. Willert
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: chris.willert@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: chris.willert@dlr.de
S. Grund
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: sebastian.grund@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: sebastian.grund@dlr.de
W. Steinert
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: Wolfgang.Steinert@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: Wolfgang.Steinert@dlr.de
M. Beversdorff
German Aerospace Center (DLR),
51147 Cologne,
e-mail: manfred.beversdorff@dlr.de
Institute of Propulsion Technology
,51147 Cologne,
Germany
e-mail: manfred.beversdorff@dlr.de
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of ASME for publication in the Journal of Turbomachinery. Manuscript received September 11, 2018; final manuscript received March 26, 2019; published online May 30, 2019. Assoc. Editor: Kenneth Hall.
J. Turbomach. Sep 2019, 141(9): 091004 (12 pages)
Published Online: May 30, 2019
Article history
Received:
September 11, 2018
Revision Received:
March 26, 2019
Accepted:
March 27, 2019
Citation
Hergt, A., Klinner, J., Wellner, J., Willert, C., Grund, S., Steinert, W., and Beversdorff, M. (May 30, 2019). "The Present Challenge of Transonic Compressor Blade Design." ASME. J. Turbomach. September 2019; 141(9): 091004. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4043329
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