Active Flow Control in Compressor Cascades with Steady and Pulsed Jets

Abstract

This paper describes a detailed experimental investigation into the impact of steady and pulsed blowing on endwall secondary structures and losses in a compressor cascade. Owing to their high configuration flexibility, injection holes are integrated in the cascade sidewalls to manage the secondary flows. Loss reductions of 3.2 and 5.72% relative to the uncontrolled case are achieved by steady blowing with straight and optimized inclined holes, respectively. Superior loss reduction of 7.85% is obtained by pulsed blowing through inclined holes. To identify the secondary flow structures near the endwall and suction surfaces, a self-developed oil visualization method and spatial-spectral analysis are performed. Experimental results show that two concentrated shedding vortices exist in the cascade corner region. Loss reduction is achieved as the blowing suppresses the dominant vortex. Pulsed blowing intensifies the acceleration effect on the boundary layer, resulting in better performance with the same injection velocity. The impact of the pulse frequency on loss generation is investigated, and it is found that the optimal frequency is close to the shedding frequency of the dominant vortex in the cascade corner region.