Applications of little blades in a high-load compressor cascade with leaned blade

Abstract

The development of boundary layer affects the compressor cascade performance to a certain extent. Therefore, the compound lean and little blades are selected to redistribute the boundary layer, and the influences of these two flow control technologies on the axial compressor cascade performance are further studied. The calculated results showed that appropriate high pressure region on the blade suction surface near the end-wall is helpful to reduce the total pressure loss of compressor cascade, which can be achieved by positive lean technique. Meanwhile, the maximum stable operation boundary can be expanded by the application of positive leaned blade. On the other hand, the introduction of negative lean angle not only increases the total pressure loss of cascade, but reduces the stable operation range. As the little blades are introduced in the negative lean compressor cascade, the stable operation range is significantly improved by the introduction of little blades. Especially the cascade with −10° lean angle, the maximum stable operation boundary is increased from 1° to 6°. In the positive lean compressor cascade, although more low-energy fluid is accumulated on the blade suction surface near the mid-span, the little blades still show an active role in reducing the total pressure loss and expending the stable operation range, because the influence range of induced vortex reaches 30%span. The results provide a reference for improving the aerodynamic performance of compressor stator, especially when more low-energy fluid is blocked in the range near the mid-span.