Aerodynamic performance investigation of an axial flow compressor under water ingestion

Abstract

This paper presents numerical simulations of the effects of water ingestion in the axial flow compressor. A self-compiled droplet-wall interaction model is used to study the impingement of the droplets and the film fragmenting process on the surfaces of the compressor blades, which also included the splashing effects. The blade profile has been divided into small regions to effectively apply the rough wall model to capture the film-related flow losses, which has shown flow characteristics with better accuracy. The formation of water film, its shedding, the size, and the movement of droplets after film peeling have been investigated using unsteady simulations at different time intervals. The increased loss of characteristics, shortening of the operating range, and change of flow velocity angle were observed with increasing water content. Moreover, the current research work shown that an increase in the amount of water has severe aerodynamic effects that caused the shock waves to move an upstream location with an increase in intensity. A higher blockage is generated in the tip section flow as the amount of the water increased. Tip losses were very dominant as water injection rate increased, resulting an additional energy loss and performance degradation.