Ice particle distribution simulation in a transonic axial compressor based on Eulerian evaporation coupling model

Abstract

High-altitude ice crystal icing of aero engine is a serious threat to flight safety. Previous studies on ice crystal icing focused on the influence of air flow on ice crystals, but ice crystals also affect the engine flow field, which is often ignored in the research on the influence of ice crystals on engines. Numerical simulation based on Eulerian method is adopted to realize the two-way coupling between the compressor air flow and the particles in this study. The approach is demonstrated using the NASA compressor stage 35. The changes of compressor and particle parameters with different inlet total water content, relative humidity, and median volume diameter are calculated and analyzed, and the influence of ice crystal on the compressor performance is studied. The results show that the variation of relative humidity has a great influence on the particle temperature, median volume diameter, and wet bulb temperature. Median volume diameter has a great influence on the melt ratio. The variation of total water content has little effect on particle temperature, total water content, median volume diameter, and wet bulb temperature. The particle parameters are affected by the flow field of the compressor. The parameters show that the icing is easy to occur at the leading edge of NASA stage 35 stator. By contrast, the overall compressor characteristics, after ice particle injection, the total pressure ratio, and isentropic efficiency of the compressor are increased without considering ice crystal accretion, and the chocking boundary and stall boundary are not affected.