Investigation on a Type of Flow Control to Weaken Unsteady Separated Flows by Unsteady Excitation in Axial Flow Compressors

Abstract

By solving unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations discretized by a high-order scheme, the results showed that the disordered unsteady separated flow could be effectively controlled by periodic suction and blowing in a wide range of incidences, resulting in enhancement of time-averaged aerodynamic performances of an axial compressor cascade. The effects of unsteady excitation frequency, amplitude, and excitation location were investigated in detail. The effective excitation frequency spans a wide spectrum, and there is an optimal excitation frequency that is nearly equal to the characteristic frequency of vortex shedding. Excitation amplitude exhibits a threshold value (nearly 10% in terms of the ratio of maximum velocity of periodic suction and blowing to the velocity of free flow) and an optimal value (nearly 35%). The optimal excitation location is just upstream of the separation point. We also explored feasible unsteady actuators by utilizing the upstream wake for constraining unsteady separation in axial flow compressors.