Aerodynamic Modeling of Multistage Compressor Flowfields: Part 1 — Analysis of Rotor/Stator/Rotor Aerodynamic Interaction

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate improved numerical techniques for predicting flows through multistage compressors. The vehicle chosen for this study was the Pennsylvania State University Research Compressor (PSRC). The PSRC facility consists of a 3-1/2 stage axial flow compressor which shares design features which are consistent with embedded stages of modern gas turbine engine axial flow compressors. In Part 1 of this two part paper, several Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques were applied to predict both steady and unsteady flows through the PSRC facility. Inter-blade row coupling via a circumferentially-averaged mixing plane approach was employed for steady flow analysis. A mesh density sensitivity study was performed to define the minimum mesh requirements necessary to achieve reasonable agreement with the experimental data. Time dependent flow predictions were performed using a time dependent interblade row coupling technique. These calculations evaluated the aerodynamic interactions occurring between the second rotor, second stator, and third rotor for the PSRC rig.