ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSITION CONTROL AT TRANSONIC COMPRESSOR BLADES
Abstract The flow through a transonic compressor cascade is characterized by high unsteadiness and a high loss level. In the case of a laminar shock wave boundary layer interaction the loss level is higher due to the occurrence of a laminar separation bubble below the shock wave compared to the shock wave interaction with a turbulent boundary layer. In addition, the oscillation of the shock position in both cases influences the working range concerning the point of stall onset as well as leading to an unsteady interaction with the blade, called buffeting. The reduction of losses and of unsteadiness in the shock wave oscillation, connected to a decrease of the blade buffeting effect, are the aims of the current investigation. Therefore, experimental investigations using a roughness patch as well as air jet vortex generators in order to control the transition in a transonic compressor cascade have been conducted at the transonic cascade wind tunnel of DLR at Cologne. At an inflow Mach number of 1.21 a loss reduction for both transition control cases is achieved. In spite of a nearly uninfluenced fluctuation range of the passage shock wave compared to the reference cascade, the oscillation spectra of the transition control cases show a reduction of the shock movement amplitude at a frequency below 500 Hz and above 1 kHz. In the closing section of the paper a detailed discussion on the reasons for the resulting flow behaviour based on PIV and High Speed Shadowgraphy data is given.