Numerical Investigation of a Highly Loaded Axial Compressor Stage With Inlet Distortions
This paper deals with the numerical flow-simulation of a transonic compressor stage, which has been investigated for baseline as well as distorted inflow conditions at the Institute of Propulsion Technology of the DLR in Cologne (Dunker [1] and Lecht [2]). The inlet distortions are generated in the experiment upstream of the compressor stage by non-rotating steel bars, while in the numerical calculations the total pressure and inflow angle distribution measured downstream of the bars are taken as inflow boundary conditions. The circumferential extent of the generated total pressure and inflow angle distortion is 120 degrees. Numerical simulations were performed for uniform inflow conditions at 85% and 100% rotational speed. For disturbed inflow conditions, a full-annulus calculation has been carried out for an operational point at peak efficiency. The object of the investigations is to validate the flow solver for compressor flow with distorted inflow. The results from time-averaged numerical and experimental data are compared extensively. The experimental trends are qualitativly and in the most part also quantitativly well reproduced in the numerical calculations.