Stall Margin Enhancement of Aeroengine Compressor with a Novel Type of Alternately Swept Blades

Abstract

Rotating stall, as a typical kind of flow instability in aero-compressor, could lead to disastrous consequences of aeroengine. Therefore, an effective method is perused to enhance the stall margin. Some of the previous researches focus on the holistically swept rotor. This paper concentrates on the impact of a novel type of axial swept blades on the aerodynamic behaviour of transonic axial-flow compressor rotors. A CFD package, which solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, is used to compute the complex flow field of the compressor. It is validated against the existing experimental data. Comparisons with experimental data indicate that the overall features of the rotor performance are calculated well by the numerical solution with acceptable accuracy. A number of new swept rotors were modelled based on the original blade, by axially moving the location of blade alternately. All the new rotors are simulated, and comparison of the results shows that the alternately swept rotor enhances the stall margin effectively. The stall margin of new rotors can reach up to 18.16%, while that of the original rotor is only 9.71%. More physical explanations on the stall margin improvement are given based on a detailed analysis of the flow field.

Although this paper is partly inspired by the reference [15] and [18], the substance and the methods are different between this paper and these two references.