Numerical Simulation of the Effects of Rotor-Stator Spacing and Wake/Blade Count Ratio on Turbomachinery Unsteady Flows

Abstract

A two-dimensional time-accurate Navier-Stokes solver for incompressible flows is used to simulate the effects of the axial spacing between an upstream rotor and a stator, and the wake/blade count ratio on turbomachinery unsteady flows. The code uses a pressure-based method. A low-Reynolds number two-equation turbulence model is incorporated to account for the turbulence effect. By computing cases with different spacing between an upstream rotor wake and a stator, the effect of the spacing is simulated. Wake/blade count ratio effect is simulated by varying the number of rotor wakes in one stator passage at the computational inlet plane. Results on surface pressure, unsteady velocity vectors, blade boundary layer profiles, rotor wake decay and loss coefficient for all the cases are interpreted. It is found that the unsteadiness in the stator blade passage increases with a decrease in the blade row spacing and a decrease in the wake/blade count ratio. The reduced frequency effect is dominant in the wake/blade count ratio simulation. The time averaged loss coefficient increases with a decrease in the axial blade row spacing and an increase in the wake/blade count ratio.