3D Transonic Potential Flow Computation in an Axial-Flow Compressor Rotor by an Approximate Factorization Scheme

Abstract

A conservative full-potential equation of 3D transonic flow in a turbomachine has been derived with the tensor method and expressed with respect to nonorthogonal curvilinear coordinates, and a fully implicit approximate factorization scheme to calculate the flow field has been developed in this paper. The new algorithm has been used to compute the 3D transonic flow field within an axial-flow single-stage compressor rotor tested by DFVLR. Comparisons between the computed flow field and the DFVLR data have been made. Results demonstrate that fast convergence can be achieved by the presented algorithm and that the agreement with the measurements obtained with an advanced laser velocimeter is quite good.