Numerical Prediction of Wakes in Cascades and Compressor Rotors Including the Effects of Mixing: Part II—Rotor Passage Flow and Wakes Including the Effects of Spanwise Mixing

Abstract

The results of a numerical investigation to predict the flow field including wakes and mixing in axial flow compressor rotors has been presented in this paper. The wake behavior in a moderately loaded compressor rotor has been studied numerically using a three-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes solver with a high Reynolds number form of the k–ε turbulence model. The equations are solved using a time-dependent implicit technique. The agreement between the measured data and the predictions is good, including the blade boundary layer profiles, wake mean velocity profiles, and decay. The ability of the pseudocompressibility scheme to predict the entire flow field including the near and far wake profiles and its decay characteristics, effect of loading, and the viscous losses of a three-dimensional rotor flow field has been demonstrated. An analysis of the passage-averaged velocities and the pressure coefficients shows that the mixing in the downstream regions away from the hub and annulus walls is dominated by wake diffusion. In regions away from the walls, the radial mixing is predominantly caused by the transport of mass, momentum, and energy by the radial component of velocity in the wake.