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IMPACT of UNIFORM SURFACE ROUGHNESS on the AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE of AN AXIAL COMPRESSOR ROTOR at DIFFERENT ROTATIONAL SPEEDS
Journal
Proceedings of ASME 2021 Gas Turbine India Conference, GTINDIA 2021
Date Issued
2021-01-01
Author(s)
Malhotra, Ashima
Goswami, Shraman
Pradeep, A. M.
Abstract
The aerodynamic performance of a compressor rotor is known to deteriorate due to surface roughness. It is important to understand this deterioration as it impacts the overall performance of the engine. This paper, therefore, aims to numerically investigate the impact of roughness on the performance of an axial compressor rotor at different rotational speeds. In this numerical study, the simulations are carried out for NASA Rotor37 at 100%, 80%, and 60% of its design speed. with and without roughness on the blade surface. These speeds are chosen because they represent different flow regimes. The front stages of a multistage compressor usually have a supersonic or transonic regime whereas the middle and aft stages have a subsonic regime. Thus, these performance characteristics can give an estimate of the impact on the performance of a multistage compressor. At 100% speed (design speed), the relative flow is supersonic, at 80% of design speed, the relative flow is transonic and at 60% of design speed, the relative flow is subsonic. Detailed flow field investigations are carried out to understand the underlying flow physics. The results indicate that, for the same amount of roughness, the degradation in the performance is maximum at 100% speed where the rotor is supersonic, while the impact is minimum at 60% speed where the rotor is subsonic. Thus, the rotor shock system plays an important role in determining the performance loss due to roughness. It is also observed that the loss increases with increased span for 100% and 80% speeds, but for 60% speed, the loss is almost constant from the hub to the shroud. This is because, with the increased span, the shock strength increases for 100% and 80% speeds, whereas at 60% speed flow is subsonic.
Subjects