Effects of shock-wave on flow structure in tip region of transonic compressor rotor

Abstract

It is known that tip clearance flows reduce the pressure rise, flow range and efficiency of turbomachinery. So, a clear understanding about flow fields in the tip region is needed to efficiently design the turbomachinery. In the present paper, the Navier-Stokes code with the proper treatment of the boundary conditions has been developed to analyze the three-dimensional steady viscous flow fields in the transonic rotating blades and a numerical study has been conducted to investigate the detailed flow physics in the tip region of transonic rotor, NASA Rotor 67. The computational results in the tip region of transonic rotor show the leakage vortices, leakage flow from pressure side to suction side and their interaction with a shock. Depending on the operating conditions, load distributions and the position of shock-wave on the blade surface are very different close to the blade tip of transonic compressor rotor. It is shown that the load distribution and the shock-wave position close to blade tip have great effects on the starting position of leakage vortex and direction of leakage flow.