Compressor Drum Aerodynamic Experiments and Analysis With Coolant Injected at Selected Locations

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to determine the pressure distributions within a multicavity compressor drum model for two coolant injection locations and a range of flow conditions. Flow was injected through the upstream conical wall or through the cylindrical wall of the rotating model. The coolant flow, the drum rotational rate, and the model pressure were varied to produce a range of tangential and coolant flow Reynolds numbers, typical of large aircraft engine high-pressure compressor drums. The experimental results were used to evaluate analytical procedures for predicting flow characteristics in rotating annular cavities with radially inward flow and for correlating flow characteristics in multiple-rotating annular cavities, which are not currently predicted. Swirling flows, radially inward between compressor disks and within rotating annular cavities with no net flow, were analyzed with a procedure that coupled a viscous solution for the rotating core flow with a momentum integral analysis for the boundary layers on the disks. Constant viscosity and variable turbulent viscosity models were used in the analysis. Results from the analysis and the experiments were used to estimate the tangential velocity distribution in trapped cavities for two coolant injection configurations and a range of flow rates.