Investigation of Loss Impact From Production-Like Features in a Compressor Duct Under Engine Realistic Conditions

Abstract

An experimental and numerical investigation of the flow in a compressor duct with engine-realistic in-production features is presented in this paper. The experimental testing was conducted in the ND-FSCC test facility at University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. A baseline duct was also tested for back-to-back comparison. The ducts were heavily instrumented; duct inlet and exit flowfields were scanned using a five-hole pressure probe that provided total pressure, velocities and flow angles. Based on the five-hole probe total pressures, duct losses could be assessed. Furthermore the duct inlet boundary layers were traversed and turbulence intensity levels were assessed. For the CFD analysis of the production-like duct, a highly complex computational grid, resolving all the geometrical features present, was used. A previously validated surface roughness model was used to account for the cast aero-surfaces. Both experimental and numerical results show that there is a significant increase in loss for the production-like duct when compared to the baseline duct loss. The CFD results agree very well with experimental results for the baseline duct, which makes it possible to use the experimental data recorded for the production-like duct to validate CFD tools for real geometry effects, such as interface steps and surface roughness for example.