Numerical Simulation of Effects of Tip Geometry on the Performance of an Axial Compressor

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate numerically the effects of the tip geometry on the performance of an axial compressor rotor. There are three case studies which are compared with the base line tip geometry. 1) baseline (flat tip); 2) Cavity (tip with a cavity); 3) SSQA (suction side squealer tip) and 4) SSQB (modified suction side squealer tip). The case of SSQB is a combination of suction side squealer tip and the cavity tip. From leading edge to 10% chord, the tip has a cavity. From 10% chord to trailing edge, the tip has a suction side squealer. The numerical results of 2) show that the cavity tip leads to lower leakage mass flow and greater loss in tip gap and the rotor passage. The loading near the blade tip is lower than the baseline, thus the tangential force of the blade is lower. It leads to lower pressure rise than the baseline. The performance of the compressor for the tip with cavity is worse than the baseline. The results of 3) show that the higher curvature of the suction side squealer increases the loading of the blade and the tangential blade force. With the suction side squealer tip, the leakage flow experiences two vena contractor thus the mass of the leakage flow is reduced which is benefit for the performance of the compressor. The loss in the tip gap is lower than baseline. The performance is better than the baseline with greater pressure rise of the rotor, smaller leakage mass flow and lower averaged loss. For the case the SSQB, the leakage mass flow is lower than the SSQA and the loss in the tip gap and the rotor passage is greater than SSQA. The performance of the case of the SSQB is worse than the case of SSQA.