Unsteady Full Annulus Simulations of a Transonic Axial Compressor Stage

Gregory Herrick, Michael Hathaway, Jen-Ping Chen
2009 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including The New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition   unpublished
Two recent research endeavors in turbomachinery at NASA Glenn Research Center have focused on compression system stall inception and compression system aerothermodynamic performance. Physical experiment and computational research are ongoing in support of these research objectives. TURBO, an unsteady, three-dimensional, Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics code commissioned and developed by NASA, has been utilized, enhanced, and validated in support of these endeavors. In the research
more » ... h follows, TURBO is shown to accurately capture compression system flow range --from choke to stall inception --and also to accurately calculate fundamental aerothermodynamic performance parameters. Rigorous full-annulus calculations are performed to validate TURBO's ability to simulate the unstable, unsteady, chaotic stall inception process; as part of these efforts, full-annulus calculations are also performed at a condition approaching choke to further document TURBO's capabilities to compute aerothermodynamic performance data and support a NASA code assessment effort. I. Introduction URBOMACHINERY generates power and propulsion for a wide variety of applications. Regardless of application, it is imperative that the turbomachinery perform reliably and efficiently. A major focus of research within NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics program concerns efficient, highly-loaded turbomachinery. An essential part of the research is the development and validation of high-fidelity computational design and analysis tools. Many computational tools have been commissioned, developed, and validated by NASA, and an effort has been undertaken to assess these various tools. Concurrent with NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics goal for efficient, highly-loaded turbomachinery, the Army Research Laboratory has a vested interest in reliable, efficient turbomachinery for the power plants used within the Army's helicopters, tanks, and uninhabited aerial vehicles, inter alia. Reliable, efficient performance of the gas turbine power plant depends on reliable, efficient performance of the turbomachinery compression system. In pursuit of this goal, ARL has conducted extensive research in compression system stall inception and stall control, both experimentally and computationally.
doi:10.2514/6.2009-1059 fatcat:s3t5uwolyve4vj45b4cqjqwnj4