Surface roughness effects in a transonic axial flow compressor operating at near-stall conditions

TL;DR

This study investigates how surface roughness impacts flow physics and stall behavior in a transonic axial flow compressor, revealing increased blockage and vortex breakdown with rough surfaces at near-stall conditions.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of flow physics alterations due to surface roughness at near-stall conditions using RANS simulations on NASA rotor blades.

Findings

Surface roughness increases blockage from 40.5% to 75.2%.

Rough surfaces cause earlier and more severe flow separation.

Vortex breakdown and chaotic flow structures are intensified by roughness.

Abstract

Surface roughness is a major contributor to performance degradation in gas turbine engines. The fan and the compressor, as the first components in the engine's air path, are especially vulnerable to the effects of surface roughness. Debris ingestion, accumulation of grime, dust, or insect remnants, typically at low atmospheric conditions, over several cycles of operation are some major causes of surface roughness over the blade surfaces. The flow in compressor rotors is inherently highly complex. From the perspective of the component designers, it is thus important to study the effect of surface roughness on the performance and flow physics, especially at near-stall conditions. In this study, we examine the effect of surface roughness on flow physics such as shock-boundary layer interactions, tip and hub flow separations, the formation and changes in the critical points, and tip leakage vortices amongst other phenomena. Steady and unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) calculations are conducted at near-stall conditions for smooth and rough NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) rotor 67 blades. Surface streamlines, Q-criterion, and entropy contours aid in analyzing the flow physics qualitatively and quantitatively. It is observed that from the onset of stall, to fully stalled conditions, the blockage varies from 21.7\% to 59.6\% from 90\% span to the tip in the smooth case, and from 40.5\% to 75.2\% in the rough case. This significant blockage, caused by vortex breakdown and chaotic flow structures, leads to the onset of full rotor stall.