Design strategies and numerical simulation of highly loaded aspirated compressor blades

Boundary layer suction can effectively eliminate flow separations and increase aerodynamic loading of axial compressors. The design methodology of highly loaded aspirated compressor blades was developed and illustrated in this study. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods were first validated with existing data and then used to develop the design strategy of aspirated compressor blades. Design strategies for higher blade performances, including higher loading, larger stall margin and larger blade thickness near the suction slot of aspirated blades, were investigated through analyzing a series of highly loaded aspirated cascades with diffusion factors (DF) around 0.71. Results showed that the design methodology proposed in this paper was appropriate for designing highly loaded aspirated compressor blades. Under the condition of no boundary layer suction (BLS), severe flow separations of highly loaded blades were tailored at the aft part of suction surface by adopting the “ski-slope” velocity distribution, which almost remained unchanged within a large incidence range. The “ski-slope” velocity distribution was appropriate for removing flow separations and beneficial for obtaining thicker blade. High loading of aspirated blade was achieved by the postpositional suction peak and minimum velocity distribution on pressure surface. The stall margin of highly loaded aspirated cascades could be enlarged by designing the velocity distribution upstream of the suction slot and by selecting suction peak position and solidity. A three-dimensional (3D) highly loaded aspirated cascade was designed based on a two-dimensional (2D) cascade. Both the trailing edge separation and corner separation of the 3D highly loaded aspirated cascade were eliminated successfully with coupled suction surface and endwall suction.