Effects of pulsed endwall air injection on corner separation and vortical flow of a compressor cascade

Air injection is an effective method to eliminate flow separation and improve blade loading in compressors. In existing studies on unsteady air injection, achieving a better control effect than steady injection with lower injection consumption is a major difficulty and challenge. In this work, pulsed endwall air injection (PEAI) was carried out numerically in a highly loaded compressor cascade under different injection frequencies and injection amplitudes. The mechanism through which PEAI influences corner separation and vortical flow, especially the effect of initial injection phase on the flow field of compressor cascade, was revealed. The results showed that PEAI effectively suppressed the corner separation with lower injection mass flow rate compared with steady endwall air injection (SEAI). The time-averaged overall loss coefficient and endwall loss coefficient were reduced by 10.5% and 28.7%, respectively, under the optimal PEAI scheme. Higher injection amplitude exhibited a more effectively controlled range in the suction corner, which led to a decrease in corner separation and deterioration of the mid-span flow field. The interaction between trailing edge separation and low-momentum fluid at mid-span led to the formation of an injection vortex. When conducting PEAI, the effect of inertia was observed for flow in the injection hole, which was derived from the interactions between injection fluid at different velocities and will increase with the improvement of injection frequency. The effects of injection location and diameter of the injection hole were also investigated. The injection location of PEAI affected the flow field by changing the effect region of the injection and low-momentum fluid near the endwall. The injection hole diameter had a significant impact on the intensity of the passage vortex and mid-span flow field.