Experimental and numerical investigation of near-tip flow field in an axial flow compressor rotor-part ii: Flow characteristics at stall inception condition

Systematical casing pressure measurements were undertaken to supplement instantaneous experiment data to available database of a high-speed small-scale compressor rotor, which was crucial for understanding the flow mechanism of short-length scale stall inception. At the same time, improved full-annulus simulations were conducted to assist in interpretation of experimental observations. In Part II of current investigation, original instantaneous casing pressure signals and STFT (short time Fourier transformation) analyses were conducted to conclude flow characteristics near casing at stall inception operating condition, and reasonable explanation of experimental observations was given in combination with numerical results. The current experimental investigation showed the stall inception of the test rotor was triggered by a spike, propagating at about 66.7%, which evolved into a single fully-developed stall cell. STFF analysis of pressure signal detected by probe located at tip leading edge showed that frequency peaks with varied band, which already observed in near-stall stable flow condition in Part I, was still a dominant flow feature before spike emergence, though it was hardly perceived after spike emergence due to a sudden increase in the overall energy of pressure signal, which attributed to the interface of incoming and tip clearance flow beyond leading edge plane according to STFT results. Monitoring results of static pressures in the absolute frame from current simulation and the corresponding FFT and STFT analyses showed a similar flow field evolution process as those observed in experiment. The current investigation provided adequate experimental evidence to support the previous simulation results in which a viewpoint of formation and activity of tip secondary vortex (TSV) was proposed as the underlying flow mechanism of the origin of unsteadiness near casing at near-stall stable operating conditions, and emergence of spike during the transition of flow field into unstable state, and further verified that the unsteady flow phenomenon observed in near-stall stable flow condition was equivalent to rotating instability (RI), thus establishing the causal linkage between RI and stall inception for the test rotor.