The Investigation of a New End Wall Contouring Method for Axial Compressors

To further control corner separation in high-load axial compressors, this study proposes a new end wall contouring method. It defines multiple standard “surface units” with particular flow control effects and then applies a linear combination, finally forming the geometry of the end wall surface. Based on design experiences, three different end wall contouring cases are generated and calculated on a high-load compressor cascade in the first step. The results show that the new method achieves a clear and intuitive influence on the end wall geometry, with a proper number of design variables, and can effectively combine variables with the development of secondary flow. In the second step, the new method was applied to an axial compressor, with an improvement in the design variables. Although the end wall contouring only improved the efficiency of the compressor stage on the right part of its operating map, the experimental results of the flow field show that the corner separation and end wall loss are suppressed at multiple inflow conditions. The results thus verified the practical effect of the newly developed end wall contouring method.