Numerical simulation of the flow characteristic of tip leakage flow in a transonic axial-flow compressor at near stall condition

Tip clearance flow and the unsteady flow phenomena of tip leakage vortex have great effect to the stall inception of axial-flow compressor. In this paper, 3-D steady, unsteady numerical simulation of the transonic axial-flow compressor-NASA rotor 37 was investigated. Compared to the numerical results and the experimental test case at peak-efficiency and near stall condition, the numerical results agreed well with experimental test data for estimation of the global performance. For the unsteady computation, Detail analyses of the flow field of the NASA rotor 37 led to some preliminary conclusion: the tip leakage flow behave obviously unsteady flow phenomena. Shock-vortex induced the periodic breakdown of the tip leakage vortex.