A computational study of the flow in a transonic axial compressor using an inviscid, three-dimensional finite difference

Abstract

A computational study of the flow in a Transonic Axial Compressor has been performed. This compressor has a tip Mach number of 1.2 and an inlet hub to tip ratio of 0.5. The numerical procedure used is a fully three-dimensional, inviscid, finite difference algorithm. MacCormack's two-step, explicit second order accurate scheme was used. A total of 30,600 mesh points were used. The results were compared to space and time resolved exit flow measurements, and to quantitative density visualization pictures. Among the most significant features resolved by the computation, was an unusual shock structure, which had earlier been observed in the experiments. The general agreement of the computation with The experiment is good, except in regions dominated by viscous flow. Many of the effects of viscosity can be anticipated from the inviscid flow field.