Application of a Viscous Through-Flow Model to a Modern Axial Low-Pressure Compressor

Abstract This paper describes the evaluation of a newly developed viscous time-marching through-flow solver to two test cases to assess the applicability of the method using correlations from the literature to modern blade designs. The test cases are the classic axial compressor stage CME2 and a modern highly loaded multi-stage axial low-pressure compressor developed by Safran Aero Boosters. The through-flow solver is based on the Navier-Stokes equations and uses a pseudo-time marching method. The closure models currently include terms of major importance: the blade forces and the Reynolds stress. The results are compared to higher-fidelity results including three-dimensional RANS simulations to assess their reliability for design and off-design conditions. The main originality of this work is the evaluation of the CFD-based method in the context of a compressor with highly three-dimensional blades, as such an analysis is not commonly found in the literature. The solver gives realistic predictions of loss and deviation for the compressor stage CME2 at both design and off-design operating conditions. Regarding the second test case, the through-flow simulations based on theoretically non-adapted correlations for such a compressor are still in good agreement with RANS simulations, although the results for the 2nd test case are probably not as good as for the first. These results are a promising first step towards the use of this through-flow model for industrial design. Regarding the ongoing closure models development, suggestions to extend the loss models to a larger range of designs are discussed.