Numerical Simulation of Three-Dimensional Viscous Flow in a Linear Compressor Cascade With Tip Clearance

Abstract

A Navier–Stokes solver is applied to investigate the three-dimensional viscous flow in a low-speed linear compressor cascade with tip clearance at design and off-design conditions with two different meshes. The algebraic turbulence model of Baldwin–Lomax is used for closure. Relative motion between the blades and wall is simulated for one flow coefficient. Comparisons with experimental data, including flow structure, static and total pressures, velocity profiles, secondary flows and vorticity, are presented for the stationary wall case. It is shown that the code predicts well the flow structure observed in experiments and shows the details of the tip leakage flow and the leading edge horseshoe vortex.