Compressor Cascade Pressure Rise Prediction ME 491 Project Department of Mechanical Engineering, IUPUI Julia Zafian-Short December 2004

Outline Goals and Approach Computational Setup Results Summary and Conclusions

Goals and Approach To model flow around a NASA/GE E3 rotor blade. Apply 2-D CFD using Star-design. Quantitative post processing using starviz.

Computational Setup Domain and boundary conditions Mesh Parameters Cell type and sizes (near wall and far field) Solution parameters Method Convergence criteria

Domain, Boundary Conditions and Mesh Inlet, velocity 60 m/s Periodic 30 m/s Periodic Pressure Symmetry No change Normal to Surface

Mesh Tetrahedral Cells 7 layers Surface size 0.1 Subsurface Thickness 0.5 Prismatic Cells

Method Incompressible flow assumptions Upwind differencing High Reynolds number K-epsilon Convergence on 0.001Mass Flow Residual

Results Velocity Pressure Pressure rise characteristic Flow features

Tangential Velocity, Vy -70 to –20 m/s, increment of 5 m/s

Axial Velocity, Vz 15 to 45 m/s, increment of 3 m/s

Pressure 97,900 to 100,400 Pa, increment 250Pa

Stagnation Pressure 100,400-101,600 Pa, increment 120 Pa Wake

Stagnation Pressure Coefficient -0.4 to 0, increment of 0.04 Cp=(P-Pref)/(0.5rVref2) Dimensionless Stagnation Pressure (using reference values from the inlet)

Similar Calculations for a Range of Inlet Axial Velocities.

Streamline Comparison for Different Inlet Velocities Inlet Velocity Inlet Velocity 60 m/s 60 m/s 16 m/s 30 m/s Separation Bubble

Summary and Conclusions The operating limit for the incoming axial velocity is found to be 20 m/s for maximum pressure gradient. As the mass flow drops further, the angle between the flow and the leading edge of the blade increases, increasing the wake.