An Investigation on Separation Configurations in Compressor Cascades with Boundary Layer Suction(BLS)

A numerical study was performed for a vane of a compressor with a high-turning angle and meridional divergence. At first, the effect of the suction position was discussed. Then, the optimal suction position was applied to the cascades with the aspect ratio of 2.53 and 0.3, respectively, to get the knowledge of the effect of the endwall boundary layer removal on the secondary flow along the blade height. At last, using the critical principles of the three-dimensional separation, the topological structures of the flow patterns of the body surfaces and the separation configurations were discussed in detail. The results show that the largest reduction of the total loss can be achieved when the suction slot is near the suction side. The topological structure as well as the separation configuration varies due to boundary layer removal, which restrains the flow separation at the corner and delays or depresses the separation on the suction surface. Compared with the original cascade, the cascade with the endwall boundary layer removal has a higher blade loading along the most span. Furthermore the flow loss decreases and distributes uniformly along the span.