Experimental investigation of unsteady flow field in the tip region of an axial compressor rotor passage at near stall condition with stereoscopic particle image velocimetry

Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) was applied to a large-scale low-speed compressor facility with the configuration of the two CCD cameras placed on each side of the light sheet to make the measurement of the vortices in the cross flow section possible and to avoid the disturbance from the light sheet containing periscope-type probe. Instantaneous velocity and vorticity distributions were successfully documented at the tip region of the rotor at near stall condition. The measurement results clearly revealed the generation and evolution of the tip leakage vortex. Comparing to design condition, the tip leakage vortex at near stall condition generates and breaks down earlier and interacts more violently with mainstream, which causes large blockage and much loss. Whether corner vortex exists or not is the primary difference between near stall and design condition. Differing from the leakage vortex, the corner vortex is composed of multiple vortices developed from the suction surface of the rotor blade. The key mechanism for the generation of the corner vortex is that the rotation of the rotor has different effect on the evolution of positive vortices and negative vortices, which makes the positive vortices dissipates faster than the negative ones, the vortices at the rotor exit therefore bear mainly negative vortices, which induces the fluids to rotate clockwise at the corner and forms the corner vortex.