Leakage Flow Impact on Shrouded Stator Cavity Flow Topology and Associated High-Speed Axial Compressor Stage Performance

This paper presents the investigation of realistic cavity leakage flow for the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics H25 axial compressor stage, equipped with a shroud cavity of average Reynolds number Re_r = 2.2 * 10⁶ and average aspect ratio G = 0.06. On top of overall performance measurements, time averaged data from unprecedented experimental dataset are used to characterize the stator hub shroud cavity flow field and its interaction with the power stream. The sensitivity of the stage performance and stability as well as the cavity flow topology is evaluated against injection conditions, compressor throttling, and compressor speed. Parametric steady RANS simulations of the stage under injection are used to support the findings and state on the relevance of such approach in the preliminary design phase of axial compressor components. As an example, a stage efficiency reduction of 0.97% for a leakage fraction of 0.56% at design point is retrieved. This performance drop is attributed to the effect of cavity flow on: the blockage ratio, the boundary layer skewness, and total temperature increase at stator row inlet. It is also presented that there is a mutual interaction between the cavity geometry and the cavity flow field organization. The injection homogenizes the cavity flow field and the associated pressure gradient. The various operating conditions presented also demonstrate that the cavity flow studied is, on average (i.e., time), sensitive to changes in compressor rotation speed and changes in stage loading.