The purpose of this article is to numerically investigate the function of blade tip cutting on axial flow compressors. The subject of this article is a subsonic compressor stage built and tested by Northwest Polytechnic University. The effect of cutting material from the blade pressure side is first analysed as an isolated rotor, and then in the environment of a stage with a downstream stator. The tool used for simulation is commercial computational fluid dynamics package of NUMECA. The numerical results show the possibility of increasing the rotor/stage pressure ratio and improve rotor efficiency by finding the right cut. The most significant effect of blade tip cutting is that it redistributes the load along blade span. When the adjusted load shape now fits with the downstream stator, the advantage of blade tip cut can be magnified; on the contrary, if the shape is not compatible with the downstream load, then the configuration that favours the performance of the rotor may deteriorate than that of the stage. This study also indicates that the blade tip cutting technique is rather case-dependent and that the performance of the cut blade is very sensitive to the shape of blade leading edge. Positive effect will only be significant when the cut is tailored to benefit both the local rotor flow field and the downstream flow field.


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    Title :

    Influence of blade tip cutting on axial compressor aerodynamic performance


    Contributors:
    Lu, J L (author) / Chu, W (author) / Zhang, H (author)


    Publication date :

    2009-01-01


    Size :

    11 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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