STUDY OF THE FLOW FIELD BEHIND A TRANSONIC AXIAL COMPRESSOR ROTOR USING LASER-ANEMOMETRY AND UNSTEADY PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS

A laser anemometer and high response pressure probes were used to study in detail the complex flow in a transonic axial compressor rotor at 20.000 rpm. The investigation was aimed at providing complete data on the internal flow field at design speed for peak efficiency, near compressor surge and choke. Useful informations are now available on the flow vectors including the 3-dimensional shock-waves, on the oscillating total pressures, the blade wakes and losses downstream of the rotor. The experimental results presented and discussed in this paper partly give new impetus to transonic compressor performance improvement and to analytical flow modelling. Nomenclature