An LES and URANS computation was performed of a repeating compressor stage at its design point. The Reynolds stresses and Reynolds stress budget terms were examined at mid-span in the blade passage and in the blade surface boundary layers. The aim of the research was to study the Reynolds stress tensor in detail in a compressor passage, as well as to evaluate the performance of a state-of-the-art EARSM turbulence model.

The LES computations show that the boundary layers are laminar in the initial stages of the blade surface, whereas the URANS computation assumes fully turbulent flow everywhere. This leads to an overprediction of the mean-flow production rate in the URANS computation. Moreover, the LES computation shows regions of negative mean-flow production, which is not reproduced by the URANS. Consequently, the URANS overpredicts the wall shear stress and underpredicts the momentum deficit in the blade boundary layer.

The study also investigates the interaction of the Reynolds and deterministic stress fields. This quantity is rarely examined in the analysis of flow in compressors, and it manifests itself as an additional production and transport term in the Reynolds stress budget.

The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for improving the performance of EARSM models in compressor passages.


Reynolds Stress Field and Turbulent Kinetic Energy Budget in a Repeating Compressor Stage

Division / Sponsor:
International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/GT2020/volume/84058

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