Parameter study on numerical simulation of corner separation in LMFA-NACA65 linear compressor cascade

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is compared with experiment and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), and LES is shown to be superior to RANS in reproducing corner separation in the LMFA-NACA65 linear compressor cascade, in terms of surface limiting streamlines, blade pressure coefficient, total pressure losses and blade suction side boundary layer profiles. However, LES is too expensive to conduct an influencing parameter study of the corner separation. RANS approach, despite over-predicting the corner separation, gives reasonable descriptions of the corner separated flow, and is thus selected to conduct a parametric study in this paper. Two kinds of influencing parameters on corner separation, numerical and physical parameters, are analyzed and discussed: second order spatial scheme is necessary for a RANS simulation; incidence angle and inflow boundary layer thickness are found to show the most significant influences on the corner separation among the parameters studied; unsteady RANS with the imposed inflow unsteadiness (inflow angle varying sinusoidally with fluctuating amplitude of 0.92°) does not show any non-linear effect on the corner separation.