Experimental Study of Stator Clocking Effects in an Axial Compressor

This paper is focused on the experimental study of the effects of stator clocking on the performance of a low-speed repeating stage axial compressor with compound-lean stators as well as the one with conventional stators (the baseline) for comparison. The experimental results show that as the clocking positions vary, the upstream stator wake enters the following passage at different circumferential positions, and then mixes with the local fluid in the following passage. This is the main reason for the variation of the compressor performance resulted from the stator clocking effects. The variation of the compressor performance due to the clocking effect is less pronounced for the compressor with compound-lean stators than with the baseline. At a certain clocking position, the efficiency of the compressor with compound-lean stators is increased in comparison with that of the baseline, especially on small mass flow rate conditions, e.g., 0.7% at design condition and 3.5% at near-surge condition in this case. The maximum 1.22% and the minimum 0.07% increases in efficiency on design condition are obtained through the combined effects of the stator compound-lean and the stator clocking in this case.