Effects of the Leakage Flow Tangential Velocity in Shrouded Axial Compressor Cascades

Although compressor blades have long been shrouded for aerodynamic and structural reasons, the importance of the leakage flow in the shrouded axial compressor has been investigated recently. However, the effects of the leakage tangential velocity variation on the blade passage flow are unknown. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental investigation of the loss and flow turning in the blade passage in shrouded axial compressor cascades subject to the variation of the leakage tangential velocity. The newly found results are as follows. First, increasing the leakage tangential velocity reduces overall loss up to 32.6% compared to the reference case. Second, increasing the leakage tangential velocity spreads loss core in the pitch-wise direction so loss core becomes more two-dimensional. Third, increasing the leakage tangential velocity makes the near hub passage flow more radially uniform.