Experimental investigation of the flow in a forward swept transonic compressor rotor at stall inception

Three-dimensional laser-2-focus measurements complemented by measurements of the instantaneous static wall pressure in the casing above the rotor are used to investigate short length-scale rotating stall inception in an axial transonic compressor rotor. The data was collected at the Darmstadt Transonic Compressor using the forward swept "Rotor-3". Detailed analysis of the experimental data reveals that in this configuration with pronounced forward sweep stall is not directly caused by the blockage created by the shock vortex interaction. Due to the reduced aerodynamic loading, the tip clearance vortex passes the shock without significant deceleration but shows some great fluctuation in terms of vortex strength. As the compressor is throttled to near stall, the tip clearance vortex eventually reaches the leading edge of the adjacent blade. It can be suggested that as an result, spill forward and so-called "self-induced vortex-oscillation" occurs. A phase-lock of both of these phenomena might be the trigger for a spike-type disturbance of the flow-field. The investigation underpins the great importance of the unsteady flow phenomena at near stall. For a thorough understanding of the flow features at the stability limit of a compressor, which is the basis of any effort to increase the operation range, special attention has to be paid to the unsteadiness of the flow in both experimental and numerical work. To study the mechanism of stall inception it might even be necessary to analyze the flow field around the whole annulus, as there appears to be significant interaction of the flow between neighboring passages.