Numerical simulation of three-dimensional inlet guide vanes

The fluid dynamics of three dimensional inlet guide vanes is studied by numerical simulation. Two inlet guide vanes are simulated by using an implicit Navier-Stokes solver which accounts for the effects of turbulence on the mean flow field by introducing two extra transport equations for turbulence quantities. For the HP IGV the computed solution is compared positively with experiments in terms of pitchwise averaged quantities downstream of the trailing edge. In the second, and LP, IGV, the solver needs to be modified to be able to cope with the very low Mach number by introducing a preconditioning matrix. The computed results are compared with a set of experimental data including the pressure distribution around the blade at different spanwise positions which indicate the large impact of secondary flows.