Aerodynamic Effects of Blade Positive Sweep in Axial Flow Cascades

Abstract

In this work, the effects of sweep applied to rotor of axial flow turbomachines were investigated by means of applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. Low-aspect-ratio rotors of positive sweep (PSW) have been studied and compared to unswept datum (USW) rotors, at one flow rate and different spanwise locations. Comparative studies have been carried out on positive sweep and upswept rotors at the design flow rate, by means of developing structured fully hexahedral mesh of the entire computational domain. The structured meshing technique offers the moderation of cell number and skewness, and makes possible cost-effective CFD investigations. Investigations of inlet and outlet flows field were carried out at the design flow rate. It was pointed out that the efficiency for the positive sweep rotor is deteriorated near the tip and near the hub at the design point.