Study of tip clearance flows
Abstract: The tip leakage vortex is responsible for the generation of stagnation pressure losses inside the compressor along with the outbreak of rotating stall and surge. The current paper analytically proved that a part of the losses is proportional to the vortex circulation squared. The evolution of this circulation has been investigated as part of a parametric study which tested several clearance heights. The work consists in adopting a simplified single blade configuration to study the physics of the flow by means of wind tunnel experiments and numerical calculations. Upon visualising the main features of the flow, a model based on the study of jet in crossflows was implemented to describe the tip clearance flow for small gap sizes. For big gaps, the flow is assumed to behave as an isolated wing tip vortex which circulation is easily computed by the so called lifting line theory. The main vortical structures highlighted by the topology of the flow justified the use of the model of a jet in crossflow for small gap sizes. This model was challenged by experimental and numerical data and proved to well predict the evolution of the clearance vortex circulation for an increasing clearance height although some numerical results remain further away from the model.
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