Experimental study on the blade tip clearance sensitive effect in compressors with different loading levels

Abstract

Rotor tip clearance has significant influences on both the performances and internal flow fields of compressors. To explore the relationship between these influences and compressor loading levels, four single-stage compressors, with loading levels ranging from 0.36 to 0.59, have been designed for experiments. Compressor characteristics and flow fields at blade row inlet and outlet planes were measured under two rotor tip clearance conditions: 1% and 2.2% blade height. Based on these experimental results, an analysis was conducted to examine the influence of loading levels on the sensitivity to rotor tip clearance. The experimental results indicate that increase in the loading level enhances the sensitivity of compressor stage characteristics to rotor tip clearance. At the design point, an increase of 1% in the rotor tip clearance causes reductions of 1.3% in the stage efficiency and 2.3% in the stage static pressure rise when the loading level is 0.36. However, when the loading level is 0.59, the reductions are 2.9% and 3.4% in stage efficiency and stage static pressure rise, respectively. Increasing the rotor tip clearance brings the static pressure rise at the rotor tip region closer to its limit, resulting in a rapid growth of local loss. This trend becomes increasingly pronounced with higher compressor loading level.