Evaluation of Compressor Blading With Blade End Slots and Full-Span Slots in a Highly Loaded Compressor Cascade

Abstract Blade end slots were proposed to control corner separation in a highly loaded compressor cascade in our previous studies. This study focuses on the evaluation of compressor blading with blade end slots and full-span slots. First, the two-dimensional configuration performance is evaluated both for the datum and slotted profiles. The slotted configuration could effectively suppress separation, especially under positive incidence conditions when the separation is large. Thus, two three-dimensional blading with full-span slots and blade end slots (20% span height from the endwall) are compared. Results show that blading with full-span slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise under relative high incidence angles, while blading with blade end slots could effectively reduce the loss and enlarge pressure rise above an incidence angle of −4 deg. Blading with slots alters the flow structures and reorganizes the flow in the blade end regions. The self-adaptive jets from the slots reenergize the low-momentum flow downstream and restrain its migration toward the mid-span, so that the corner separation is reduced and the performance is enhanced. The loss for the end slotted blade is lower than that of the full-span slotted blade under incidence angles within 4 deg. This is because the additional mixing loss of the jet and the main flow are caused by the full-span slots at the mid-span regions where the flow remains attached for the blade end slots.