Simulation of the effect of nonuniform fouling thickness on an axial compressor stage performance

Abstract

This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of the flow status in the compressor with the condition of fouling. NASA stage 35 was considered as the object, and the commercial code ANSYS CFX was used. The deposition rate of contaminants on the surface was considered to be different along the height of the blade. A data from related study shows that the deposition rate of the contaminant on the side close to the hub is higher than the side near the shroud part. Based on the deposition law, this paper simulated the fouling of the compressor blades by changing the thickness on the blade surface. This subject only changed the thickness of the stator blade surface because of a data showing that the fouling on the stator blade surface is almost double that on the rotor blade surface. In the condition that the roughness value of the blade surface is constant, only the stable working range of the compressor is effected by the change of the surface thickness of the stator blade. There is a positive relationship between the value of compressor minimum flow rate and the value of thickness increment. After fouling the total pressure ratio and isentropic efficiency degenerated 1.59% and 3.76%, respectively.