Comparative study on numerical simulation methods for surge dynamic process of a high-speed compressor

In this paper, an unsteady Reynolds-averaged N–S equations (URANS) method is developed to calculate the surge dynamic process of compressor. Using this method, the surge dynamic process of a four-stage high-speed axial compressor at 70% design speed under different B parameters is numerically simulated. The simulation results show that the classical surge is induced when the B parameter is 0.35 and 0.4, and the deep surge is induced when the B parameter is 1.0 and 1.44. The surge frequency decreases with the increase in the B parameter, and the surge frequency obtained when the B parameter is 1.44 is very close to the experimental results. The body-force model (BFM) is another numerical simulation method with low computational cost and can capture the details of the flow field to a certain extent. For the same high-speed four-stage compressor, under the condition that the surge frequency is almost the same as that in the experiment, the calculation results of the surge dynamic process by the URANS method and the previously developed BFM are compared. The results show that the prediction of the dynamic pressure of the wall by the two methods is in good agreement with the experimental data, and the two methods have also achieved similar results in the prediction of the blade force. The meaningful comparison results show that the URANS method can be used as a supplement to the experiment in many aspects and provide more abundant calibration data for the further development of BFM.