Shock-dominated flow structures at the design condition of a supersonic through-flow fan

The flow characteristics in a supersonic through-flow fan at the design condition of Mach 2.36 inflow are investigated through a wall-resolved large eddy simulation. Good agreement between the time-averaged flow and experimental results ensures the validity of simulation. Special attention is then given to the interaction structures between the shock wave and boundary layer on both suction and pressure surfaces, along with the wake flow, through flow visualization and flow modal decomposition. Further spectral analysis reveals the unsteady nature of the separation bubble and the dominance of low-frequency shock/boundary layer interaction on suction surface. Using the filtered proper orthogonal decomposition method, the coherent structures at several frequencies are extracted and analyzed. This study provides a detailed exploration of the flow characteristics in the supersonic through-flow fan.