Investigation of the Three-Dimensional Flow Field Within a Transonic Fan Rotor: Experiment and Analysis

An experimental investigation of the three-dimensional flow field through a low aspect ratio, transonic, axial-flow fan rotor has been conducted using an advanced laser anemometer (LA) system. Laser velocimeter measurements of the rotor flow field at the design operating speed and over a range of through-flow conditions are compared to analytical solutions. The numerical technique used yields the solution to the full, three-dimensional, unsteady Euler equations using an explicit time-marching, finite volume approach. The numerical analysis, when coupled with a simplified boundary layer calculation, generally yields good agreement with the experimental data. The test rotor has an aspect ratio of 1.56, a design total pressure ratio of 1.629 and a tip relative Mach number of 1.38. The high spatial resolution of the LA data matrix (9 radial by 30 axial by 50 blade-to-blade) permits details of the transonic flow field such as shock location, turning distribution and blade loading levels to be investigated and compared to analytical results.