The unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of a cascade subjected to a upstream wake with different pitch

Effects of rotor-stator blade count ratio on the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of a cascade was studied by using a Navier-Stokes code. Present Navier-Stokes code is a parallel code and works on a multi-cpu machine. It is based on the SIMPLE algorithm and uses QUICK scheme for convection terms and second order back difference for all temporal derivatives. Computations were carried out for two cases: case 1 is for 3 stator cascade passages subjected to two upstream wakes while case 2 is for 2 stator cascade passages subjected to three upstream wakes. Numerical solutions show that rotor-stator blade count ratio plays a significant role in the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of the stator cascade. Case 2 shows smaller unsteady fluctuation than case 1, even if they show the same time averaged value. The smaller fluctuation of case 2 is believed due to strong interaction between unsteady vortices. The unsteady lift variation of case 2 is shown to have many high frequency fluctuations as more unsteady vortices travel around the cascade. The unsteady turbulent kinetic energy due to the upstream wake is also shown to decay faster through the cascade passage than in the free stream