Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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The evolution of the ow topologies of 3D separations in the stator passage

of an axial compressor stage
Xianjun Yu , Zhibo Zhang, Baojie Liu
National Key Laboratory of Science & Technology on Aero-Engine Aero-Thermodynamics, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics,
Beijing 100191, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 18 January 2012
Received in revised form 7 June 2012
Accepted 7 July 2012
Available online 20 July 2012
Keywords:
Corner separation
Topological analyses
Oil-ow visualization
Stereoscopic PIV
Axial compressors

a b s t r a c t
Flow separations in compressor blade passages are common and can cause signicant ow blockage and
losses production in some instances. Because of the measurement difculties, most of the previous studies concerning the compressor 3D separations were conducted in cascades facilities. In this paper, 3D
separation ows were studied in the stator of a low-speed compressor test facility. In order to nd their
evolutionary processes, oil ow visualizations were conducted at four compressor operating conditions
from the design to near-stall conditions. The results showed that the corner separations appeared at even
the design condition; however, they were so weak causing very slight ow blockage until the maximum
static pressure rise condition arrived. By using topological analyses methods, exact 3D ow structures
inside the stator passage were reconstructed and their ow mechanisms were analyzed. It was found
that, as the mass ow rate decreased, the ow topologies of 3D separations became much more complex
and the evolutionary processes of the 3D ows were signicantly affected by both the owow interactions inside the stator passage and the rotorstator interactions between blade rows. However, the
complicated 3D ow structures in the tested stator passage always consist with four basic types of ows:
the corner vortex ow, the ow of the corner separation with/without the ring-like vortex, and the blade
surface separation ow. Finally, the results obtained based on the topological analyses of the oil-ow
visualization pictures were validated by using the measured results of stereoscopic particle image
velocimetry.
2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Three-dimensional separations in blade passages, especially for
the end-wall corner regions, are common in compressors, which
may cause signicant aerodynamic blockage and losses production,
and can even affect the compressor stability [13]. Hence, in the
past few decades, it was always a key ow phenomenon concerned
by compressor aerodynamicists. Great amount of researches were
conducted for clarifying the ow mechanisms and aerodynamic
features in turbomachinery by experimental, theoretical, and
numerical methods [410].
It is well known that there are two basic factors which affect the
formation of three-dimensional separations in compressor blade
passages: (i) the adverse pressure gradient in the streamwise direction and (ii) the secondary ow effects (skew of the endwall boundary layer, circumferential and radial ow migration in the near wall
regions) in blade passages [11,12]. Considering that the threedimensional separations in compressor test facilities or real engines

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 82316455; fax: +86 10 82316418.

E-mail addresses: yuxj@buaa.edu.cn, y_xjun@126.com (X. Yu).
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermusci.2012.07.002

are always very complex and are difcult to be investigated in

detail, fortunately, the basic formation mechanisms of them can
be simulated well by cascades, most of the researches related to
the three-dimensional separations in turbomachinery were conducted in planar cascades [3,8,10,13,14]. However, because of the
blade twists in radial direction (which can cause non-uniformity
spanwise distribution of blade loadings or ows) and the strong
secondary ow effects and even the rotorstator interaction phenomena, the separations in real compressors might have much
stronger three-dimensionalities than those in cascades [1,2].
Therefore, the evolutionary processes and mechanisms of the
three-dimensional separations in compressors might appear much
different with that in planar cascades and should be studied experimentally in detail, which is helpful for modeling of the compressor
endwall ows, developing the ow control methods and validating
of the CFD schemes and codes.
In the present study, we investigated the three-dimensional
ow structures, particularly for the separation ows, in a low-speed
large-scale compressor test facility by experimental methods and
claried their evolutionary processes in stator passages. In the
experiments, the oil-ow visualization technique was rstly
employed and used to investigate the ow topologies of the limit-

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X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Nomenclature
Abbreviations
SS
blade suction surface
PS
blade pressure surface
LE
blade leading edge
TE
blade trailing edge
DE
compressor design condition
MID
compressor middle condition
MSPR
compressor maximum static pressure rise condition
NS
compressor near-stall condition
SL
separation line
AL
attachment line
F
focus point
N
node point
S
saddle point
SPIV
stereoscopic particle image velocimetry

ing streamlines on the endwall and blade surfaces at four compressor operating conditions along the compressor operating line. And
then, based on the topological analyses, detailed 3D separation
and vortex ow structures were reconstructed and their evolutionary processes and ow mechanisms were analyzed. Finally, the
reconstructed 3D ows based on the oil-ow visualization results
were validated by the results obtained by using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV).
2. Experimental setup
2.1. Compressor facility
The test facility is a single-stage axial compressor with inlet
guide vanes (IGVs). A large contraction ratio bellmouth with a
1.8 m outer diameter lemniscate prole equipped with ow
straightener is used to provide uniform and steady inlet ow. The
rotor and stator blades with C4-series airfoil are designed in terms
of the free vortex law. The stator blades are cantilevered with a
clearance of about 1.5 mm. More detailed design parameters are
summarized in Table 1, which were also introduced by Yu and Liu
[15]. In this study, measurements were conducted at the design
condition (DE, u = 0.58), the middle condition (MID, u = 0.51), the
maximum static pressure rise condition (MSPR, u = 0.43) and the
near-stall condition (NS, u = 0.38), as shown in Fig. 1.

Notation
L
rotor blade chord length at mid-span
Vtip
rotor tip speed
q
air density
l
air dynamic viscosity coefcient
Rec
Reynolds number=qVtipL/l
xz
out-of-plane vorticity
X
rotor rotational speed
w
out-of-plane velocity
Pin
compressor inlet static pressure
compressor outlet static pressure
Pout
Vaix
axial ow velocity
W
static pressure rise coefcient, Pout  Pin =1=2qV 2tip
u
mass ow coefcient, Vaix/Vtip
X, Y
in-plane coordinates of SPIV measurement planes
Z
out-of-plane coordinates of SPIV measurement planes

2.2. Oil-ow visualization

The oil-ow visualization tests were conducted to qualitatively
indicate the ow patterns on the endwall and blade surfaces [16].
The used oil is a mixture of silicon oil, pigment particles and magnesium oxide powder. Because the ow is very complex in the
stator passage, particularly on the blade suction surface, surface
ow visualization tests were run after many initial tests to optimize oilpaint mixture and thickness as well as the runtime. Generally speaking, the places where the ow is regular with high ow
velocity should be painted with a relative dry oil mixture, while the
places with low ow velocity, such as the reverse ow and stagnation ow regions, should be painted with a relative dilute oil mixture. In the presented experiments, the ratio of the oil and solid
power was chose between 1:4 and 1:2 and the ratio for the pigment and magnesium oxide was set as nearly 1:1. As a result,
the runtime of each test was between 2 and 4 h.
2.3. SPIV measurements
A commercial SPIV system, developed by TSI Incorporation, was
employed in the SPIV measurement. The light source is a dual cavity Nd:YAG laser, the maximum illumination energy is 150 mJ/
pulse at a 15 Hz repetition rate. A pair of 1280  1024 pixels and
12 bit frame-straddling based CCD cameras (PIVCAM 13-8) were

Table 1
Representative design parameters of the compressor test facility.
Outer diameter (m)
Hub-to-tip ratio
Design speed (rpm)
Design mass ow rate (kg/s)
Design ow coefcient, u
Design static pressure rise coefcient, W
Rec
IGV-rotor space (mm)
Compressor conguration
Number of blades
Blade camber angle ()
Blade stagger angle ()
Blade height (mm)
Blade chord near hub (mm)
Blade chord at mid-span (mm)
Blade chord near casing (mm)
Solidity at mid-span
Rotor tip clearance (mm)
Stator near hub clearance (mm)
Rotorstator space (mm)

1.0
0.6
1200
22.4
0.58
0.48
6.6  105
41.9
IGV + rotor + stator
36 + 17 + 20
17.4 + 26.5 + 49.1
10.4 + 33.4 + 12.3
200 + 199 + 198
100 + 160 + 180
100 + 175 + 180
100 + 200 + 180
1.43 + 1.18 + 1.43
1.0
1.5
48.7

Fig. 1. Characteristics of the test compressor facility.

X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 2. Schematic layout of the measurement cross sections.

congured in the different sides conguration in Scheimpg condition. The elds of view inside the stator passages were about
200  100 mm, which covered nearly half of the whole blade passage. However, because of the combined effects of geometric
restriction of the blade passage and strong are light at the hub
surface, the effective eld of view covers only 5070% blade span
height. The layout of the measurement cross sections is shown in
Fig. 2. All of the 12 cross sections are nearly perpendicular to the
lateral surfaces at the blade tip. Detailed experimental setup and
data processing methods have been introduced by Yu and Liu [15].

303

casing wall results (not shown here for brevity), the ow visualization results can be interpreted with detailed critical points.
According to the topological theory of three-dimensional steady
ow patterns introduced by Perry et al. [17,18] and Surana et al.
[19,20], along a separation or attachment line, complex critical
points may appear, but the saddle type point and node type point
should appear alternatively. The separation line, usually appearing
as a converged limiting streamline, has four possible types in physical uid ows, i.e. (1) saddlestable spiral connections; (2) saddle
stable node connections; (3) saddlestable limit cycle connections
and (4) stable limit cycles. The attachment line, usually appearing
as a diverged limiting streamline, has also four possible types in
physical uid ows, i.e. (1) unstable spiralsaddle connections;
(2) unstable nodesaddle connections; (3) unstable limit cycle
saddle connections and (4) unstable limit cycles.
For the oil ow results, some critical points may not be distinguished clearly for the limited spatial resolution. Hence, the exact
topological interpretations of them should be deduced from the oil
patterns with the help of the above mentioned topological theory.
Figs. 47 show the results of the topological interpretations of the
oil-ow visualization photos obtained at different compressor
operating conditions. In these gures, the variation of the position,
scale and shape of the 3D separations can be seen easily. Hence, the
evolutionary processes of the 3D separations in the stator passage
can be established along the compressor operating line.
3.2. Evolution of three-dimensional separations along compressor
operating line

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Representative oil-ow results and their topological
interpretations
Considering that the ows near the blade suction surface are
very complex and the 3D ow separations in the stator passage
are usually appear rstly herein, the pictures of the oil streaks on
the blade suction surface can visualize these ow structures
clearly. Representative oil-ow visualization results on the blade
suction surface at the tested four compressor operating conditions
are shown in Fig. 3. Based on the topological analyses of the oil pictures, including the suction surface, pressure surface, hub wall and

(a) design condition

(c) max. static pressure rise condition

According to the topological interpretations of the oil-ow visualization results shown in Figs. 47, the evolutionary processes of
the 3D separations, particularly for the variation of the scale of
the separation patches in the streamwise, spanwise and circumferential directions, in the tested stator passage can be established
along the compressor operating line.
At the DE condition, see in Figs. 3a and 4, corner separation
ows appear at both the hub and casing endwall regions near
the blade trailing edge. In Fig. 4, the separation lines SL1 and SL2
bound the suction side near casing 3D corner separation and the

(b) middle condition

(d) near-stall condition

Fig. 3. Representative oil-ow results on blade suction surface.

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X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 4. Topological interpretations of the oil-ow visualization results at the design

condition.
Fig. 6. Topological interpretations of the oil-ow visualization results at the
maximum static pressure rise condition.

Fig. 5. Topological interpretations of the oil-ow visualization results at the middle

condition.

separation lines SL3 and SL4 bound the suction side near casing 3D
corner separation. It should be noted that because of the hub clearance of the cantilevered stator blade, the hub leakage ow interacts with the 3D hub corner separation ow, resulting complex
topological ow patterns with the appearing of attachment line
AL1 and a saddle point S4. Similar limiting streamline ow patterns can also be seen in the computational results obtained by
Gbadebo et al. [21]. Moreover, it can be seen clearly in Fig. 4 that
the suction side near casing 3D corner separation is just a very thin
layer adhere to the blade suction surface since SL2 is very close to
the blade suction surface. As for the near hub corner separation,
because of the interaction of the hub tip leakage ows, SL4 is far
away from the blade suction surface. Hence, the scale of the near
hub corner separation in the circumferential direction cannot be

Fig. 7. Topological interpretations of the oil-ow visualization results at the nearstall condition.

estimated base on the surface ow patterns. However, with the

aid of the SPIV measurement results shown in Fig. 8, it can be concluded that both the two endwall corner separations are very weak
and the blockage and losses caused by them can even be neglected.
As the mass-ow-rate decreases, at the MID condition, see in Figs.
3b and 5, the two endwall corner separations enlarge and link together, forming a whole-span trailing edge separation. The blade
mid-span separation results two separation lines SL5 and SL6 originated from the same saddle point S5. Blade surface mid-span
separation usually caused by the over limit blade loading or too large
blade incidence angle. For low speed condition, the ow separation

X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

305

Fig. 8. Combined maps of ensemble-averaged measured results inside the stator passage at the design condition.

Fig. 9. Combined maps of ensemble-averaged measured results inside the stator passage at the near-stall condition.

usually grows gradually as the mass-ow-rate decreases. Thus to

say, at the MID condition, although the separation ows cover a large
portion of the blade suction surface, the ow blockage and losses
caused by them may still not very signicant.
For the MSPR condition, see in Figs. 3c and 6, the topology of
separation ow near the blade suction surface is much different
with that at the previous two conditions. The separation region initials much closer to the blade leading edge and appears as two
patches. One is a large patch spreading from the hub endwall to
the near casing side, bounded by SL4, SL10, SL6 and SL5 in Fig. 6.
The other one is a small patch located at the blade leading edge
near casing corner, bounded by SL1 and SL7 in Fig. 6. The

separation line SL10 locates just before the leading edge of the
blade near hub end, which indicates the spillage of the tip leakage
ow and ow stall occurring herein, the same as that observed by
Saathoff and Stark [22] from the oil ow pictures at the endwall of
a cascade. Thus to say, the rst separation patch contains hub stall
ows, the ow blockage and losses caused by it should be very
serious. The second separation patch bounded by SL1 and SL7
starts from the near casing blade leading edge, indicating that it
should be caused by locally large incidence angle. Considering that
at small mass-ow-rate conditions the upstream rotor tip leakage
ow and corner vortex are very strong and can cause a mass of low
momentum ow stacking at the rotor tip region [15], the

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X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 10. The evolution of the three-dimensional separation ows inside the stator passage along the compressor operating line.

signicant increase of the local incidence angle just near the casing
endwall is reasonable.
At the NS condition, see in Figs. 3d and 7 and compare Figs. 6
and 7, the topology of separation ow is nearly the same as that
at the MSPR condition, however, the scale of the separation regions
changes a little. At the NS condition, the two separation patches
appearing at the MSPR condition nearly link together resulting in
the degradation of the two spiral nodes patterns, F1 and F4 shown
in Fig. 6, to a single spiral node pattern, F1 shown in Fig. 7. The SPIV
result shown in Fig. 9 conrms this conjecture from the oil-ow
topology analysis. The near casing corner separation originates at
about 7% chord position and ends at about 50% chord position in
the streamwise direction. In the spanwise direction, it covers about
the near casing 20% span region. For the near hub large scale corner
stall, it covers about the after 50% chord in the streamwise direction and the near hub 80% span region in the spanwise direction.
Based on the above analyses, the evolutionary process of the 3D
separation ows in the tested stator passage can be drawn in the
gure shown in Fig. 10. Generally speaking, as the mass ow rate
decreases along the compressor operating line, the scales of the
3D separations are enlarged in both the axial and circumferential
directions. Although 3D separations are very common in compressors, they may cause no signicant detrimental effects, such as
signicant ow blockage and losses, unless ow stall occurs as that
concluded by Lei et al. [13] and Yu and Liu [14]. At the DE and MID
conditions, the separation ows are mild and has no signicant
inuence on the performance of the compressor. However, the
hub corner separation augments suddenly and the hub corner stall
occurs since the MSPR condition, which cause signicant detrimental effects of the ow inside the stator passage. As mentioned
above, also see in Fig. 10, the topology of the ow separation is
nearly the same at the MSPR condition and the NS condition; however, comparing the Fig. 3c and d, one can see that the separation
line of the near hub corner separation, i.e. the front edge of the reverse ow region located at the after part of the blade suction

surface, is much clearer at the NS condition than that at the MSPR

condition. It may indicate that the large scale hub stall ows at the
MSPR condition is unstable and its originating position wanders
signicantly. Hence, the hub corner stall at the MSPR condition is
indicated as unsteady separation in Fig. 10.
3.3. Topological analyses of typical 3D ow structures
It is well known that the topological analysis of the limiting
streamlines is helpful for the reconstruction of the 3D ow structures [1720] and has been widely used for studying complex
ows in turbomachinery [5,10,23,24]. In the above section we have
discussed the evolutionary process of 3D separation ows in the
tested stator passage. In this section we will reconstruct the exact
3D ow structures of the 3D separation ows, which is helpful for
realizing the evolution mechanics of them.
See in Figs. 47, the topology structures are very complex in the
tested stator passage, particularly on the blade suction surface.
Generally speaking, as the mass-ow-rate decreases the topology
of the 3D separation ows becomes much more complicated. However, according to the regulars of the distribution of the critical
points and the development of the skin-friction lines, it can be
found that the complex 3D ow structures in the stator passage
can be categorized into the following four types of ow:
(1) The ow of the corner vortex (ow type A, as shown in
Fig. 11). Here the corner vortex is a streamwise vortex. This type
of ow structures can usually be seen in turbomachines for the
deection of the vorticity in endwall boundary layer in a curved
passage [25]. Although, for axial turbomachinery, they often
appear as the so called horseshoe vortices in turbine, it seems that
they are rarely observed in compressors. However, in the present
tests, this type of ow can be seen at all of the four tested conditions owing to the existence of the hub leakage ow and the
appearance of the near leading edge suction surface casing corner

X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

307

Fig. 11. Flow topology of the corner vortex (ow type A).

separation. The appearance of the limiting streamlines for the ow

type A can be seen clearly in Fig. 11. In this gure, see from the
downstream to the upstream, the corner vortex is a counter-clockwise streamwise vortex, the limiting streamlines on the normal
surface have the tendency to approach the horizontal surface and
then they propagate away from the normal surface on the horizontal surface. In actual, there also should have an attachment line on
the normal surface and a separation line on the horizontal surface.
It is obvious, if the corner vortex is a clockwise streamwise vortex,
the evolution tendencies of the limiting streamlines on the two
surfaces are correspondingly contrary, and a separation line will
appear on the normal surface and a reattachment line will take
place on the horizontal surface. As can be seen in Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5, the group of limiting streamline of AL1 and SL4 indicates
the hub leakage caused suction side near hub corner vortex and
the group of limiting streamline of AL3 and SL4 indicates the pressure side near hub corner vortex , which may induced by the suction side near hub corner vortex. See in Figs. 6 and 7, the near hub
two corner vortices still exist, however, because of the occurrence
of hub stall, their topological appearances become much complicated. The suction side near hub corner vortex is bounded by
AL1, AL5, SL10, SL9 and SL4, and the pressure side one is bounded
by SL9, SL4 and AL3. Moreover, for the near casing two corners,
only one corner vortex, bounded by AL4 and SL8 and might be
induced by the suction side near casing leading edge separation,
appears at the pressure side corner.
(2) The ow of the corner separation with ring-like vortex (ow type
B, as shown in Fig. 12). This three-dimensional ow structure for
corner separation was rst derived by Schulz et al. [5] and has been
proved by other researchers by numerical simulations [3,7,13,26].
The appearance of the limiting streamlines for the type B ow
can be seen in Fig. 12. The separation lines on the two surfaces
of a corner start from the same saddle point and end with spiral
nodes (focuses). For this type of corner ow separation, the separation stream surface curls up as a ring vortex, which straddles on
the two surfaces at the spiral nodes. This type of ow appears at
all the tested compressor operating conditions except the MID condition. At the DE condition, see in Fig. 4, at the suction side near
casing corner, the topological interpretations of SL1-F1 and SL2F2 indicate the existence of the ow type B herein. As for the
MID condition, the topological interpretations of SL1-F4 and SL7F2 shown in Fig. 6 also indicate that the suction side near casing
leading edge separation should appear as ow type B. At the NS
condition, see in Fig. 7, the suction side near casing leading edge
separation still appear as ow type B, and its topological interpretations consist with SL1-F1 and SL7-F2.

Fig. 12. Flow topology of the corner separation with ring-like vortex (ow type B).

(3) The ow of the corner separation without ring-like vortex (ow

type C, as shown in Fig. 13). This type of ow is the evolution of
ow type B. Only one of the two separation lines ends with a spiral
node, another one ows downstream directly. In the experiments
conducted by Schulz et al. [5], they did not observe this type of
ow. However, according to the numerical simulation results given
by Hah and Loellbach [7] and Weber et al. [26], the corner separation of ow type C may occur when the back pressure decreases
below a certain value. Thus to say, the ow topology of the corner
separation may appear as ow type B or C, depending on the compressor operating condition and the ow interactions inside the
ow passage. See in Fig. 5, at the MID condition, because of the
appearance of the mid-span separation, the end of SL1 spirals into
the mid-span separation region. As a result, the spiral ow originated from F2 has to ow downstream directly, forming a suction
side near casing corner separation without ring-like vortex.
(4) The ow of the blade surface ow separation (ow type D, as
shown in Fig. 14). The topologies of the limiting streamlines for
the 3D separations on blade surface (or near the mid-span region)
always appear as the ow type D shown in Fig. 14. It can be seen
that the separation line of this type of ow always starts from a

Fig. 13. Flow topology of the corner separation without ring-like vortex (ow
type C).

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X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 14. Flow topology of the blade surface ow separation (ow type D).

saddle point and ends at a spiral node. As can be seen in Figs. 5 and
6, the ow separation on the blade suction surface occurs behind
two separation lines, SL5 and SL6, starting from the same saddle
point, S5, and terminating at two spiral nodes, F1 and F3 respectively. This type of ow separation is usually called as closed separation and has very stable ow topology and 3D ow structure as
shown in Fig. 14 [27]. The separation stream surface departs from
the blade surface at the separation line and curls up into a streamwise vortex incepting at the spiral node at the end of the separation line. Thus to say, in Figs. 5 and 6, a pair of counter-rotating
streamwise vortices should be observed downstream of the stator
near the mid-span region. For the NS condition, see Fig. 7, because
of the interaction of the blade surface ow and the near casing
leading edge 3D separation, the two spiral nodes topology F1 and
F4 degrades into the single spiral node topology F1, indicating
the link of the two separation patches as mentioned in Section
3.2. Hence, only a single streamwise vortex, originating from F3,
can be observed downstream of the stator near the mid-span
region.

3.4. Reconstruction of 3D ow structures inside the stator passage

According to the analyses in the above section, the 3D ow
structures in the stator passage can be reconstructed. The 3D ow
structures in the stator passage at the DE condition are depicted in
Fig. 15. It can be seen that according to the existence of the hub

Fig. 15. 3D ow structures at the design condition.

leakage ow, both the pressure side and the suction side hub corner exist a corner vortex, i.e. ow type A. It seems that the formation mechanisms of these two corner vortex are not the same as
that of the so called horseshoe vortex observed often in turbines.
Because of the relative thin leading edge of the compressor blade,
the horseshoe vortex formed at the leading edge of the compressor
blade is so weak that dissipated soon after it propagates into the
blade passage. However, due to the appearance of the hub leakage
ow the suction side branch of the horseshoe vortex may merge
with the hub leakage vortex and thus a large scale suction side corner vortex can even be seen at the outlet of the blade passage.
Moreover, also owing to the hub leakage ow, the circumferential
migration of the endwall secondary ow (ow from the passage
pressure side to the suction side) may be blocked at about the middle of the blade passage. As a result the endwall secondary ow
will uplift there and intensies the pressure side branch of the
horseshoe vortex. This may be the reason for the formation of
the pressure side near hub corner vortex. As also can be seen in
Fig. 15, 3D corner separation appears at both the near casing and
near hub suction side corners, however, the topologies of these
two separation structures are not the same. The corner separation
near the casing has a topology of ow type B, while it appears as
ow type C at the near hub corner.
The reconstructed 3D ow structures at the MID condition are
shown in Fig. 16. It can be seen that besides the ow structures observed at the DE condition a closed 3D separation (ow type D) appears on the blade suction surface near the blade trailing edge,
resulting in the degradation of the two corner separations at the
blade trailing edge. It seems that the near hub corner separation
disappears (it may be still exists but very weak, since the topology
of the skin-friction lines here are not very clear in the oil-ow visualization results) and the near casing corner separation diminishes
and changes from the ow type B to the ow type C.
At the MSPR condition, the 3D ow separations intensify continually, as can be seen in Fig. 17. The closed separation on the
blade suction surface enlarges in both the spanwise and the
streamwise directions. Because of its spanwise enlargement, the
squeeze effect causes the thorough disappearing of the trailing
edge casing corner separation. As a result, the blade suction surface
separation extends from the near hub position to about 75% span
position, forming a very large scale of suction side near hub corner
separation at the aft 2/3 blade passage (see in Fig. 10). It should be
noted that, as the trailing edge casing corner separation disappears,

Fig. 16. 3D ow structures at the middle condition.

X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 17. 3D ow structures at the maximum static pressure rise condition.

309

Fig. 18. 3D ow structures at the near-stall condition.

Fig. 19. Ensemble-averaged SPIV results for the cross planes near the suction surface measured at the near-stall condition (cross-plane streamlines with the contour of the
streamwise velocity).

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X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

Fig. 20. Ensemble-averaged SPIV results for the cross planes near the pressure surface measured at the near-stall condition (cross-plane streamlines with the contour of the
streamwise velocity).

a newly formed corner separation appears at the suction side casing corner near the blade leading edge and has the topology of ow
type B. As mentioned above, this ow separation may be caused by
the accumulating of signicant low momentum ows in the upstream rotor near the casing and the corresponding increasing of
the local incidence angle of the stator blade. Obviously, as the air
ows downstream of the leading edge casing corner separation,
the ring-like vortex will be tipped and stretched. Since the ow
velocity is lower near the casing wall than that away from casing
wall, the ring-like vortex will nally change into a clockwise
streamwise vortex (see from the outlet to the inlet) and form the
suction side near casing corner vortex, which can be seen at the
aft of the blade passage as shown in Fig. 17. Meanwhile, because
of theory of the conservation of the circulation, a counter-rotating
corner vortex should appear at the pressure side casing corner.
Fig. 18 shows the 3D ow structures in the stator passage at the
NS condition. As mentioned before, it seems that the ow
topologies of the 3D ow structures at the NS condition are nearly
the same as that at the MSPR condition. However, because of the
interaction of the blade surface ow and the near casing leading
edge 3D separation and the degradation of the critical points
around spiral node F1, only a single streamwise suction surface
separation vortex close to the hub of the blade passage can
be seen.

3.5. Validation of the 3D ow structures by SPIV results

In order to validate the above analyses for the reconstruction of
the 3D ow structures inside the stator passage, the measurement
results obtained by SPIV at the NS condition are shown in Figs. 19
and 20. As can be seen in these gures, the leading edge suction
side near casing corner separation and the large scale suction side
near hub corner separation can be seen clearly. Obviously, the
scales, positions and congurations of these separation ows are
nearly the same as that deduced from the oil-ow visualization results analyzed in Section 3.2. Moreover, the detailed 3D vortex ow
structures of the suction side near casing corner vortex, pressure
side near casing corner vortex and the suction surface separation
vortex deduced based on the topological interpretations in Section
3.3 are also can be seen clearly in the SPIV results. Thus to say, the
analyses in the above several sections should be reasonable and
reliable.
4. Conclusions
By using the oil-ow visualization technique and the topological analysis, the three-dimensional ow structures, particularly
for the separation ows, are investigated in a low-speed large-scale
compressor test facility at four operating conditions with the mass

X. Yu et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 44 (2013) 301311

ow coefcient of 0.58 (design condition), 0.51 (middle condition),

0.45 (maximum static pressure rise condition), and 0.39 (near-stall
condition). The evolutionary processes of the 3D separation ows
along the compressor operating line are established and the exact
3D ow structures are reconstructed and their ow mechanisms
are analyzed. Finally, in order to prove the conclusions obtaining
based on the topological analyses of the oil-ow visualization results, detailed results measured by SPIV at the NS condition are
used for the validation. From the above studies, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) Corner separations can even be seen at the design condition
in the stator passage of the tested compressor, however, the
ow blockage caused by them are very weak. As the mass
ow rate decreases, the ow separations in the tested stator
passage become much more signicant and complex. At the
maximum static pressure rise condition and the near-stall
condition, the large scale near hub corner separation/stall
appears, and cause much more signicant ow blockage.
(2) There are four basic types of ows in the tested stator passage: the corner vortex ow; the corner separation with
ring-like vortex; the corner separation without ring-like vortex; and the blade surface separation ow (usually appear as
a closed separation). It seems that no matter how complex
the ows in the tested stator passage are, they always consist with part or all of these four types of ows.
(3) The hub leakage ow dominates the ows near the hub of the
tested stator passage and may cause the formation of the two
hub corner vortices. However, the inuences of the hub leakage ow to the near hub secondary ows and the corner separations are still not very clear and needed further studies.
(4) The rotorstator interactions also markedly affect the evolutionary processes of the 3D ow structures in the tested stator. The accumulation of signicant low momentum ows at
the upstream rotor tip after the maximum static pressure
rise condition causes a locally increase of the incidence angle
at the stator blade tip and results in the leading edge suction
side near casing corner separation.
(5) The measured results at the near-stall condition obtained by
SPIV were used for validating the topological analyses based
on the oil-ow visualization results in the paper. The results
show that the topological analyses and the reconstructed 3D
ow structures in the tested stator passage are reliable.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of National
Science Foundation of China, Grant Nos. 50976009 and 51006007.
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