Aerodynamic Response of Turbomachinery Blade Rows to Convecting Density Wakes

Abstract

Convecting density wakes have not been considered as a source of unsteady aerodynamic loading on turbomachinery blade rows. These unsteady loads could influence high cycle fatigue failure of blades and vanes in gas turbine engines. The goals of this study are to understand the temporal evolution of density wakes and to determine key controlling parametric trends on blade loading. Inviscid numerical calculations are conducted to illustrate the basic flowfield in the absence of boundary layer interactions. The profile and scaling of the unsteady loads is given here for two density gradient distributions.