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The flow through a transonic compressor stage is dominated by unsteady effects such as shock propagation and wake shedding. An accurate prediction of the performance of a compressor, i.e. operating range and efficiency, may require the modeling of unsteady effects. Steady CFD methods cease to converge too early when the stall limit is approached. Efficient unsteady CFD methods such as the transient time-inclining (TI) method and the perturbation based non-linear harmonic (NLH) method perform better and are becoming increasingly popular in the industry. Both methods consider the actual blade count ratio for each passage while using a single passage model. The main objective of this paper is to explain these methods and benchmark their performance with respect to reliable near stall predictions. Computed compressor characteristics and blade row interaction effects of the Purdue Transonic Research Compressor are compared to measurement data. The stator row is found to be limited at the casing in all of the unsteady simulation results. This effect is also qualitatively predicted by steady results calculated at a lower back pressure level. The NLH method is significantly faster than the other transient methods and the TI method resolves more flow detail on identical meshes.

The TP400 intermediate pressure compressor (see Figure 1) is characterized by its extremely wide aerodynamic operating range with strong requirements concerning efficiency and surge margin. Both goals could have been achieved by the proper introduction of variable stator vanes. However, the resulting weight penalty due to the necessary control and actuator system is not accepted — thus this conventional design is rejected and a sophisticated Casing Treatment developed by MTU is introduced. While the underlying multipoint design process is in general expensive and complex the chosen Casing Treatment design (enhanced axial skewed slots [17]) requires the introduction of time accurate 3D CFD simulations in the standard design chain. This ambitious goal leads to the demand for enhanced 3D aerodynamic design tool capabilities like accurate flow prediction in fully turbulent and transitional flow regimes due to different operating conditions as well as the resolution of different geometry features outside the main flow path. In the present paper the effect of different numerical resolution of the “real” geometry as well as the “real” behavior of the flow e.g. steady simulation versus time accurate simulations is discussed. The differences are analyzed and compared to rig-measurements.

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