Multi-blade row interactions in an advanced design 1&1/2 stage axial-flow compressor are experimentally investigated at both subsonic and transonic rotor operating conditions using particle image velocimetry (PIV). Transonic rotor operation had a significant impact on the downstream stator unsteady flow field due to phenomena associated with the intra-stator transport of the chopped rotor wake segments. In the stator reference frame, the rotor wakes have a slip velocity relative to the mean flow that causes the low-momentum wake fluid to migrate across the vane passage and accumulate on the stator pressure surface as the chopped wake segments are transported downstream. This results in the generation of counterrotating vortices on each side of the chopped wake segment that convect downstream with the mean flow and act as an additional source of unsteadiness to the vane pressure surface. These interaction phenomena are not evident in the PIV data at the part-speed compressor operating condition due to the much lower velocity deficit and hence slip velocity associated with the subsonic rotor wakes.

The application of shunted piezoelectric elements to provide passive structural damping is investigated by means of a series of experiments performed in the Purdue Annular Cascade Research Facility. An array of piezoelectric elements is bonded to an airfoil in the stator row. This airfoil is excited in a chordwise bending mode by the wakes generated by an upstream rotor. As the wakes drive the airfoil vibrations, the piezoelectrics experience a strain and in response produce an electric field. Tuned electrical circuits connected to the piezoelectrics as shunts dissipate this electrical energy, with multiple shunting techniques utilized. This electrical energy dissipation and the corresponding reduction in the airfoil mechanical energy result in a reduction in the magnitude of the resonant vibrations.

A large eddy simulation was performed on an National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) phase VI wind turbine (10 m diameter), using the exact blade geometry, to determine the influence of different inflow conditions on the aerodynamic loadings and the near wake characteristics. The effects of the three inflow conditions, uniform inflow, linear wind shear and linear wind shear with turbulence, are investigated. Wind shear causes periodic variations in power and aerodynamic loading with an additional force component exerted along the lateral direction. Significant separation occurs in the high wind region on the suction side of the blades, resulting in unstable loading in off-design inflow conditions. Because of the shear effect between the near-blade tip vortex and ambient flow, the strong vortex core in the helical structure dissipates and transforms into a continuous vorticity sheet when x=D > 1.5. The combination of inflow turbulence and wind shear enhances the turbulence generation mechanism in the near wake, where energy is withdrawn from large wake structures and converted into energy of small-scale structures.

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