The increase of the thrust/weight ratio of aircraft engines is extremely restricted by different 3-D flow loss mechanisms. One of them is the corner separation that can form at the junction between a blade suction side and a hub or shroud. In this paper, in order to further investigate the turbulent characteristics of corner separation, large-eddy simulation (LES) is conducted on a compressor cascade configuration using NACA65 blade profiles (chord based Reynolds number: 3.82 × 10 5), in comparison with the previous obtained experimental data. Using the shear-improved Smagorinsky model as subgrid-scale model, the LES gives a good description of the mean aerodynamics of the corner separation, especially for the blade surface static pressure coefficient and the total pressure losses. The turbulent dynamics is then analyzed in detail, in consideration of the turbulent structures, the one-point velocity spectra, and the turbulence anisotropy. Within the recirculation region, the energy appears to concentrate around the largest turbulent eddies, with fairly isotropic characteristics. Concerning the dynamics, an aperiodic shedding of hairpin vortices seems to induce an unsteadiness of the separation envelope.

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This paper considers the inherent unsteady behavior of the three-dimensional (3D) separation in the corner region of a subsonic linear compressor cascade equipped of 13 NACA 65-009 profile blades. Detailed experimental measurements were carried out at different sections in spanwise direction achieving, simultaneously, unsteady wall pressure signals on the surface of the blade and velocity fields by time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Two configurations of the cascade were investigated with an incidence of 4 deg and 7 deg, both at Re=3.8×105 and Ma = 0.12 at the inlet of the facility. The intermittent switch between two statistical preferred sizes of separation, large, and almost suppressed, is called bimodal behavior. The present PIV measurements provide, for the first time, time-resolved flow visualizations of the separation switch with an extended field of view covering the entire blade section. Random large structures of the incoming boundary layer are found to destabilize the separation boundary. The recirculation region, therefore, enlarges when these high vorticity perturbations blend with larger eddies situated in the aft part of the blade. Such a massive detached region persists until its main constituting vortex suddenly breaks down and the separation almost completely vanishes. The increase of the blockage during the separation growth phase appears to be responsible for this mechanism. Consequently, the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis is carried out to decompose the flow modes and to contribute to clarify the underlying cause-effect relations, which predominate the dynamics of the present flow scenario.