Unsteady numerical simulations of a counter-rotating axial compressor are performed to investigate the unsteady effects of rotor-rotor interaction process and the tip flow unsteady behavior near the stall operating condition. The results show that potential effects from the rear rotor have a more pronounced influence on the front rotor. Because of the interaction between the two rotors and the unsteady flow behaviors, the strongest fluctuant regions are different for the two rotors. Additionally, the oscillation on the pressure side is generally much stronger than that on the suction side. Frequency analyses show that self-unsteadiness occurs with the frequency of 0.76 blade passing frequency due to the impingement of the tip leakage flow on the pressure side near leading edge of the adjacent blade. An interesting phenomenon, i.e., the emergence of a local high pressure spot, is observed in the tip region. As a whole, it is concluded that there are two key effects of the emergence of the local high pressure zone in the tip region: (a) more leading edge spillage of tip leakage flow and increasing the risk to trigger stall; and (b) a decrease in blockage associated with doubleleakage of tip clearance flow within the influenced region of the local high pressure zone.

Unsteady computations of a counter-rotating axial compressor are performed and analyzed to investigate the unsteady behaviors in the compressor and the role of the tip leakage flow together with the rotating stall inception process. The results show that the oscillation on the pressure side is much stronger than that on the suction surface for both rotors, especially near the tip region where the trajectory of the tip leakage vortex (TLV) interacts with the blades most often. There exists a periodical leading edge spillage of the interface in rotor2 due to the unsteadiness of tip leakage flow (TLF) at near-stall condition. The blockage generated by the TLV increases dramatically due to the increasing strength of the TLV and the backflow phenomenon as the mass flow decreased. The appearance of the frequency components of 0.5 blade passing frequency (BPF) and 1.5BPF from 0.64BPF can be viewed as the rotating stall inception warning. The fluctuation strength of oscillation frequencies of 0.5BPF and 1.5BPF decreases rapidly from leading edge to trailing edge in rotor2, which indicates that the unsteady fluctuation of TLF at the leading edge in rotor2 is responsible for the stall inception of the compressor. Additionally, both the leading edge spillage and trailing edge backflow phenomena are observed for spike initiated rotating stall at stall point.

One of the important ways of improving axial compressor performance is to control the tip leakage flow near the endwall region. Numerical computations were conducted to investigate the impact of blade tip suction on the axial compressor cascade performance in current paper. Three suction schemes located on the blade tip with different chordwise coverage were investigated in total. The results show that the cascade overall performance can be effectively enhanced by the proper suction scheme on the blade tip and the best scheme should be arranged at slightly downstream of the onset point of the tip leakage vortex (TLV). The control effectiveness and mechanisms are different for the different suction schemes. For the suction scheme covering the starting point of TLV, the onset point of TLV is shifted downstream, while an additional induced leakage flow near the blade leading edge is generated resulting in the increase of mixing loss. It is more effective when the structure of the main TLV is destroyed and divided into different parts by applying the blade tip suction arranged slightly behind the onset point of TLV. In addition, the blade loading is redistributed near the blade tip after the blade tip suction and the total pressure loss caused by the suction slots should also be considered in the design process.

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