Effects of suction side squealer tip on the performance of a low-speed axial compressor

This paper presents the investigation of the effects of suction side squealer tip on the performance of an axial compressor. The experiment is carried out in a single-stage large-scale low-speed compressor. The investigated tip geometries include flat tip as the baseline and suction side squealer tip. The tip clearance of the baseline is 0.5% of the blade span. The static pressure rise characteristic curves of both the rotor and the stage are measured. The flow field at the exit of the rotor is measured by a 5-hole probe under design and off-design conditions. The static pressure on the endwall of the rotor passage is also obtained. The results show that the pressure rise characteristic curves obtained by measuring the pressure on the end wall are almost unchanged by using the suction side squealer tip. The measuring results of the 5-hole probe show the static pressure and the total pressure in tip region is slightly greater than that of the flat tip at the design condition at the exit of the rotor. It also leads to greater averaged static pressure rise and total pressure. At the near stall condition, the averaged static pressure and total pressure is lower than the baseline which is related to the redistribution of the blade load caused by the suction side squealer tip.