Influence of turbulence models on simulation of a compressor

A three-dimensional numerical simulation code was developed as a standard three-dimensional viscous flow solver in a compressor. Three turbulence models frequently used in turbomachinery, including: k-ε model, k-ω model and Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) model, were employed in the code to simulate the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Rotor 37. The performance parameters, three-dimensional flowfield and hub corner flow structures were compared with the experiment data. The influences of these three turbulence models for simulating compressors in the condition of the same calculating algorithm were compared. The present study demonstrates that k-ω model is superior among these three models for the complicated flowfield with separated, shear flow in a turbomachinery.