Axial Flow Compressor: Rotor NASA 37

Description

This project simulates airflow through an axial flow compressor, specifically NASA Rotor 37, using ANSYS Fluent. To keep the model tractable, only a single row of rotating blades on the central rotor is represented rather than the full multi-stage compressor assembly. The blades rotate at 14043 rpm, with an air mass flow rate of 33.25 kg/s through the compressor, and the goal is to characterize how the airflow behaves and how pressure builds around the blades as the air is compressed. The 3D geometry is built in SOLIDWORKS and imported into Design Modeler, then meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of 278,162 elements.

Methodology

Given the compressibility of the flow, the density-based solver is used. Rotor motion is handled through the Frame Motion technique: the blades themselves are treated as stationary, while the surrounding fluid domain is given a rotational speed equal to the rotor's, effectively reversing which frame moves so the flow field around the blades can be resolved in a rotating reference frame. Correspondingly, the compressor blade walls are set as moving walls with zero rotational speed relative to that rotating frame, keeping the blade surface consistent with the "stationary blade" assumption.

Analysis

The results include both 2D and 3D contours of pressure, temperature, velocity, and density, along with path lines and velocity vectors describing the flow around the blades. The 2D contours and path lines are extracted on a YZ plane perpendicular to the compressor axis, cutting through the mid-span of the blade passage, giving a clear view of how the flow develops as it moves through the blade row. Pressure, temperature, and heat transfer coefficient distributions are also reported directly on the blade surfaces, characterizing the thermal and aerodynamic loading the blades experience during compression.