The impact of various forward sweep angles on the performance of an ultra-high-load low-reaction transonic compressor rotor

The impacts of different forward sweep angles (FSAs) at a constant sweep height on the performance and flow field have been investigated by numerical simulation in a newly designed low-reaction ultra-high-load compressor rotor. The main intent is to reveal the underlying physical mechanism of forward sweep blading on the change in performance. The results show that as FSA increases, stall margin presents an increasing upward trend with a maximum enhancement of 27.8%. While total pressure ratio and efficiency increase first and then drop with a maximum improvement (0.40% and 0.19%, respectively, at peak efficiency point) at an FSA of 10 deg. Not all of the schemes can improve efficiency. When FSA exceeds 20 deg, there appears to be a noticeable deficit in peak efficiency for a forward sweep rotor comparing with the unswept rotor. As FSA increases, the passage shock becomes more and more oblique to the incoming flow. The size of the high loss region and tip leakage vortex decrease gradually. The radial vortex on suction surface shrinks at peak efficiency condition but enlarges near stall condition, and tip leakage flow/main flow interface increasingly moves forward.