Though the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method has been widely adopted in flow analysis, few publications have systematically studied the influence of different POD processing methods on the POD results. This paper investigates the effects of different decomposition regions and decomposition dimensionalities on POD decomposition and reconstruction concerning the tip flow in the compressor cascade. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) measurements in the blade channel are addressed to obtain the original flow field. Through vortex core identification, development of the tip leakage vortex along the chord is described. Afterwards, each plane is energetically decomposed by POD. Using the identified vortex core center as the geometric center, the effects of different decomposition regions with respect to the vortex core are analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of different single velocity-components as well as their combination are compared. The effect of different decomposition regions on the mode 1 energy fraction mainly impacts the streamwise velocity component. Though the addition of W velocity component in the decomposition does change the spatial structures of high-order modes, it does not change the dynamic results of reconstruction using a finite number of POD modes. UV global analysis is better for capturing the kinetic physics of the tip leakage vortex (TLV) wandering.

Separation of laminar boundary layer is a great source of loss in energy and power machinery. This paper investigates the entropy generation of the boundary layer on the flat plate with pressure gradient. The velocity of the flow field is measured by a high resolution and time related particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. A method to estimate the entropy generation of each mode extracted by proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is introduced. The entropy generation of each POD mode caused by mean viscous, Reynolds normal stress, Reynolds sheer stress, and energy flux is analyzed. The first order mode of the mean viscous term contributes almost 100% of the total entropy generation. The first three order modes of the Reynolds sheer stress term contribute less than 10% of the total entropy generation in the fore part of the separation bubble, while it reaches to more than 95% in the rear part of the separation bubble. It indicates that the more unsteady that the flow is, the higher contribution rate of the Reynolds sheer stress term makes. The energy flux term plays an important role in the turbulent kinetic energy balance in the transition region.

The entropy generation that occurs within boundary layers over a C4 blade at a Reynolds number of 24,000 and incidence angles (i) of 0°, 2.5°, 5°, 7.5°, and 10° are investigated experimentally using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. To clarify the entropy generation process, the distribution of the entropy generation rates (EGR) and the unsteady flow structures within the PIV snapshots are analyzed. The results identify that for a higher incidence angle, the separation and transition occur further upstream, and the entropy generation in the boundary layer increases. When the separation takes place at the aft portion of the blade, the integral EGR decrease near the leading edge, remain minimal values in the middle portion of the blade, and increase sharply in the vicinity of the mean transition. More than 35% of the entropy generation is generated at the region downstream of the mean transition. When the separation occurs at the fore portion of the blade, the contributions of mean-flow viscous dissipation decrease to less than 20%. The entropy generation with elevated value can be detected over the entire blade. The entire integral entropy generation in the boundary layer increases sharply when the laminar separation bubble moves upstream to the leading edge.