To study the influence of rotating inlet distortion on a single-stage axial compressor, both experiment and full-annulus unsteady simulation methods are carried out to reveal the stall mechanism under different inflows. First, the experimental results show that compared with static distortion, rotating distortion reduces the compressor stall margin more seriously. The wavelet analysis of dynamic pressure data shows that although the addition of inlet distortions has changed the stalling process, the compressor still stalls through spike-type. The full-annulus unsteady simulations indicate that the low-velocity zone first appears at the hub under uniform inflow condition. When the compressor is subjected to rotating distortion, the low-velocity zone first appears at the tip region. Time-averaged solutions of unsteady simulations are further studied to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Compared with the flow field under uniform inflow, the addition of rotating distortion can produce co-swirl, but it also causes the change of axial velocity distribution along the radial direction. Under the combined effect of both, the blade loading of rotor tip increases significantly, altering the position where the low-velocity zone first appears.

In the present study, numerical simulation of the flow field of the tubercled NACA0021 (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) wing has been conducted with the large eddy simulation model. Then, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis has been carried out at trough and peak sections. According to the spatial distributions and temporal coefficients in the case of ${\alpha }_A=5°$ , the physical backgrounds of corresponding POD modes could be identified, including flow attachment, separation, and the dynamic stall vortex (DSV). The onsets of local dynamic stall could be indicated with the extremum values of the DSV mode coefficients, which stay almost synchronized at trough and peak. Actually, the DSV is originally generated at trough and then moves to peak due to the spanwise convection induced by streamwise vorticity. The generation of the secondary vortex at trough is triggered with the streamwise pressure gradient, the development of which pinches off the feeding vorticity of the DSV and results in the detachment of the DSV. Eventually, the influence of pitching amplitude has also been discussed. The strength of the DSV at peak is increased with a larger pitching amplitude, which could be interpreted with the feeding sheet connected with the leading edge.

Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is widely used for extracting dominant structures of unsteady flow fields. However, the traditional mode time coefficient of DMD is assumed to change exponentially over the time. Consequently, it cannot deal with the unstable flow fields whose modes present nonexponential evolution regularities. Also, the inaccurate mode time coefficient might cause an unreasonable rank of decomposed modes, leading to the dominant modes to be ignored. To overcome these shortcomings, an improved mode time coefficient based on the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse is proposed for the DMD, and a new integrated parameter based on the improved mode time coefficient is defined to rank the decomposed modes. The DMD with the improved mode time coefficient (abbreviated as DMD-TC) is expected to accurately describe the temporal evolutions of modes in complex forms for unstable systems and results in a more reasonable rank for the modes. To validate the DMD-TC, two complex analytical functions (a continuous case and an intermittent case) and two typical unstable flows (the flow around a cylinder and the dynamic stall of a pitching airfoil) are investigated. The results indicate that the DMD-TC can accurately describe temporal evolutions of modes with complex nonlinear regularities, including exponential, logarithmic, linear, gradually intermittent, transiently intermittent, and other complex regularities. Also, due to the improved mode time coefficient, the DMD-TC can provide a more reasonable rank for unstable modes. These improvements help to identify instantaneous dominant dynamic modes (even with minor initial amplitudes) of real unstable flow fields and accurately describe their temporal evolutions.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO₂) is considered as a potential working fluid in next generation power and energy systems. The SCO₂ Brayton cycle is advantaged with higher cycle efficiency, smaller compression work, and more compact layout, as compared with traditional cycles. When the inlet total condition of the compressor approaches the critical point of the working fluid, the cycle efficiency is further enhanced. However, the flow acceleration near the impeller inducer causes the fluid to enter two-phase region, which may lead to additional aerodynamic losses and flow instability. In this study, a new impeller inlet design method is proposed to achieve a better balance among the cycle efficiency, compressor compactness, and inducer condensation. This approach couples a concept of the maximum swallowing capacity of real gas and a new principle for condensation design. Firstly, the mass flow function of real gas centrifugal compressors is analytically expressed by non-dimensional parameters. An optimal inlet flow angle is derived to achieve the maximum swallowing capacity under a certain inlet relative Mach number, which leads to the minimum energy loss and a more compact geometry for the compressor. Secondly, a new condensation design principle is developed by proposing a novel concept of the two-zone inlet total condition for SCO₂ compressors. In this new principle, the acceptable acceleration margin (AAM) is derived as a criterion to limit the impeller inlet condensation. The present inlet design method is validated in the design and simulation of a low-flow-coefficient compressor stage based on the real gas model. The mechanisms of flow accelerations in the impeller inducer, which form low-pressure regions and further produce condensation, are analyzed and clarified under different operating conditions. It is found that the proposed method is efficient to limit the condensation in the impeller inducer, keep the compactness of the compressor, and maintain a high cycle efficiency.

In consideration of the turbulent inflow condition of engineering applications, the flow mechanisms of dynamic stall of a tubercled airfoil have been comprehensively analyzed with an upstream cylinder. Numerical simulation of the flowfield of a tubercled wing with NACA0021 (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) airfoil has been conducted with the large eddy simulation model. Then, flow mechanisms have been analyzed based on the aerodynamic performances and flow structure descriptions. Meanwhile, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis has been carried out at both trough and peak sections to reveal the flow dynamics. It turns out that the dynamic stall process vanishes, and performances would be obviously impacted by the incoming cylinder wake in the case of αA=5° due to the enforced resistance of adverse pressure gradient. Furthermore, the first leading POD mode corresponds to the pitching movement at both trough and peak sections, while the high-order modes represent the influence of cylinder wake. Eventually, the influence of pitching amplitude has also been discussed in the case of αA=15°. Different from the case of αA=5°, dynamic stall phenomenon emerges, and the influence of wake impingement could be barely detected from the mode information except for the third mode at the trough section. The detachment of the dynamic stall vortex takes place corresponding to the dynamic stall onset, which is driven by the streamwise pressure gradient near the trough leading-edge.

Although the optimization of wind turbine blade aerodynamic performance has achieved fruitful results, whether airfoil concavity, an important method for preventing flow separation, is also feasible for improving the aerodynamic performance has not been confirmed scientifically. Thus, we selected the blade of a small horizontal‐axis wind turbine as a research model and proposed an optimization method based on airfoil concavity near the trailing edge of the blade suction surface. The experimental results showed that airfoil concavity improved blade aerodynamic performance by 3–15%. Subsequently, its effects on the sound pressure level within the wake flow field were investigated using an acoustic array, and the results suggested that the sound pressure level was reduced by 9.6–15.8%. Lastly, a modal test of the rotor blade was conducted. Although the natural frequencies of the 1st and 2nd order vibrations had hardly changed, their vibrational stiffness were increased by 7 and 4.9%, respectively, which indicated that airfoil concavity significantly improved structural robustness.