Abstract
This research investigates experimentally the effect of forward-swept design on the performance of the rotor blades in a low-speed, single-stage axial-flow compressor under one-per-rev type inlet distortion. In addition to stall tests in clean inlet flow condition, full-annulus area traverse measurements are conducted at the inlet and exit of both the radial rotor and the swept rotor at their respective near stall points in distorted flow condition. The swept rotor shows throttle margin increase of 8% compared to the radial rotor in distorted inlet flow. In the case of swept blades flow, measurements show that a stalled region forms locally in the tip region at the exiting edge of the distortion, and vanishes as the rotor moves away from the edge. Since the forward-swept rotor causes a spanwise flow redistribution toward the tip, the tip stall cell can be vanished moving around the circumference.
