The Low Reduced Frequency Limit of Vibrating Airfoils—Part II: Numerical Experiments

This paper studies the unsteady aerodynamics of vibrating airfoils in the low reduced frequency regime with special emphasis on its impact on the scaling of the work-per-cycle curves by means of numerical experiments. Simulations using a frequency domain linearized Navier–Stokes solver have been carried out on rows of a low-pressure turbine (LPT) airfoil section, the NACA0012 and NACA65 profiles, and a flat-plate cascade operating at different flow conditions. Both the traveling wave (TW) and the influence coefficient (IC) formulations of the problem are used in combination to investigate the nature of the unsteady pressure perturbations. All the theoretical conclusions derived in Part I of the paper have been confirmed, and it is shown that the behavior of the unsteady pressure modulus and phase, as well as the work-per-cycle curves, are fairly independent of the geometry of the airfoil, the operating conditions, and the mode-shape in first-order approximation in the reduced frequency. The second major conclusion is that the airfoil loading and the symmetry of the cascade play an essential role in this trend. Simulations performed at reduced frequency ranges beyond the low reduced frequency limit reveal that, in this regimen, the ICs modulus varies linearly with the reduced frequency, while the phase is always π/2, and then, the classical sinusoidal antisymmetric shape of work-per-cycle curves in the low reduced frequency limit turns into a cosinusoidal symmetric shape. It is then concluded that the classical cosinusoidal shape of compressor airfoils is not neither a geometric nor a flow effect, but a direct consequence of the fact that the natural frequencies of the lowest modes of compressors are higher than that of high aspect ratio cantilever LPT rotor blades. Numerical simulations have also confirmed that the actual mode-shape of the airfoil motion does not alter the conclusions derived in Part I of the paper.