A Simplified Method for the Deposition Rate Assessment on the Vanes of a Multistage Axial-Flow Compressor

Gas turbine particle ingestion may lead to the deposition of contaminants in the compressor section, inducing the performance losses of the whole engine. The economic losses derived from this issue push great interest in the investigation of such a phenomenon from a numerical and experimental standpoint. This article describes a quantitative approach to predict particle deposition on the vanes of an axial compressor starting from the flow field obtained employing computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. The results are then compared to the experiments performed on the Allison 250 C18 compressor unit subject to particle ingestion under controlled conditions. The results derived from the experimental and numerical investigations are presented, providing insight into the mass deposited on the vanes and the corresponding zones most affected by the particle deposition issue. The methodology showed good agreement in the estimation of the predicted values of the deposited mass and the corresponding patterns through the compressor stages. The low-complexity approach proposed here could help the designer to predict the contamination of the stationary rows starting from a simple set of single-phase numerical results. Furthermore, with the implementation of this approach into the design path, the designer could reduce the impact of fouling, looking at the effects of their solutions under the fouling-reduction light.