Robust Numerical Operating-Map Prediction Through Systematic Selection of Turbulence Models

In order to provide a foundation for a systematic selection of turbulence model setups, this paper quantifies the sensitivities of performance-map predictions with respect to different turbulent kinetic energy production and destruction terms incorporated by various modeling approaches for turbulence and transition. For this purpose, steady-state simulations based on the Wilcox (1988) k-ω and Menter et al. (2003) k-ω SST turbulence models combined with different extensions for transition, rotational effects, and stagnation-point anomaly fixes are conducted for a 4½-stage axial compressor using the turbomachinery flow solver TRACE. The investigated approaches cause a variation of the total-pressure ratio by up to 11.5% at numerical surge and mass-flow rate by up to 5.1% under choked conditions. Based on the results, the robustness of the operating map prediction appears highest either for the k-ω SST model with extensions for transition, rotational effects, and stagnation point anomaly-fixes, or for the k-ω with an extension for stagnation-point anomaly fixes.