The simulation of turbomachinery blade rows in asymmetric flow using actuator disks

This paper describes the development of actuator disk models to simulate the asymmetric flow through high-speed low hub-to-tip ratio blade rows. The actuator disks represent boundaries between regions of the flow in which the flow field is solved by numerical computation. The appropriate boundary conditions and their numerical implementation are described, and particular attention is paid to the problem of simulating the effect of blade row blockage near choking conditions. Guidelines on choice of axial position of the disk are reported. In addition, semi-actuator disk models are briefly described and the limitations in the application of the model to supersonic flow are discussed.