| Abstract | The current work deals with the numerical simulation of ice crystal trajectories within an experimental single stage compressor test rig. First, ice crystal trajectories and the associated fragmentation dynamics within the compressor stage are investigated for different rotor speeds. To this purpose, numerical simulations with two different fragmentation models are compared for cold conditions, i.e. with a sufficiently negative wet bulb temperature to totally inhibit melting. The comparison between the fragmentation models aims at assessing the capabilities of a recently proposed ice crystal fragmentation model with respect to a state of the art model. Both models show good agreement with experimental size distribution data as they reproduce the size reduction of the ice crystals with increasing rotational speed. In a second step, three experimental operating points with wet bulb temperatures raising from negative to positive values and respectively exhibiting no, significant and moderate melting, are simulated. Here, the comparison of numerical and experimental results highlights the strong sensitivity of the ice particles' melt ratio to inlet temperature variations, even by a few degrees. |
|---|
