Solutions to Three-Dimensional Thin-Layer Navier-Stokes Equations in Rotating Coordinates for Flow Through Turbomachinery

The viscous Navier-Stokes solver for turbomachinery applications MSUTC has been modified to include the rotating frame formulation. The three-dimensional thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations have been cast in a rotating Cartesian frame enabling the freezing of grid motion. This also allows the flow-field associated with an isolated rotor to be viewed as a steady-state problem. Consequently local time stepping can be used to accelerate convergence. The formulation is validated by running NASAs Rotor 67 as the test case. results are compared between the rotating frame code and the absolute frame code. The use of the rotating frame approach greatly enhances the performance of the code with respect to savings in computing time without degradation of the solution.