Based on a validation of the numerical methods with an experiment, numerical simulations are carried out to study the effect of tip clearance size on the performance and tip leakage flow in a dual-stage counter-rotating axial compressor. The predicted results showed that the variation of the tip clearance size in rotor2 has a more significant impact on the overall performance and stall margin of the compressor. In addition, the impact of the tip clearance size effect is mainly on the rotor with the tip clearance size variation. The variation of the tip clearance size in rotor2 almost has no influence on the performance of rotor1, while the performance of rotor2 is increased about 1.37% at near-stall point when the tip clearance size of rotor1 is increased to 1.0 mm from 0.5 mm. At peak efficiency condition, the tip clearance size variation in rotor1 has remarkable influence on the tip leakage vortex intensity, onset point and trajectory in rotor1, but has little influence on those in rotor2. However, the tip clearance size variation in rotor2 has remarkable effect on those in both rotors. Different tip clearance size combination schemes can impact the stall-free characteristic in the counter-rotating axial compressor.
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