In the rotating cavities with axial throughflow, the interaction between the cooling air and high-speed rotating components generates windage, leading to energy loss. Accurately grasping the windage loss between the cooling air and the rotating cavities is of great significance in optimizing the design of the secondary air system. In order to investigate the windage characteristics of the rotating cavities under the coupling of radial inflow and axial throughflow, three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes numerical simulations on a simplified model of seven-stage high-pressure compressor cavities were carried out. The numerical results show that the flow in the rotating cavity with radial inflow follows the theory of the source-sink model. The swirl ratio in the mid-plane of the rotating cavity decreases with the increase of non-dimensional radius. In contrast, the flow of other stages is dominated by axial throughflow, whose swirl ratio in the mid-plane of the rotating cavity decreases and then rises with the increase of non-dimensional radius. There is an apparent positive correlation between the deviation degree of the swirl ratio from 1 and the windage torque coefficient, and the swirl ratio is one of the controlling parameters of windage torque.