Prediction of stall inception in multi-stage compressors based on an eigenvalue approach

A stability model for multi-stage compressor is developed on the basis of the eigenvalue approach.This model assumes that the unsteady flow field can be decomposed into pressure,vortex and entropy waves.Besides,a linear cascade of blades is modeled by three-dimensional semi-actuator disk theory and the characteristics of steady flow field are also considered in the present model.The connection between the analytical solution for stator,rotor and gap can be established by applying mode matching approach,the relevant stability equation can be expressed in the form of matrix,while the compressor system stability can be judged by the imaginary part of the matrix eigenvalue.The capacity of the stall inception model to predict the stall inception point of multi-stage compressor is assessed against the experimental data of National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) two stage fan.The theoretical results show that this model can predict the stall onset points of a two-stage fan at different operating speeds with a reasonable accuracy.

Numerical Investigation of the Unsteady Tip Leakage Flow and Rotating Stall Inception in a Transonic Compressor

It is well known that tip leakage flow has a strong effect on the compressor performance and stability. This paper reports on a numerical investigation of detailed flow structures in an isolated transonic compressor rotor-NASA Rotor 37 at near stall and stalled conditions aimed at improving understanding of changes in 3D tip leakage flow structures with rotating stall inception.Steady and unsteady 3D Navier-Stokes analyses were conducted to investigate flow structures in the same rotor.For steady analysis,the predicted results agree well with the experimental data for the estimation of compressor rotor global performance.For unsteady flow analysis, the unsteady flow nature caused by the breakdown of the tip leakage vortex in blade tip region in the transonic compressor rotor at near stall condition has been captured with a single blade passage.On the other hand, the time-accurate unsteady computations of multi-blade passage at near stall condition indicate that the unsteady breakdown of the tip leakage vortex triggered the short length-scale-spike type rotating stall inception at blade tip region.It was the forward spillage of the tip leakage flow at blade leading edge resulting in the spike stall inception. As the mass flow ratio is decreased,the rotating stall cell was further developed in the blade passage.

Evolution of Unsteady Flow near Rotor Tip during Stall Inception

Previously the features of circumferential propagation of self-induced tip leakage flow unsteadiness for a low speed isolated axial compressor rotor in the authors' laboratory were discovered and investigated via numerical simulation,which only occurs below a critical stable flow point that is close to but not yet at the stall limit.Further in this paper,the detailed investigation on evolution of tip leakage flow during the throttling process into spike rotating stall was conducted by adopting the valve-throttling model.During this process,the development of the circumferential propagation of tip leakage flow unsteadiness was especially focused on.According to the unsteady characteristics of pressure signals,the evolvement of compressor flow field can be classified into four stages.As compressor throttled,the oscillation frequency of self-induced unsteady tip leakage flow decreased gradually,and thus resulted in the decrease of its circumferential propagation speed.The circumferential propagation of self-induced tip leakage flow unsteadiness is closely related with rotating instability.When the forward spillage of tip leakage flow at the leading edge occurred,the spike type rotating stall was initiated.Its flow struc-tures were given in the paper.

A Model to Predict Stall Inception of Transonic Axial Flow Fan/Compressors

A stall inception model for transonic fan/compressors is presented in this paper. It can be shown that under some assumptions the solution of unsteady flow field consists of pressure wave which propagates upstream or downstream, vortex wave and entropy wave convected with the mean flow speed. By further using the mode-matching technique and applying the conservation law and conditions reflecting the loss characteristics of a compressor in the inlet and outlet of the rotor or stator blade rows, a group of homogeneous equations can be obtained from which the stability equation can be derived. Based on the analysis of the unsteady phenomenon caused by casing treatments, the function of casing treatments has been modeled by a wall impedance condition which has been included in the stability model through the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenfunctions of the system. Besides, the effect of shock waves in cascade channel on the stability prediction is also considered in the stall inception model. Finally, some numerical analysis and experimental investigation are also conducted with emphasis on the mutual comparison.

Stall Inception Process and Prospects for Active Hub-Flap Control in Three-Stage Axial Flow Compressor

The possibility to apply the active hub-flap control method, which is a proven rotating stall control method for a single-stage compressor, to a 3-stage axial compressor is experimentally discussed, where complex rotating stall inception processes are observed. The research compressor is a 3-stage one and could change the stagger angle settings for rotor blades and stator vanes. Sixteen rotor blade/stator vane configuration patterns were tested by changing stagger angle for the stator vanes. By measurement of surface-pressure fluctuation, stall inception proc- esses are investigated and the measured pressure fluctuation data is used as a predictive signal for rotating stall. The experimental results show that the stall detection system applied to active hub-flap control in a single-stage compressor could be usefully applied to that in a 3-stage compressor with a more complex stall inception process.

SIMULATION OF ACTIVE CONTROL OF ROTATING STALL IN AXIAL COMPRESSOR

A theoretical system has been developed to simulate the control of rotating stall. Circulating disturbance was appended to the system to suppress the developing of rotating wave. The control system has slight influence on the systems critical B coefficient B cr . Self adaptive sector has been inserted into the proportion feed back control system to fit the nonlinear compressor system.

Alleviation of spike stall in axial compressors utilizing grooved casing treatment

Abstract This article deals with application of grooved type casing treatment for suppression of spike stall in an isolated axial compressor rotor blade row. The continuous grooved casing treatment covering the whole compressor circumference is of 1.8 mm in depth and located between 90% and 108% chord of the blade tip as measured from leading edge. The method of investigation is based on time-accurate three-dimensional full annulus numerical simulations for cases with and without casing treatment. Discretization of the Navier Stokes equations has been carried out based on an upwind second-order scheme and k-a-SST （Shear Stress Transport） turbulence modeling has been used for estimation of eddy viscosity. Time-dependent flow structure results for the smooth casing reveal that there are two criteria for spike stall inception known as leading edge spillage and trailing edge backftow, which occur at specific mass flow rates in near-stall conditions. In this case, two dominant stall cells of different sizes could be observed. The larger one is caused by the spike stall covering roughly two blade passages in the circumferential direction and about 25% span in the radial direction. Spike stall disturbances are accompanied by lower frequencies and higher amplitudes of the pressure signals. Casing treatment causes flow blockages to reduce due to allevi- ation of backflow regions, which in turn reduces the total pressure loss and increases the axial veloc- ity in the blade tip gap region, as well as tip leakage flow fluctuation at higher frequencies and lower amplitudes. Eventually, it can be concluded that the casing treatment of the stepped tip gap type could increase the stall margin of the compressor. This fact is basically due to retarding the movement of the interface region between incoming and tip leakage flows towards the rotor leading edge Diane and suttressing the reversed flow around the blade trailing edee.

A high-order model of rotating stall in axial compressors with inlet distortion

In this paper,a high-order distortion model is proposed for analyzing the rotating stall inception process induced by inlet distortion in axial compressors.A distortion-generating screen in the compressor inlet is considered.By assuming a quadratic function for the local flow total pressure-drop,the existing Mansoux model is extended to include the effects of static inlet distortion,and a new high-order distortion model is derived.To illustrate the effectiveness of the distortion model,numerical simulations are performed on an eighteenth-order model.It is demonstrated that long length-scale disturbances emerge out of the distorted background flow,and further induce the onset of rotating stall in advance.In addition,the circumferential non-uniform distribution and time evolution of the axial flow are also shown to be consistent with the existing features.It is thus shown that the high-order distortion model is capable of describing the transient behavior of stall inception and will contribute further to stall detection under inlet distortion.

Effects of Probe Support on the Stall Characteristics of a Low-Speed Axial Compressor

In order to investigate the effects of probe support on the stall characteristics of micro compressors, an experiment was carried out on a large-scale low-speed research compressor according to the principle of geometric similarity. A cylindrical probe support intruding to 50% blade span was mounted at 50% chord upstream from the rotor blade leading edge. The static pressure rise characteristic of the compressor is measured, with and without the probe support respectively. The dynamic compressor behavior from pre-stall to full stall was also measured. The results indicate that the stability margin of the compressor is lowered after installing the probe support. The stall inception is aroused by modal wave disturbances. The disturbances developed into two stall cells smoothly before installing the probe support, while the disturbances first developed into a single stall cell then splitting into two stall cells after installing the probe support. The presence of probe support lowers the initial intensity of the rotating stall of the compressor, while it doesn't alter the intensity of the rotation stall after the compressor enters into full stall.

Stall Behaviour in a Mixed-flow Compressor with Axial Slot Casing Treatment

Casing treatment is an effective technique in extending stall margin of axial and centrifugal compressor.However,its impacts on the stall behaviour of mixed-flow compressor are still not completely understood until now.To conquer this issue,unsteady full-annulus simulations were conducted to investigate the stall mechanism of a mixed-flow compressor with and without axial slot casing treatment(ASCT).The circumferential propagating speed of spike inception resolved by the numerical approach is 87.1%of the shaft speed,which is identical to the test data.The numerical results confirmed that the mixed-flow compressor fell into rotating stall via spike-type with and without ASCT.The flow structure of the spike inception was investigated at 50%design rotational speed.Instantaneous static pressure traces extracted upstream of the leading edge had shown a classic spiky wave.Furthermore,it was found that with and without ASCT,the mixed-flow compressor stalled through spike with the characteristic of tip leakage spillage at leading edge and tip leakage backflow from trailing edge,which is different from a fraction of the centrifugal compressor.The resultant phenomenon provides conoborating evidence for that unlike in axial-flow compressor,the addition of ASCT does not change the stall characteristics of the mixed-flow compressor.The flow structure that induced spike inception with ASCT is similar to the case with smooth casing.In the throttling process,tip leakage flow vortex had been involved in the formation of tornado vortices,with one end at the suction side,and the other end at the casing-side.The low-pressure region relevant to the downward spike is caused by leading-edge separation vortex or tornado vortex.The high-pressure region relevant to the upward spike is induced by blockage from the passage vortex.These results not only can provide guidance for the design of casing treatment in mixed-flow compressor,but also can pave the way for the stall waring in the highly-loaded compressors of next-generation aeroengines.

Experimental Research on Inlet Steady Swirl Distortion in an Axial Compressor with Non-Uniform Tip Clearance

The inlet swirl distortion and non-uniform tip clearance have great effects on aero-engine performance and stall margin.In this paper,the effects of paired swirl distortion on the aerodynamic stability and stall inception of a single stage axial compressor with non-uniform tip clearance are quantitatively analyzed by using the swirl distortion descriptors.The experimental results show that the paired swirl distortion dominated by co-rotating swirl improves the stability of the axial compressor.For a single-stage axial compressor with eccentricity of 100%,the stall inception starts at the maximum tip clearance with clean inlet.The initial position of the stall inception is determined by the maximum tip clearance when the small intensity paired swirl distortion exists at the compressor inlet.As the swirl intensity increases,it shifts towards the position of the counter rotating swirl vortex core.The inlet swirl will not change the type of stall inception.

Numerical Simulation of Flow Instabilities in HighSpeed Multistage Compressors

In the present paper, a nonlinear multi 'actuator disk' model is proposed to analyze the dynamicbehavior of flow instabilities, including rotating stall and surge, in high speed multistage axial compressors. The model describes the duct flow fields using two dimensional, compressible and unsteadyEuler equations, and accounts for the influences of downstream plenum and throttle in the system aswell. It replaces each blade row of multistage compressors with a disk. For numerical calculations,the time marching procedure, using MacCormack two steps scheme, is used. The main purpose of thispaper is to predict the mechanism of two dimensional short wavelength rotating stall inception and theinteraction between blade rows in high speed multistage compressors. It has been demonstrated thatthe model has the ability to predict those phenomena, and the results show that some system parameters have a strong effect on the stall features as well. Results for a five stage high speed compressorare analyzed in detail, and comparison with the experimental data demonstrates that the model andcalculating results are reliable.

Effect of system response on partial surge initiated instability in a transonic axial flow compressor

Partial surge is a type of instability inception in transonic compressors and occurs in the form of axisymmetric low-frequency disturbances localized in the hub region.Previous studies illustrate that the frequency of partial surge is set by the Helmholtz frequency of the entire system,which motivates to propose a hypothesis that the system response performs an important role in the formation of partial surge.For further verification,a series of experiments are conducted to explore the link between the propagating of the partial surge and the system feedback in this study.In the first case,an additional test point is set on the wall of the plenum to detect the system response.Combining the flow behaviors inside the plenum with the disturbances in the rotor tip and stator hub/tip regions,the effects of the system feedback on the occurrence of the continuous disturbances and the rotating stall cells are illustrated.In the second case,a screen is mounted at the compressor outlet to prevent positive feedback from the plenum.The experimental results demonstrate that in the absence of system feedback,it is the occurrence of spike-type stall inception that leads to the flow instability instead of that of partial surge.In addition,three flow phenomena in the second case are discussed,including the occurrence of the single pulse,the unstable process during the stall evolution and the switch of instability inception.