Bifurcation analysis of fan casing under rotating air flow excitation

A fan casing model of cantilever circular thin shell is constructed based on the geometric characteristics of the thin-walled structure of aero-engine fan casing. According to Donnelly＇s shell theory and Hamilton＇s principle, the dynamic equations axe established. The dynamic behaviors are investigated by a multiple-scale method. The effects of casing geometric parameters and motion parameters on the natural frequency of the system are studied. The transition sets and bifurcation diagrams of the system are obtained through a singularity analysis of the bifurcation equation, showing that various modes of the system such as the bifurcation and hysteresis will appear in different parameter regions. In accordance with the multiple relationship of the fan speed and stator vibration frequency, the fan speed interval with the casing vibration sudden jump is calculated. The dynamic reasons of casing cracks are investigated. The possibility of casing cracking hysteresis interval is analyzed. The results show that cracking is more likely to appear in the hysteresis interval. The research of this paper provides a theoretical basis for fan casing design and system parameter optimization.

Experimental investigation on SPS casing treatment with bias flow

Generally, casing treatment（CT） is a passivity method to enhance the stall margin of fan/compressor. A novel casing treatment based on the small disturbance theory and vortex and wave interaction suggestion is a method combining passive control and active control, which has been proved effective at enhancing the stall margin of fan/compressor in experiment. In order to investigate the mechanism of this kind of casing treatment, an experimental investigation of a stall precursor-suppressed（SPS） casing treatment with air suction or blowing air is conducted in the present paper. The SPS casing treatment is designed to suppressing stall precursors to realize stall margin enhancement in turbomachinery. The experimental results show that the casing treatment with blowing air of small quantity can improve the stall margin by about 8% with about 1% efficiency loss. By contrast, the SPS casing treatment with micro-bias flow does not improve the stall margin much more than that without bias flow, even worse. Meanwhile, the present investigation has also attempted to reveal the mechanism of stall margin improvement with the casing treatment.It is found that the stall margin improvements vary with the modification of the unsteady shedding flow and the unsteady wall boundary impedance. The experimental results agree fairly well with the theoretical prediction using a flow stability model of rotating stall.