INVESTIGATING MULTISTAGE AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR INSTABILITIES

A numerical methodology for investigating compressor instabilities in a multistage environment is presented. The method is based on a stage-by-stage dynamic compression model and considers air compressibility explicitly throughout the compressor. It involves discretizing the compression system into distinct elements and a use of the local elemental characteristic of mean performance. The models are presented in both nonlinear and linearized forms. The linearised form permits well surge condition prediction for multistage axial compressors, while the non-linear form is able to investigate the growth of local flow disturbances, and helps to develop practical control strategy. Validations were carried out using the data from several aircraft engine compressors. A good experiment-model consistency is achieved.

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.

Parametric analyses on dynamic stall control of rotor airfoil via synthetic jet

The effects of synthetic jet control on unsteady dynamic stall over rotor airfoil are investigated numerically. A moving-embedded grid method and an Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes（URANS） solver coupled with k-x Shear Stress Transport（SST） turbulence model are established for predicting the complex flowfields of oscillatory airfoil under jet control. Additionally, a velocity boundary condition modeled by sinusoidal function has been developed to fulfill the perturbation effect of periodic jet. The validity of present CFD method is evaluated by comparisons of the calculated results of baseline dynamic stall case for rotor airfoil and jet control case for VR-7 B airfoil with experimental data. Then, parametric analyses are conducted emphatically for an OA212 rotor airfoil to investigate the effects of jet control parameters（jet location, dimensionless frequency, momentum coefficient, jet angle, jet type and dual-jet） on dynamic stall characteristics of rotor airfoil. It is demonstrated by the calculated results that efficiency of jet control could be improved with specific momentum coefficient and jet angle when the jet is located near separation point of rotor airfoil. Furthermore, the dual-jet could improve control efficiency more obviously on dynamic stall of rotor airfoil with respect to the unique jet, and the influence laws of dual-jet＇s angles and momentum coefficients on control effects are similar to those of the unique jet. Finally,unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of rotor via synthetic jet which is located on the upper surface of rotor blade in forward flight are calculated, and as a result, the aerodynamic characteristics of rotor are improved compared with the baseline. The results indicate that synthetic jet has the capability in improving aerodynamic characteristics of rotor.

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.