Wavelet analysis of the shaft order perturbation and stall inception in an axial compressor

An experiment was carried out in a low-speed large-scale axial-compressor. Dynamic pressure signals were measured and analyzed with a wavelet transform. At all stable operating condition, a shaft order perturbation was observed from the dynamic pressure signals and wavelet power spectrums. By measuring the tip clearance, blade pitches and blade thickness distributions, a rotor asymmetry was identified in this compressor, which is strongly linked to the shaft order perturbation. Modal wave appears at the near-stall operating point. The propagation speed of the modal wave is about 20% rotating speed. At the peak of the modal wave, the intensity of the shaft-order-perturbation increases obviously, while it decays very fast at the trough of modal wave. By throttling the compressor, modal stall occurs in several seconds and only one stall-cell was detected. The stall cell grows smoothly out of the modal wave and its propagation speed is increased to 30% rotor speed. In several revolutions before stall, the intensity of the modal wave is increasing and a shaft order perturbation produced by modal-wave grows into stall inception which indicate stall onset but not trigger stall.     

The response of a low speed compressor on rotating inlet distortion

In multi-spool engines,the downstream compressor experiences a rotating inlet distortion if rotating stall occursin upstream compressor,which may induce the instability of the whole compressor.In this paper,the compressordynamic behavior is the major focus.The experiment was carried out on a single-stage low-speed axial-flowcompressor.A rotating distortion generator equipped with different distortion sector(s)was designed to producedifferent rotating inlet distortion clockwise or counterclockwise with up to 100% of the compressor design speed.The distortion sector can be installed single or in some combination such as four sectors together.Three types ofdistortion sector/combination are used in the research work,which are single 30 degree sector,four 30 degree sec-tors and single 120 degree sector.It is found that the total pressure loss caused by rotating sector(s)increaseswhen the distortion speed rises.For co-rotating distortions,all the three types of inlet distortion exhibited a peakin stall margin degradation when the distortion speed corresponded to roughly 50% of rotor speed.Thetwo-dimensional numerical simulations of the compressor flow field clearly show the propagation of the distur-bances trigged by the distortion sector(s).     

Coexisting phenomena of surge and rotating stall in an axial flow compressor

The unsteady inner flow structure of a single-stage axial flow compressor under the coexisting conditions of surge and rotating stall was experimentally investigated via detailed measurements of the unsteady characteristics and the internal flow velocity fluctuations. The main relevant feature of the tested compressor is a shock tube with a capacity tank connected in series to the compressor outlet through slits and a concentric duplex pipe： surge and rotating stall can both be generated by connecting the shock tube. Research attention is focused on the unsteady behavior of a rotating stall during the surge cycle. The size of the rotating stall cell during the recovery process of an irregular surge cycle was experimentally determined by the circumferential flow velocity fluctuations ahead of the rotor blade. The results suggested that the size of the rotating stall cell at the switching point of the performance curve between large and small cycles is considered to be the key parameter in determining the following surge cycle. In addition, the surge cycle is largely influenced by the unsteady behavior of the rotating stall cell.     

Numerical study on the influence mechanism of inlet distortion on the stall margin in a transonic axial rotor

A numerical study is conducted to investigate the influence of inlet flow condition on tip leakage flow (TLF) and stall margin in a transonic axial rotor.A commercial software package FLUENT,is used in the simulation.The rotor investigated in this paper is ND_TAC rotor,which is the rotor of one-stage transonic compressor in the University of Notre Dame.Three varied inlet flow conditions are simulated.The inlet boundary condition with hub distortion provides higher axial velocity for the incoming flow near tip region than that for the clean inflow,while the incoming main flow possesses lower axial velocity near the tip region at tip distortion inlet boundary condition.Among the total pressure ratio curves for the three inlet flow conditions,it is found that the hub dis-torted inlet boundary condition improves the stall margin,while the tip distorted inlet boundary condition dete-riorates compressor stability.The axial location of interface between tip leakage flow (TLF) and incoming main flow (MF) in the tip gap and the axial momentum ratio of TLF to MF are further examined.It is demonstrated that the axial momentum balance is the mechanism for interface movement.The hub distorted inflow could de-crease the axial momentum ratio,suppress the movement of the interface between TLF and MF towards blade leading edge plane and thus enhance compressor stability.     

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.     

Unsteady behavior of surge and rotating stall in an axial flow compressor

Unsteady behaviors as well as unsteady cascade flow fields of a single-stage axial flow compressor were experimentally investigated by detail measurements of unsteady performance characteristics and casing wall pressure and internal flow velocity fluctuations. The main feature of the test compressor is a capacity tank connected directly to the compressor outlet in series through slits and a concentric duplex pipe, and also jet nozzles in order to inject compressed air toward the rotor tip region. Research attention is focused on the post-stall characteristics of surge and rotating stall which occur simultaneously. When the compressor was connected to the capacity tank, surge was generated with rotating stall in accordance with the capacitance increment of whole compressor system. The surge behavior changed irregularly with throttling valve installed behind the compressor, and several types of surge cycles were observed. In addition, the surge cycle changed by jet injection to the rotor tip region. The results suggested that the blockages of the cascade flow which were generated by a stall cell play an important role in deciding the surge behaviors.     

Numerical investigation of the unsteady tip leakage flow and rotating stall inception in a transonic compressor

<正>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.     

Unsteady flow field under surge and rotating stall in a three-stage axial flow compressor

The unsteady flow structure between rotor blade-to-blade passages in a three-stage axial flow compressor is experimentally investigated by detailed measurements of unsteady performance characteristics,casing wall pressure fluctuations and their wavelet analyses.The main feature of the test compressor is a capacity tank facility connected in series to the compressor outlet in order to supply compression and/or expansion waves from downstream of the compressor.Research attention is focused on the post-stall characteristics of the surge and rotating stall which occur simultaneously.The influence of the compressor operating point on the unsteady performance curve shows that the surge cycle changes irregularly depending on the steady-state resistance characteristics,and the results of the wavelet analyses of the wall pressure fluctuations suggest that the surge cycle may selectively be determined by the rotating stall cell structure within the rotor cascade.     

Investigations on low speed axial compressor with forward and backward sweep

In the recent past,experimental studies have shown some advantages of blade lean and sweep in axial compres-sors.As most of the experimental results are combined with other features,it is difficult to determine the effect ofindividual parameters on the performance of the compressor.The present numerical studies are aimed at under-standing the performance and three-dimensional flow pattern at the exit of swept and unswept rotors.Three rotors,namely;unswept,20~0 forward swept and 20~0 backward swept rotors are analysed with a specific intention of un-derstanding the pattern of the blade boundary layer flow.The analysis was done using a fully three-dimensionalviscous CFD code CFX-5.Results indicated reduction in pressure rise with sweep.Backward sweep is detrimen-tal as far as the performance near endwalls is considered.On the other hand total pressure loss in the wake in midspan region is less with backward sweep,which favours its application here.However,backward sweep adverselyaffects the stall margin.The ability of the forward sweep to deflect the streamlines towards hub gets diminished atlow flow rates.Forward sweep changes the streamline pattern in such a way that the suction surface streamlinesare deflected towards the hub and the pressure surface streamlines are deflected towards the casing.An oppositebehaviour is observed in backward swept rotors.     

Rotating stall and stall-controlled performance of a single stage subsonic axial compressor

Activities by various authors on aerodynamics and control dynamics of rotating stall in axial compressor are first traced. Then, a process of stall cell evolution in a subsonic stage is discussed based on a 2-D CFD. A few numbers of vortices grow ahead of the rotor accumulating vorticity ejected from lightly stalled blades, and eventually organize a cell of circumferentially aligned huge vortices, which merge and recess repeatedly during the rotation. Such stall disturbance is intensified on trailing side of a circumferential inlet distortion and decays on the leading side. Considering these features, a new algorithm for stall warning is developed based on a correlation between pressure waveforms at each passing of a fixed blade. A remarkable change in the correlation level at near-stall provides a warning signal prior to the stall onset with sufficiently large time margin. This scheme is applied to achieve rotating stall prevention by actuating flaps installed on the hub. The last issue is on characteristics of forward swept blade which has much increased throttle margin with decreased tip loss. A 3-D computation shows that a secondary vortex generated in suction surface mid span interacts to reduce the tip leakage vortex that initiates the stall.     

The role of tip leakage flow in triggering rotating stall of a low speed compressor under inlet distortion

The stall behavior in a single-stage low-speed axial compressor under rotating inlet distortion (RID) is investigated in the first half of this paper. The tests demonstrate that the tip leakage flow (TLF) plays an important role in triggering rotating stall. The tracking of the spike-like disturbances caused by the spillage of TLV indicates that most of such spike-like disturbances will be smeared by non-distorted sector and the growth of the spike-like disturbances actually relate closely to how and how often the path of the propagating disturbances come across the path of the rotating distorted sector. In the second half of this paper, micro air injections are applied to test the effect behavior of TLF on stall inception. Contrasts to without micro air injections, the spike-like disturbances are much fewer, so the possibilities that spike-like disturbances may trigger rotating stall are fewer too. As a result, the compressor gets a lower mass flow rate at stall for both co-rotating inlet distortion and counter-rotating inlet distortion.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the unsteady tip leakage flow in axial compressor cascade

For convenience of both measurement and adjusting the clearance size and incidence, the current research is mainly conducted by experiments on an axial compressor linear cascade. The characteristics and the condition under which the unsteadiness of tip leakage flow would occur were investigated by dynamic measuring in different clearances, inlet velocities and incidences. From the experiment it is found that increasing tip clearance size or reducing rotor tip incidence can affect the strength of the tip clearance flow. Then the experimental results also indicate the tip leakage shows instability in certain conditions, and the frequency of unsteadiness is great influenced by inflow angle. The condition of occurrence of tip leakage flow unsteadiness is when the leakage flow is strong enough to reach the pressure side of the adjacent blade. The main cause of tip leakage flow unsteadiness is the tip blade loading.     

带可调进口导叶的多级轴流压气机非设计点性能计算

多级轴流压气机为保证非设计转速下的性能,通常采用进口导叶(IGV)以及静叶可调的扩稳方法。为获得可靠的进口导叶性能以用于压气机初步设计和扩稳方案的初步筛选,基于Banjac和Petrovic等提出的IGV损失和落后角模型与平均中径计算相结合,开发了带有IGV的多级轴流压气机性能分析工具。选用E3压气机作为算例进行计算分析,结果表明,所选用的IGV模型在较大开度内具有较好的精度和有效性。研究结果可以为多级轴流压气机初步设计和扩稳方案确定提供参考。     

Numerical investigation of tip clearance effects in an axial transonic compressor

Numerical investigations of the Darmstadt transonic single stage compressor (DTC), in the Rotor1-Stator1 configuration, aimed at advancing the understanding of the effect of different rotor tip gaps and transition modelling on the blade surfaces are presented. Steady three dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations were performed to obtain the flow fields for the different configurations at different operating conditions using the RANS-Solver TRACE. The stage geometry and the multi-block structured grid were generated by G3DMESH and a grid sensitivity analysis was conducted. For the clearance gap region, a fully gridded special H-grid was chosen. Comparisons were made between the flow characteristic at design speed, representative for a transonic flow regime, and at 65% speed, representative for a subsonic flow regime. The computations were used to analyse the flow phenomena through the tip clearance region for the different configurations and their impact on the performance of the compressor stage.     

Investigation on multiple cylindrical holes casing treatment for transonic axial compressor stability enhancement

Casing treatment is one possible way of regaining axial compressor operating range. However, most of casing treatments extend the operating range with the cost of efficiency penalty. A new form of multiple cylindrical holes casing treatment (MHCT) with pre-swirl blowing for the NASA Rotor-37 has been designed based on profound understanding of the stall inception. Unsteady numerical simulations have been performed for Rotor-37 with and without MHCT. Parametric studies of the total extraction holes area and their axial locations show that the compressor performance deteriorates as the area ratio increases but the stall margin is extended and there is an optimum extraction holes axial location for stall margin extending. The better configuration of MHCT could extend the stall margin by 6.2% with only 0.23% peak efficiency reduction. Detailed analysis of the physical mechanism behind the stall margin improvement shows that the casing treatment could eliminate the passage blockage by suppressing breakup of tip leakage vortex and decrease the blade load in tip region, which both contribute to improve stall margin of transonic axial compressors.     

The Self-induced unsteadiness of tip leakage flow in an axial low-speed compressor with single circumferential casing groove

Numerical investigation on the self-induced unsteadiness of tip leakage flow （TLF） for an axial low-speed com- pressor with smooth wall and six single grooved casings are presented. A ten-passage numerical scheme is used to solve the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes （URANS） equations. It is found that the single grooves at various axial locations could have a large impact on the self-induced unsteadiness and the stall margin improve- ment （SMI） of compressor. The trend of SMI with groove center location demonstrates that the groove located near the mid of blade tip chord generates the best SMI. The worst groove is located about 20% Cax after the blade leading edge. The root-mean-squre of static pressure （RMSP） contours at 99.5% span and fast Fourier transform for the static pressure traces recorded in the tip clearance region for each casing are analyzed. The results demon- strate that the single groove location not only affects the oscillating strength but also the frequency of the un- steady tip leakage flow. At the near-stall point of smooth casing, the self-induced unsteadiness of TLF is enhanced most by the best grooved casing for SMI. While, the self-induced unsteadiness disappears when the worst groove for SMI is added. The characteristic frequency of TLF is about 0.55 blade passing frequency （BPF） with smooth casing. The frequency components become complicated as the single groove moves from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the blade.     

Numerical simulation of rotating stall in a centrifugal compressor with vaned diffuser

This paper reports a numerical study on the process from normal operating conditions to rotating stall in a cen-trifugal compressor with vaned diffuser.The purpose is to better understand the flow characteristics near stallpoint under the interactions between centrifugal impeller and vaned diffuser.Numerical results show that undercertain conditions just preceding stall point the tip leakage vortex begins to fluctuate at roughly half of the bladepassing frequency.This phenomenon is similar to rotating instability in axial compressors.With the flow rate re-duced further the impeller stalls and five stall cells propagating at a frequency of 85 percent of impeller rotationspeed are found.     

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.     

轴流式压气机参数采集系统的设计与实现

介绍了轴流式压气机参数采集系统的设计原理,基于Visual C＋＋开发了参数采集分析软件,系统由实验压气机、采集系统、控制系统等分系统组成。重点介绍了采集系统和软件设计,实现了一种高精度、高可靠性、数字化的压气机参数采集方法。     

An experimental description of the flow in a centrifugal compressor from alternate stall to surge

The present paper gives the experimental results obtained in a centrifugal compressor stage designed and built by SAFRAN Helicopter Engines.The compressor is composed of inlet guide vanes,a backswept splittered unshrouded impeller,a splittered vaned radial diffuser and axial outlet guide vanes.Previous numerical simulations revealed a particular S-shape pressure rise characteristic at partial rotation speed and predicted an alternate flow pattern in the vaned radial diffuser at low mass flow rate.This alternate flow pattern involves two adjacent vane passages.One passage exhibits very low momentum and a low pressure recovery,whereas the adjacent passage has very high momentum in the passage inlet and diffuses efficiently.Experimental measurements confirm the S-shape of the pressure rise characteristic even if the stability limit experimentally occurs at higher mass flow than numerically predicted.At low mass flow the alternate stall pattern is confirmed thanks to the data obtained by high-frequency pressure sensors.As the compressor is throttled the path to instability has been registered and a first scenario of the surge inception is given.The compressor first experiences a steady alternate stall in the diffuser.As the mass flow decreases,the alternate stall amplifies and triggers the mild surge in the vaned diffuser.An unsteady behavior results from the interaction of the alternate stall and the mild surge.Finally,when the pressure gradient becomes too strong,the alternate stall blows away and the compressor enters into deep surge.