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.