Multistage Centrifugal Compressor Surge Analysis: Part I—Experimental Investigation

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Arnulfi ◽  
P. Giannattasio ◽  
C. Giusto ◽  
A. F. Massardo ◽  
D. Micheli ◽  
...  

This paper reports an experimental investigation on centrifugal compressor surge. The compression system consists of a four-stage blower with vaned diffusers and a large plenum discharging into the atmosphere through a throttle valve. Measurements of unsteady pressure and flow rate in the plant, and of instantaneous velocity in the diffusers of the first and fourth compressor stage, are performed during deep surge, at several valve settings and three different rotation speeds. Additional tests have been carried out on a different system configuration, i.e., without plenum, in order to obtain the steady-state compressor characteristics and to collect reference data on stall in surge-free conditions. In this configuration, a fully developed rotating stall was detected in the compressor diffusers, while during surge it affects only a limited part of the surge cycle. The goal of the present experimental work was to get a deeper insight into unstable operating conditions of multistage centrifugal compressors and to validate a theoretical model of the system instability to be used for the design of dynamic control systems.

Author(s):  
G. L. Arnulfi ◽  
P. Giannattasio ◽  
C. Giusto ◽  
A. F. Massardo ◽  
D. Micheli ◽  
...  

This paper reports an experimental investigation on centrifugal compressor surge. The compression system consists of a four-stage blower with vaned diffusers and a large plenum discharging into the atmosphere through a throttle valve. Measurements of unsteady pressure and flow rate in the plant, and of instantaneous velocity in the diffusers of the first and fourth compressor stage are performed during deep surge, at several valve settings and three different rotation speeds. Additional tests have been carried out on a different system configuration, i.e., without plenum, in order to obtain the steady-state compressor characteristics and to collect reference data on stall in surge-free conditions. In this configuration, a fully developed rotating stall was detected in the compressor diffusers, while during surge it affects only a limited part of the surge cycle. The goal of the present experimental work was to get a deeper insight into unstable operating conditions of multi-stage centrifugal compressors and to validate a theoretical model of the system instability to be used for the design of dynamic control systems.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Arnulfi ◽  
P. Giannattasio ◽  
C. Giusto ◽  
A. F. Massardo ◽  
D. Micheli ◽  
...  

This paper describes, from a theoretical point of view, the behavior of compression systems during surge and the effect of passive and active control devices on the instability limit of the system. A lumped parameter model is used to simulate the compression system described in Part I of this work (Arnulfi et al., 1999), based on an industrial multistage centrifugal compressor. A comparison with experimental results shows that the model is accurate enough to describe quantitatively all the features of the phenomenon. A movable wall control system is studied in order to suppress surge in the compressor. Passive and active control schemes are analyzed; they both address directly the dynamic behavior of the compression system to displace the surge line to lower flow rates. The influence of system, geometry and compressor speed is investigated: the optimum values of the control parameters and the corresponding increase in the extent of the stable operating range are presented in the paper.


Author(s):  
D. L. Gysling ◽  
J. Dugundji ◽  
E. M. Greitzer ◽  
A. H. Epstein

A new method for dynamic control of centrifugal compressor surge is presented. The approach taken is to suppress surge by modifying the compression system dynamic behavior using structural feedback. More specifically, one wall of a downstream volume, or plenum, is constructed so to move in response to small perturbations in pressure. This structural motion provides a means for absorbing the unsteady energy perturbations produced by the compressor, thus extending the stable operating range of the compression system. In the paper, a lumped parameter analysis is carried out to define the coupled aerodynamic and structural system behavior and the potential for stabilization. First-of-a-kind experiments are then carried out to examine the conclusions of the analysis. As predicted by the model and demonstrated with experiment, a moveable plenum wall lowered the mass flow at which surge occurred in a centrifugal compression system by roughly 25% for a large range of operating conditions. In addition, because the tailored dynamics of the structure acts to suppress instabilities in their initial stages, this control was achieved with relatively little power being dissipated by the moveable wall system, and with no noticeable decrease in steady state performance. Although designed on the basis of linear system considerations, the structural control is shown to be capable of suppressing existing large amplitude limit cycle surge oscillations.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Gysling ◽  
J. Dugundji ◽  
E. M. Greitzer ◽  
A. H. Epstein

A new method for dynamic control of centrifugal compressor surge is presented. The approach taken is to suppress surge by modifying the compression system dynamic behavior using structural feedback. More specifically, one wall of a downstream volume, or plenum, is constructed so as to move in response to small perturbations in pressure. This structural motion provides a means for absorbing the unsteady energy perturbations produced by the compressor, thus extending the stable operating range of the compression system. In the paper, a lumped parameter analysis is carried out to define the coupled aerodynamic and structural system behavior and the potential for stabilization. First-of-a-kind experiments are then conducted to examine the conclusions of the analysis. As predicted by the model and demonstrated by experiment, a movable plenum wall lowered the mass flow at which surge occurred in a centrifugal compression system by roughly 25 percent for a range of operating conditions. In addition, because the tailored dynamics of the structure acts to suppress instabilities in their initial stages, this control was achievable with relatively little power being dissipated by the movable wall system, and with no noticeable decrease in steady-state performance. Although designed on the basis of linear system considerations, the structural control is shown to be capable of suppressing existing large-amplitude limit cycle surge oscillations.


Author(s):  
Gianmario L. Arnulfi ◽  
Pietro Giannattasio ◽  
Cristiana Giusto ◽  
Aristide F. Massardo ◽  
Diego Micheli ◽  
...  

This paper describes, from a theoretical point of view, the behaviour of compression systems during surge and the effect of passive and active control devices on the instability limit of the system. A lumped parameter model is used to simulate the compression system described in Part I of this work (Arnulfi et al., 1998), based on an industrial multistage centrifugal compressor. A comparison with experimental results shows that the model is accurate enough to describe quantitatively all the features of the phenomenon. A moveable wall control system is studied in order to suppress surge in the compressor. Passive and active control schemes are analysed; they both address directly the dynamic behaviour of the compression system to displace the surge line to lower flow rates. The influence of system geometry and compressor speed is investigated; the optimum values of the control parameters and the corresponding increase in the extent of the stable operating range are presented in the paper.


Author(s):  
D. Jin ◽  
U. Haupt ◽  
H. Hasemann ◽  
M. Rautenberg

Centrifugal compressor surge at high rotational speed and reduced blade thickness can produce dangerous excitation effects which have numerous resulted in problems in the past. This paper presents an investigation of blade excitation during surge in a high performance single stage centrifugal compressor with various impeller and diffuser geometry. The blade vibration was measured using blade mounted strain gages. The flow characteristics during surge as the cause of blade excitation were simultaneously determined by fast response dynamic pressure transducers. The experiments have been performed using a radial and a backswept impeller, as well as a vanless and vaned diffusers. The rotational speed of the compressor was varied from 5,000 to 14,500 rpm. The characteristics of unsteady flow during surge, such as, the flow pattern of rotating stall and the non-periodic pressure fluctuation during surge were studied in detail. The experimental results demonstrated that, in addition to the excitation of rotating stall during surge, strong non-periodic pressure fluctuations at the beginning and the end of the surge induced dangerous blade excitations in all compressor configurations. The maximum strain values of blade vibration for all compressor versions at different rotational speeds of the compressor were measured to estimate the danger of blade excitation during surge. The results showed that the blade excitation during compressor surge with vaned diffusers is stronger than the excitation with a vanless diffuser and that the blade excitation with a radial impeller is stronger than the excitation with a backswept impeller.


Author(s):  
Saad A. Ahmed ◽  
Mohamed A. Gadalla

An experimental investigation to delay the onset of the rotating stall in the radial diffuser of a centrifugal blower was carried out. The method involved reducing the flow area by 50% at the diffuser exit using throttle rings attached to either diffuser shroud wall, or the diffuser hub wall. Simultaneous attachments of the throttle rings to both the diffuser’s shroud and the hub walls were also made. The following blockage ratios were used: 25% from both walls, 50% from the diffuser shroud and 0% from the diffuser hub and vice versa. The preliminary results suggest that the onset of the flow instability in the diffuser (stall) could be delayed (i.e., lower flow coefficient) when throttle rings were attached to the diffuser walls to reduce its exit flow area. The results also confirmed that the throttle rings could be an effective method to control/delay the stall in the vaneless radial diffuser.


2021 ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
D. Minchev ◽  
R. Varbanets

Simulation of the supercharged internal combustion engines operation cycle is impossible without correct estimation of the supercharger operating parameters. Standard approach is to use specially prepared performance maps of compressor and turbine of the turbocharger, which are based on the experimental (or manufacturer’s) raw data. Centrifugal compressor performance maps interpolation, extrapolation and treatment provides challenging requirements as it is important to get correct simulation under such special conditions as compressor choke, rotating stall and pumping surge. At the same time it’s important to obtain the fast and stable calculations of the engine’s operating cycle. Blitz-PRO – online internal combustion engines operating cycle simulation service – offers supercharger performance maps preprocessing and implementation. It provides three different modes of compressor surge consideration during calculations: 1) full-scale surge mode using Moore-Greitzer approach; 2) mild surge mode with flexible adjustment; 3) “stable” mode, when the surge is neglected and the compressor constant-speed lines are extended from the rotating stall point to the lower mass flow region with the hyperbolic equation. Using the MAN 8G70ME-E engine 12140 kW, 82 rpm operating point as an example, the calculation results are compared for three modes of compressor surge consideration. The “stable” mode provides the fastest and the most stable calculations, while the calculations under the full-scale surge mode could generate the numerical (nonphysical) instability of calculations, which are caused by the high sensitivity of the two-stroke engines to the gas exchange processes as it is shown. The mild surge mode provides fast and stable enough calculation with the surge consideration ability, which could be assumed as the best solution for the given example. The researcher should choose between provided three modes of the centrifugal compressor surge consideration according to the calculations tasks, preferring “stable” mode for initial model setup and mild surge mode for the surge probability check, while the accurate compressor surge simulation needs further development.


Author(s):  
Mateusz Stajuda ◽  
David Garcia Cava ◽  
Grzegorz Liśkiewicz

Abstract This study intends to explore the capabilities of the cyclostationary approach for instabilities detection and operating conditions monitoring of centrifugal compressors. Cyclostationary approach offers powerful signal analysis methods, applicable to different processes. It was proven useful for analysis of vibration, acoustic and pressure data for systems exhibiting periodicity. Cyclostationarity has been used for extracting subtle changes between cycles of the periodic signal which could be used for condition monitoring. Recent research focuses on employing this method for fault indication. Cyclostationary approach has not been extensively used in the field of turbomachinery, except for a few cases when it was proven to give a better insight into flow structure than standard signal processing techniques and allow for the detection of instabilities in flow systems. Thus, the cyclostationary approach may be suitable for instabilities detection and condition monitoring in centrifugal compressors. This paper exploits various techniques employing a cyclostationary framework for instabilities detection and operating conditions monitoring with the use of pressure signals from the low-speed centrifugal compressor. The most prospective cyclostationarity-based indicators are applied for the detection of instabilities. Due to a lack of second-order cyclostationarity, the study confines to the analysis of first-order cyclostationarity strongly exhibited in the compressor pressure signal. First-order cyclostationarity analysis provides an indication of instabilities and working conditions differentiation, but due to time-domain sampling, it is not fully robust and reliable. The highest potential is perceived in the cyclostationary approach use to extract changes between cycles. Different measures of change in variability could serve as a valuable indicator of instabilities.


Author(s):  
Bernhard Semlitsch ◽  
V. Jyothishkumar ◽  
Mihai Mihaescu ◽  
Laszlo Fuchs ◽  
Ephraim J. Gutmark

The flow through a ported shroud compressor of an automobile turbocharger is simulated using Large Eddy Simulations. Generally, the compressor is subjected to work within certain range of the mass-flow conditions. Reduction of the operation mass-flow below a certain minimum limit, leads to breakdown of the complete compressor operability. Flow reversal occurs in the compressor wheel, which results in amplification of velocity and pressure fluctuations. Consequentially, large vibratory stresses are induced into the blades under off-design condition and thereby affect the blade life duration detrimentally. The aim of this study is to understand the generation of flow-structures during extreme operable conditions (surge condition) in a centrifugal compressor. The investigation of the appearing flow-structures with the surge phenomenon is essential to explore new methods that improve the stability or the flow-operating regime of the compressor. The complete 360° compressor geometry is utilized in the computational simulations. Further, the transient sliding mesh technique is applied to account for an accurate prediction of the mesh motion and thus, the geometrical interaction between the impeller and the stationary diffuser. The numerical results are compared with available experimental measurements obtained under the same operating conditions (design and near-surge condition). The rotating stall instability is predicted using FFT data analysis. Furthermore, the numerical study captures the low frequency peak characterizing the global instability of the surge condition.


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