Experimental Investigation on the Stall Inception of a Counter-Rotating Compressor

Author(s):  
Zhuoqi Wang ◽  
Wei Yuan ◽  
Qiushi Li ◽  
Yajun Lu

For investigating the flow phenomena in the stall process of a counter-rotating compressor (CRC), static and dynamic experiment have been carried out on a low speed counter-rotating compressor. Seven high response pressure sensors were mounted at the leading edge of rotor 1(R1) and rotor 2(R2) as well as at the outlet of R2 blade tip and root. Wavelet analysis and FFT transform was introduced to the post processing progress. According to the experimental results, the stall inception was found in the tip region of the second rotor. The rotating speed of stall cell in the compressor is about 35% of the rotor speed.

Author(s):  
Zhuoqi Wang ◽  
Wei Yuan ◽  
Qiushi Li ◽  
Yajun Lu

For investigating the flow phenomena in the stall process, a full annular unsteady numerical simulation has been carried out on a low speed counter-rotating compressor. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental results. According to the CFD results, the stall inception was found in the tip region of the front rotor. The rotating speed of stall cells in the front rotor are about 41% of the rotor speed and the direction is the same with the rotor rotating direction. The stall cells occupies about 20% of the blade span away from the casing wall when the compressor is in deep stall. The flow phenomena is well captured which explained why the compressor characteristic line appears as a hysteresis loop in the stall inception-recovery process.


Author(s):  
MP Manas ◽  
AM Pradeep

Contra-rotating fan is a concept that can possibly replace the present-day conventional fans due to its several aerodynamic advantages. It has the potential to improve the stability limit and can achieve a higher pressure ratio per stage. One of the advantages of a contra-rotating fan is its capability to operate both the rotors at different speeds. In the present study, experiments are carried out at different speed combinations of the rotors and the stall inception phenomenon is captured using high-response unsteady pressure sensors placed on the casing upstream of the leading edge of rotor-1. The unsteady pressure data are investigated using wavelet and Fourier analysis techniques. It is observed that the mechanism of stall inception is different for different speed combinations. The pre-stall disturbances fall in different frequency ranges for different speed combinations. For the range of speed combinations investigated, the frequency of appearance of stall cells of rotor-1 does not depend on the speed of rotor-2. A higher speed of rotation of rotor-1 leads to a higher frequency of appearance of stall cells and a lower speed of rotation of rotor-1 leads to a lower frequency of appearance of stall cells. For all the speed combinations, there is a range of frequency where no disturbance is observed and this range is termed as the ‘no-disturbance zone’. Disturbances are observed at lower frequencies and at frequencies close to the blade passing frequency. In order to understand the flow physics in detail, computational analysis is carried out for different speed combinations of the rotors. For a higher speed of rotor-2, it is observed that the suction effect of rotor-2 is significant enough to pull the tip-leakage flow towards the axial direction. Thus, the suction effect of rotor-2 plays a significant role in determining the stall of the stage.


2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan N. Everitt ◽  
Zoltán S. Spakovszky

In compression systems, the stable operating range is limited by rotating stall and/or surge. Two distinct types of stall precursors can be observed prior to full scale instability: the development of long-wavelength modal waves or a short-wavelength, three-dimensional flow breakdown (so-called “spike” stall inception). The cause of the latter is not well understood; in axial machines it has been suggested that rotor blade-tip leakage flow plays an important role, but spikes have recently been observed in shrouded vaned diffusers of centrifugal compressors where these leakage flows are not present, suggesting an alternative mechanism may be at play. This paper investigates the onset of instability in a shrouded vaned diffuser from a highly loaded turbocharger centrifugal compressor and discusses the mechanisms thought to be responsible for the development of short-wavelength stall precursors. The approach combines unsteady 3D RANS simulations of an isolated vaned diffuser with previously obtained experimental results. The unsteady flow field simulation begins at the impeller exit radius, where flow is specified by a spanwise profile of flow angle and stagnation properties, derived from single-passage stage calculations but with flow pitchwise mixed. Through comparison with performance data from previous experiments and unsteady full-wheel simulations, it is shown that the diffuser is accurately matched to the impeller and the relevant flow features are well captured. Numerical forced response experiments are carried out to determine the diffuser dynamic behavior and point of instability onset. The unsteady simulations demonstrate the growth of short-wavelength precursors; the flow coefficient at which these occur, the rotation rate and circumferential extent agree with experimental measurements. Although the computational setup and domain limitations do not allow simulation of the fully developed spike nor full-scale instability, the model is sufficient to capture the onset of instability and allows the postulation of the following necessary conditions: (i) flow separation at the diffuser vane leading edge near the shroud endwall; (ii) radially reversed flow allowing vorticity shed from the leading edge to convect back into the vaneless space; and (iii) recirculation and accumulation of low stagnation pressure fluid in the vaneless space, increasing diffuser inlet blockage and leading to instability. Similarity exists with axial machines, where blade-tip leakage sets up endwall flow in the circumferential direction leading to flow breakdown and the inception of rotating stall. Rather than the tip leakage flows, the cause for circumferential endwall flow in the vaned diffuser is the combination of high swirl and the highly nonuniform spanwise flow profile at the impeller exit.


Author(s):  
J. F. Escuret ◽  
V. Garnier

This paper presents unsteady measurements taken in a high-speed four-stage aero-engine compressor prior to the onset of aerodynamic flow instabilities. In this experiment, forty fast-response pressure transducers have been located at various axial and circumferential positions throughout the machine in order to give a very detailed picture of stall inception. At all the compressor speeds investigated, the stall pattern observed is initiated by a very short length-scale finite-amplitude disturbance which propagates at a fast rate around the annulus. This initial stall cell leads to a large-amplitude system instability in less than five rotor revolutions. Varying the IGV setting angle is found to have a strong influence on the axial location of the first disturbance detected. In particular, transferring the aerodynamic loading from front to downstream stages moves the first disturbance detected from the first to the last stage of the compressor. Other repeatable features of the stall inception pattern in this compressor have been identified using a simple analysis technique particularly appropriate to the study of short length-scale disturbances. It is found that the origins of instabilities are tied to particular tangential positions in both the stationary and rotating frames of reference. These measurements lead to the conclusion that the stall inception process in high-speed multi-stage compressors can be characterised by some very local and organised flow phenomena. Moreover, there is no evidence of pre-stall waves in this compressor.


2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Cameron ◽  
Scott C. Morris

The unsteady flow in axial compressors during pre-stall and stall inception is often studied using circumferentially distributed pressure sensors. The present investigation utilized a transonic axial compressor facility to acquire time resolved casing static pressure measurements at an axial location upstream of the rotor leading edge. These measurements were processed using a variety of analysis techniques in order to provide insight into the fluid dynamics and compression system dynamics prior to and during stall inception. Specifically, visual inspection of the time series, spatial Fourier decomposition, traveling wave energy, and wavelet transform results will be described and compared for two representative stall inception events. Additionally, a new method was developed based on a windowed, two-point correlation function between adjacent sensors. The intent was to provide a scalar function that was nonzero only when disturbances that rotated around the compressor annulus in the direction of the rotor’s rotation were present. The results indicated that this method highlights many detailed features of the rotating disturbances with both spatial and temporal resolution during both pre-stall and stall inception.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 690-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Escuret ◽  
V. Garnier

This paper presents unsteady measurements taken in a high-speed four-stage aeroengine compressor prior to the onset of aerodynamic flow instabilities. In this experiment, 40 fast-response pressure transducers have been located at various axial and circumferential positions throughout the machine in order to give a very detailed picture of stall inception. At all the compressor speeds investigated, the stall pattern observed is initiated by a very short length-scale finite-amplitude disturbance, which propagates at a fast rate around the annulus. This initial stall cell leads to a large-amplitude system instability in less than five rotor revolutions. Varying the IGV setting angle is found to have a strong influence on the axial location of the first disturbance detected. In particular, transferring the aerodynamic loading from front to downstream stages moves the first disturbance detected from the first to the last stage of the compressor. Other repeatable features of the stall inception pattern in this compressor have been identified using a simple analysis technique particularly appropriate to the study of short length-scale disturbances. It is found that the origins of instabilities are tied to particular tangential positions in both the stationary and rotating frames of reference. These measurements lead to the conclusion that the stall inception process in high-speed multistage compressors can be characterized by some very local and organized flow phenomena. Moreover, there is no evidence of prestall waves in this compressor.


Author(s):  
Rainer Schnell

In order to investigate pressure fluctuations on the blade surface experimentally, a CFK - bladed Counterrotating Prop-fan CRISP with an outer diameter of 1m has been instrumented with 20 piezoresistive pressure sensors on each rotor. An accompanying two-dimensional numerical simulation has been conducted using the unsteady code TRACE-U. The flowfield was subsonic in both rotors because of a chosen operating point of approximately 52% of the design speed at a corrected mass flow of 108 kg/s. Upstream potential effects upon the first rotor where found to be relatively small at this operating point. The paper focuses on downstream effects on the second rotor of both viscous and potential nature. The main sources causing fluctuations in blade pressure were to be found wake shedding from the first rotor, pressure perturbations caused by the wake of the first rotor impinging on the leading edge of the second rotor and reflections of these pressure perturbations on adjacent blade ro ws running upstream. An analysis of these unsteady flow phenomena taking into account both experimental and numerical data will be presented including a detailed comparison of both sets of data.


Author(s):  
HaoGuang Zhang ◽  
Feng Tan ◽  
Kang An ◽  
YanHui Wu ◽  
WuLi Chu

For some axial flow compressors, the compressor stall is a result of the blade tip blockage caused by the complex flows, which include the boundary layer flow separation (BLFS), tip leakage flow (TLF), and shock wave. Owing to the difference of the design rotating speed and aerodynamic load in the axial flow compressor, these complex flows might exist in isolation or occur at the same time in practical application. Aiming at the stall mechanism in the axial flow compressors, a great deal of experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out at the design rotating speed. However, the investigation for off-design rotating speed in the axial flow compressors is seldom. Therefore, a transonic axial flow compressor rotor, which is NASA Rotor67, was chosen to investigate the stall mechanism at 100%, 80% and 60% design rotating speeds with the help of the numerical method. Moreover, the guiding suggestions for selecting the measures of increasing the transonic axial flow compressors stability are presented for the later investigation. The compared results show that the variation tendency of the experimental total performance lines are finely repeated by the numerical results at the three design rotating speeds. The fundamental flow mechanism of the rotor is obtained by analyzing the flow field in the blade passage in details. With the decrease of the rotor mass flow at the three design rotating speeds, the starting position of the tip leakage vortex (TLV) moves to the blade leading edge gradually, and the tip leakage vortex also deviates to the pressure surface of the adjacent blade. The deviated angle, which is the angle between the trajectory of the tip leakage vortex core and rotor rotating axis, for near stall point (NS) are about three degree, five degree and nine degree than that for near peak efficiency point (NPE) at 100%, 80% and 60% design rotating speeds respectively. The blockage resulted from the interaction between the tip leakage vortex and shock wave is the cause of the rotor stall at 100% and 80% design rotating speeds. Besides, the breakdown of the tip leakage vortex and leading edge spilled flow (LESF) occur at 80% design rotating speed. At 60% design rotating speed, the blockage caused by the leading edge spilled flow resulted from the tip leakage vortex is the main cause of bringing about the compressor stall, and the boundary layer flow separation (BLFS) in a small scope appears at the blade tip suction surface near the trailing edge.


2013 ◽  
Vol 718-720 ◽  
pp. 1804-1810
Author(s):  
An Qing Lai ◽  
Jun Hu ◽  
Liang Li ◽  
Ju Luo

To execute stall active control technology effectively and make clear of stall inception induced by modal disturbance, this paper carries out the correlative research on modal disturbance and rotating stall on the two-stage low-speed axial compressor. The results indicate that the stall inception of the compressor is modal style and the modal oscillation propagates at 38% rotor speed while the stall cell propagation speed is 42% rotor speed. The phase angles of modal oscillation and rotating stall along the axial direction are different, but their trajectories are both similar to the blade passage shape. The stall mechanisms of modal-type and spike-type inceptions are different. It doesnt appear that leading-edge tip clearance flow spillage blow the blade tip while the modal-type stall formation.


Author(s):  
J. N. Everitt ◽  
Z. S. Spakovszky

In compression systems the stable operating range is limited by rotating stall and/or surge. Two distinct types of stall precursors can be observed prior to full scale instability: the development of long-wavelength modal waves or a short-wavelength, three-dimensional flow breakdown (so-called “spike” stall inception). The cause of the latter is not well understood; in axial machines it has been suggested that rotor blade-tip leakage flow plays an important role, but spikes have recently been observed in shrouded vaned diffusers of centrifugal compressors where these leakage flows are not present, suggesting an alternative mechanism may be at play. This paper investigates the onset of instability in a shrouded vaned diffuser from a highly loaded turbocharger centrifugal compressor and discusses the mechanisms thought to be responsible for the development of short-wavelength stall precursors. The approach combines unsteady 3D RANS simulations of an isolated vaned diffuser with previously obtained experimental results. The unsteady flow field simulation begins at the impeller exit radius, where flow is specified by a spanwise profile of flow angle and stagnation properties, derived from single-passage stage calculations but with flow pitchwise mixed. Through comparison with performance data from previous experiments and unsteady full-wheel simulations, it is shown that the diffuser is accurately matched to the impeller and the relevant flow features are well captured. Numerical forced response experiments are carried out to determine the diffuser dynamic behavior and point of instability onset. The unsteady simulations demonstrate the growth of short-wavelength precursors; the flow coefficient at which these occur, the rotation rate and circumferential extent agree with experimental measurements. Although the computational setup and domain limitations do not allow simulation of the fully developed spike nor full-scale instability, the model is sufficient to capture the onset of instability and allows the postulation of the following necessary conditions: (i) flow separation at the diffuser vane leading edge near the shroud endwall; (ii) radially reversed flow allowing vorticity shed from the leading edge to convect back into the vaneless space; and (iii) recirculation and accumulation of low stagnation pressure fluid in the vaneless space, increasing diffuser inlet blockage and leading to instability. Similarity exists with axial machines, where blade-tip leakage sets up endwall flow in the circumferential direction leading to flow breakdown and the inception of rotating stall. Rather than the tip leakage flows, the cause for circumferential endwall flow in the vaned diffuser is the combination of high swirl and the highly non-uniform spanwise flow profile at the impeller exit.


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