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Multistage Compressor
Multistage Compressor
cumstances, in any particular configuration, one can The approach adopted was to rotate a distortion
still point to one or the other (modes or spikes) as being screen upstream of several low-speed multistage com-
the dominant phenomenon in the process of transition to pressors. The experimental facility used allowed the
rotating stall. distortion screen to be rotated in either direction (co- or
counter-rotational) at various fractions of rotor speed.
Both time mean and time resolved measurements were
23- Theoretical Model recorded for four different compressors with the data
In this research there are strong links between analysed in terms of the insight they gave into the forced
the experimental work and the theoretical modelling. and unforced compressor response. Comparisons were
The model was used to guide both the planning and the also made with calculations using the theoretical model.
interpretation of the experimental work, whilst the mea- Anticipating the results to be presented, we
surements were used to assess the conditions under note that the compressors tested exhibited two qualita-
which the model is reliable. It is thus useful to describe tively different types of behavior as far as stability mar-
briefly the model, and, more importantly, the prediction gin degradation with screen speed. Two showed a
of the flowfield that arises from it. single resonant response peak as a function of distortion
The model is an extension of that developed by propagation speed while the others exhibited a double
Hynes & Greitzer [1987]. It addresses the behavior of peaked response. As a framework for organizing the ex-
two-dimensional flowfield disturbances that have a cir- perimental and theoretical information, we first present
cumferential length-scale which is an appreciable frac- the results for the two compressors that showed a single
tion of the compressor circumference (and hence much peak. These compressors, which will be referred to as
longer than a blade pitch). The analysis is therefore "dromedary", appear to respond in a two-dimensional
strictly applicable only to cases where the flow through long length-scale manner (i.e., long compared to a
the compressor may be considered as radially uniform. blade pitch), in accord with the assumptions on which
While such purely two-dimensional flow dis- the analysis is based. The results for the compressors
turbance are not observed in practice, there are many sit- that showed two peaks will then be presented. These
uations in which the disturbances are predominantly compressors, which will be referred to as "bactrian", do
two-dimensional, and the usefulness of the theory has not appear to respond in a two-dimensional manner.
been born out in a number of cases. These include anal- Comments on the behavior of the two bactrian compres-
ysis of the non-linear evolution of small amplitude dis- sors will then be given, along with discussion of the
turbances into rotating stall [Gamier, 19911, predictions broader implications of this work.
of the existence of modal waves, MacDougall et al.
[ 1990], calculations of the effects of active control in ax-
ial compressors [Paduano et al., 1993; Haynes et al., 4.0 - EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY AND INSTRU-
1993] and design and demonstration of the suppression MENTATION
of rotating stall using aeromechanical feedback [Gys- The experimental measurements were made in
ling, 1993]. For compressors operating with inlet distor- the four-stage research compressor at the General Elec-
tion, the model shows overall trends with distortion pa- tric Aerodynamics Research Laboratory. A schematic
0.00
Rotating
^-- Distortion design rotor speed in either direction. The advantage of
Screen
a screen generated distortion, rather than one generated
by another compressor in rotating stall, is that it allows
independent control of the severity of the distortion, the
rotation direction and the speed.
The screen was located 1.5 radii upstream of
Compressor the IGVs, as shown in Fig. 1. This is far enough up-
Blading
stream so that there is negligible potential field interac-
tion between the distortion generator and the compres-
sor. The screen produced a roughly square—wave total
pressure distortion of 120° circumferential extent, with
Discharge
Throttle
amplitude corresponding to 1.2 dynamic heads based on
the mean inlet velocity. This total pressure non—unifor-
mity was chosen to be representative of realistic inlet
Figure 1. Low Speed Research Compressor showing distortion conditions (DC(60°)' -0.8) and to give a large
location of rotating distortion screen relative to blading.
change in the compressor stability margin for the case
Four different blade geometries were used, de- where the screen was stationary (based on calculations
noted as compressors A to D. They are low Mach num- using the model).
ber equivalents of current state—of—the—art aeroengine
compressor designs. The total—to—static pressure rise
4.2 — Instrumentation
characteristics measured for the four compressors when
operating with undistorted inlet conditions are shown in Time mean and fast response instrumentation
Fig. 2. Compressor C has a stage loading representative were used during the series of tests which spanned a four
of current commercial as well as military high—pressure year period. In all cases the overall pressure rise and
cores, while compressors A, B, and D, are targeted at mass flow were measured using the same time—mean
very aggressive stage loadings. instrumentation. The fast response instrumentation was
changed between experiments according to which flow
aspects were of concern. For the initial experiments
4.1 — Inlet Distortion Characteristics (which were in fact carried out on compressor D) the fast
For the distortion experiments the facility was response measuring probes (a circumferential array of 8
equipped with a drive mechanism that can rotate a wire equally spaced single element hot—film velocity sensors
mesh screen at speeds between zero and 100% of the at mid—span) were placed 0.7 radii upstream of the IGVs
T
- Catoiadon
ducers and as an array of sixteen. The sensors were
placed close to the first rotor in order to be able to detect
both long and short length-scale flowfield disturbances
0.60
T
uniform Inlet
0
Mi xr^,
0.56
Row Range Flow Range with
[Day, 1993a]. a Rotating Distortion
Co
W
Cat
4.3 - Data Analysis for Long Length scale Dis- 0.52 Flow Range
at
turbances (Modal Waves) at
Table 1: Overall mean flow and unsteady flow results for the four compressors
Compressor A B C D
Mean Flow
Flow range: uniform inlet 0.174 0.093 0.068 0.163
4>design 4sta11 uniform flow
-
Unsteady Flow
Screen speed of first peak 45% 55% 20% 30%
Screen speed of second peak - - 72% 70%
Spike propagation speed - - 70% -
III
Rotor Revolutions 0.5
0. PIcb,43
Figure 5. Inlet hot wire measurement of axial velocity in front of
compressor A during slow throttle dosing to stall showing modal U 0.5
type stall inception process. Uniform flow, eight wires equally
spaced around the circumference, 30% immersion, 02 chords
o 0. Pmbe#
! J I t
& 0.5
upstream of the first rotor.
0., Pb.11
! I r
o 15 0
Comps or B
2 4
1
6 8
r'
10
-
12 14 16 18
Rotor Revolutions
33% Modal Wave Figure 7. Inlet hot wire measurement of axial velocity in front of
compressor B during slow throttle dosing to stall showing modal
type stall inception process. Uniform flow, eight wires equally
m 10 spaced around the circumference, 30% immersion, 02 chords
o2 Slight Rotor
Asymmetry
upstream of the first rotor.
It t 15
CL
0 1 v - -
m 10
-2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00
Nondimensional Frequency (f/f PoloR)
o
Figure 6. Temporal spectrum of first spatial harmonic of hot
wire measurements for compressor A. Slow throttle dosing,
20 revolutions prior to stall. Uniform flow. Instrumentation as IS 5
In Figure 5.
the velocities recorded ahead of the first rotor. A mod- Nondimensional Frequency (f/fnoma)
al-wave type stall inception is seen with the fully devel- Figure 8. Temporal spectrum of first spatial harmonic of hot
oped stall cell propagating at 46% of rotor speed. The wire measurements for compressor B. Fixed throttle near to
lines of constant phase, calculated using spatial-tempo- stall. Uniform flow. Instrumentation as In Figure 7.
^5 q,40 4b%
53 — Velocity Distribution at the Compressor Compressor B
0.60 r Legend for Figs. 10 8,11 ception occurs in this case. The line marked on the
' 0 Design Point Flow Coefficient
• Stationary Distortion Shl Point
figure indicates that the propagation speed of the spike
• Uniform Flow suo Point is 70% of rotor speed. Within several revolutions
❑ EVe^rnent i Dam, 350 nxn
0.56
— ca^wmnw, around the compressor annulus the local spike evolves
Minimum Flow Range
with into a fully developed, full-span rotating stall that trav-
0.52
T T
Rotatlng Olatonlon els at 45% of rotor speed. Spatial-temporal analysis of
these eight casing pressure signals shows a broad band
Uniform Inlet I
Distortion response for the first spatial mode at 10% of the rotor
LL
0.48
i
Flow Range SAO g
F speed with amplitude AP/QUa p2=0.6x10-3 . This com-
00000 0\
0
0.34
10.301 .
-
• 0
J
Counte r Rotation Co-rotation U
026 ' fiS
-1.00 -0.50 0.00 0.50 1.00 m
Screen Rotation Rate (Fraction of Rotor Speed)
m
Figure 11. Flow coefficient at stall versus distortion rotation We for
compressor D; uniform flow stall point and design point are also shown. m
a
maximum loss of stability is calculated to occur in the
range of 40-60% of rotor speed. Rotor Revolutions
Figure 12. Wall static pressure measurements during slow
throttle dosing to stall showing spike type of stall inception
6.2 - Natural Stall Inception process. Uniform flow, eight equally spaced pressure
As a clue to the forced response behavior, we transducers, 0.2 chords upstream of the first rotor.
now describe the natural (unforced) stall inception pro-
cess for compressor C. This has been determined by Sil- 63- Summary of the Different Measured and Cal-
kowski [1992] as part of a detailed investigation of un- culated Propagation Speeds
steady flow behavior in multistage compressors. As a Table 1 shows a comparison of the mean flow
representative data set, static pressure measurements re- coefficients at design and at stall points and the different
corded at the casing just ahead of the first rotor are re- disturbance propagation and screen speeds. For the two
produced in Fig. 12. The spike-type process of stall in- compressors just described the first peak does not coin-
lull
tion speed. Chue, R., Hynes, T.P., Greitzer, E.M., Tan, C.S. and
(3) Compressors that exhibit a spike type stall Longley, J.P., "Calculations of Inlet Distortion Induced Com-
inception process have a second characteris- pressor Flowfield Instability", Int. J. Heat and Fluid Flow,
tic disturbance speed at which there is a stall Vol. 10, No. 3, Sept. 1989.
Day, I.J., "Stall Inception in Axial Flow Compressors",
margin degradation. The speed corresponds ASME Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol. 115, No. 1, January
closely with the spike propagation rate. The 1993a, pp. 1-9.
11
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