Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2017), 30(3): 898–906

Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics

& Beihang University
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cja@buaa.edu.cn
www.sciencedirect.com

A high-order model of rotating stall in axial

compressors with inlet distortion
Peng LIN a, Cong WANG a,*, Yong WANG b

a
School of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
b
Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Received 13 April 2016; revised 9 October 2016; accepted 12 January 2017

Available online 8 May 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract In this paper, a high-order distortion model is proposed for analyzing the rotating stall
Axial compressors; inception process induced by inlet distortion in axial compressors. A distortion-generating screen in
Dynamic modeling; the compressor inlet is considered. By assuming a quadratic function for the local flow total
Flow instability; pressure-drop, the existing Mansoux model is extended to include the effects of static inlet distor-
Inlet distortion; tion, and a new high-order distortion model is derived. To illustrate the effectiveness of the distor-
Rotating stall; tion model, numerical simulations are performed on an eighteenth-order model. It is demonstrated
Stall inception that long length-scale disturbances emerge out of the distorted background flow, and further induce
the onset of rotating stall in advance. In addition, the circumferential non-uniform distribution and
time evolution of the axial flow are also shown to be consistent with the existing features. It is thus
shown that the high-order distortion model is capable of describing the transient behavior of stall
inception and will contribute further to stall detection under inlet distortion.
Ó 2017 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction behavior under inlet distortion is necessary to avoid the occur-

Inlet distortion often happens in aeroengines and has a signif-
icant impact on aeroengine compressor performance. Nor-
mally resulting from separation of the lip or inlet, side gusts,
hot gas ingestion, etc., inlet distortion can trigger an entire
compression system’s instability known as surge and rotating
stall. Therefore, accurate prediction of a system’s dynamic
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wangcong@scut.edu.cn (C. WANG).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Committee of CJA.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
rence of instability.
There has been a substantial effort to describe the effects on
stability margin of axial compressors due to inlet flow nonuni-
formity, and further to develop prediction methods for assess-
ing the effects associated with inlet distortion.1–6 Based on the
celebrated Moore-Greitzer model,7 Hynes and Greitzer3 devel-
oped a nonlinear method to assess circumferential inlet distor-
tion’s effects on the stability of incompressible flow
compressors, and the method was also shown to work well
for a low-speed compressor with rotating inlet distortion.5
The Hynes-Greitzer model predicted that small-amplitude
waves would travel around the annulus, and the waves were
not purely sinusoidal but changed shape as they propagated
around the annulus. Longley8 preformed distortion flow exper-
iments and observed the predicted circumferential variation in

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2017.03.014
1000-9361 Ó 2017 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
A high-order model of rotating stall
a magnitude of the propagation disturbances. A heightened
interest in stall inception was aroused with the attempts to
understand the physical mechanisms of rotating stall, and fur-
ther to extend the compressor operating range.9–13 Lin and
Chen14 presented a model for static circumferential total pres-
sure distortion and investigated the stall triggering mechanism
of distortion-induced instability of axial compression systems.
Furthermore, Lin et al.15 made an experimental study of rotat-
ing stall on a three-stage low-speed axial compressor under
inlet distortion. They concluded a long-to-short length-scale
disturbance evolution before fully developed stall. Salunkhe
and Pradeep16 extended the Moore-Greitzer model to incorpo-
rate the effects of static inlet distortion and tip injection on
axial compressor performance. Theoretical results showed that
the compressor performance deteriorated under the influence
of static inflow distortion.
It is noticed that these works mentioned above were mainly
based on the Moore-Greitzer model which cannot describe the
occurrence of high-order stall modes. In a unified framework,
rotating stall and surge can be viewed as eigenmodes of com-
pression systems, with surge constituting the zeroth-order
mode and rotating stall representing the higher-order modes.17
Numerical analyses have exhibited that the severity of stall
hysteresis increases with the order of modes.18 Therefore, the
truncation of high-order harmonics in the disturbance flow
can be a feasible way to improve the modeling accuracy.
e.g., Mansoux et al.19 derived a high-order discrete model
(Mansoux model) through transforming the Moore-Greitzer
model into an ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of
order 2N + 1, where N is the number of pairs of stall modes.
The Mansoux model could describe the transient behavior of
stall inception and coincide well with experimental results
within a certain precision. Based on the Mansoux model,
Wang et al.20,21 proposed a deterministic learning algorithm
for modeling and rapid detection of system dynamics corre-
sponding to stall inception, and carried out on a low-speed
axial flow compressor test rig at Beihang University for online
experimental verification. They concluded that the proposed
approach could detect the stall inception signal of a compres-
sor 0.3–1.0 s in advance to the onset of rotating stall at differ-
ent speeds.
Motivated by these studies, we attempt to provide a high-
order distortion model for analyzing the rotating stall incep-
tion process induced by circumferential total pressure distor-
tion in low-speed axial compressors. A difficult problem in
modeling of inlet distortion is how to describe a distortion
quantitatively.22 The distortion intensity varies over the flow
as the inlet dynamic pressure varies. Although square-wave
functions are used to describe pressure rise across a distor-
tion screen, the selection of a unified expression is not given
since it depends on the geometric characteristics of axial
compressors. Another important problem is how to describe
the fluid dynamic interaction between a compressor and a
distortion screen.17 In the presence of circumferential non-
uniform inlet flow, the steady compressor characteristic is a
function of the circumferential variable h, and the coupling
between the compressor and inlet distortion plays a role in
the linearized behavior of the flow field perturbations.3 It is
necessary to provide a quantitative function to describe the
coupling.
In this paper, we present a high-order distortion model for
rotating stall in a low-speed axial compressor with circumfer-
899
ential total pressure distortion. The circumferential total pres-
sure distortion generated by a static screen can be viewed as a
part of the compressor. A new steady compressor characteris-
tic under inlet distortion is constructed to describe the coupling
between the compressor and the distortion screen, and then
dominates the compression system dynamics. The high-order
distortion model in a real-valued state-space form is derived
based on a generalized 2N + 1 harmonics expansion of the
perturbation flow and a spatial discretization in the circumfer-
ential angle h. Considering the high-order stall modes, the
wave propagating around the compressor annulus has a rich
harmonic structure for a compression system with inlet distor-
tion, and then the high-order distortion model can more accu-
rately depict the dynamics of rotating stall, especially the
transient behavior of stall inception.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2,
we present basic assumptions and concepts about compression
system modeling for low-speed axial compressors. The main
results are given in Section 3, including derivation of the
high-order distortion model with circumferential total pressure
distortion. Section 4 demonstrates the simulation results. In
Section 5, we give the conclusions of this paper.
2. Preliminaries
In this section, a brief review of two generally recognized stall
inception types is presented, and relevant fundamental model-
ing assumptions are given. Detailed discussions on these two
aspects can be obtained in Refs. 23,24.
2.1. Stall inception
The objective of the high-order distortion model is to describe
the transient process of rotating stall, especially stall inception.
Thus, it is useful to summarize the stall inception phenomena
that occur in low-speed axial compressors.
The time history in Fig. 1, which results from simulation in
the case of uniform inflow, serves to illustrate the terminology
for different time periods in a typical transient into rotating
stall or surge. The process is consistent with the description
in Ref. 24. Stall inception is of interest because two important
criteria are fulfilled during this transition process19: (1) rela-
tively small axial flow perturbations, and (2) strong influence
Fig. 1 Phenomenology of rotating stall and surge.
900
of nonlinearities. It was found that there were two routes of
stall inception, namely, modal waves and spikes.9 The former
are long length-scale disturbances with circumferential extents
that are an order of magnitude or higher than a blade passage.
On the contrary, the latter are short length-scale disturbances
with extents of one to several blade passages. Some compres-
sors have been found to exhibit both types of unsteady distur-
bances. Even in these circumstances, in any particular
configuration, one can still point to one or the other (modal
waves or spikes) as being the dominant phenomenon in the
process of transition to rotating stall.
2.2. Compression system under inlet distortion
In experiments, a compressor test with inlet distortion is carried
out using screens which block part of the annulus. Two cases of
distortion screen distribution have been discussed,3,14,15,24 one
of which is at far upstream from the compressor and the other
one is at the compressor inlet. In either case, the unsteady per-
turbations upstream from the compressor will be a potential
type. That is, analyzing one of the two cases is suitable for
potential perturbations. Therefore, the main considered total
pressure distortion is created by a screen placed at the compres-
sor inlet. Specifically, a lumped parameter compression system
representation is given in Fig. 2, which consists of an upstream
annular duct, a sector distortion screen, a compressor, a down-
stream annular duct, a plenum (representing the combustor
volume in an engine), and a throttle. The compressor is mod-
eled as a high solidity semi-actuator disk with a high enough
hub tip radius ratio so that the flow field can be counted as
two-dimensional; the flow in the upstream duct is considered
non-rotational, and the flow in the downstream duct is rota-
tional but linearized; distortion is created by a screen placed
at the compressor inlet; a plenum exists downstream from the
compressor; the throttle duct is assumed to be very short.
The general approach of modeling compressor flow field
dynamics is to take the steady-state axisymmetric performance
characteristics of individual components and to include addi-
tional terms to represent the nonaxisymmetric and unsteady
flow effects.7 The state of the high-order distortion model
under unsteady, possible nonaxisymmetric conditions is char-
acterized by two terms: the non-dimensional plenum pressure
pp and the spatially distributed flow coefficient, denoted as
/ : /ðg; h; nÞ
where g is the non-dimensional axial position in the compres-
sor, non-dimensionalized by the mean rotor radius R (g ¼ 0 at
the compressor face); h is the circumferential angle around the
Fig. 2 Lumped parameter compression system.
P. LIN et al.
compressor annulus; and n is the non-dimensional time vari-
able (in rotor revolutions).
3. High-order distortion model
Modeling of inlet distortion is usually based on the models for
rotating stall. Mansoux et al.19 and Paduano et al.24,25 pro-
vided finite-dimensional state-space models for rotating stall,
which will be used as a basic framework for the analysis of
inlet distortion in this section. For the research of inlet distor-
tion, Hynes and Greitzer3 discussed two circumferential non-
uniform flow distribution cases and provided a function to
describe the pressure rise across the distortion screen. Padu-
ano24 further derived a distortion model based on the pro-
posed state-space model. The distortion model was applied
to study the effect of distortion on the compressor stability
and represented in a complex-valued state-space form.
In this section, based on existing models, an external force
from the distortion screen is introduced and the upstream duct
flow field model is reconstructed firstly. Then, a distortion
model for rotating stall is presented by using the general
Galerkin projection and a spatial discretization method. In
addition, the distortion model is in the form of real-valued
state-space, which can also be used for control and simulation
research.
3.1. Model of distortion screen
A quadratic function of the local flow is selected for a quanti-
tative description of the pressure loss when the flow passes
across a distortion screen. The model of the distortion screen
is determined by a screen loss function ptscreen :
1
ptscreen ¼  KS ðhÞ/2 ð1Þ
2
pt1
where ptscreen ¼ pt2qU2 is the non-dimensional total pressure-
drop pt2  pt1 across the distortion screen, q is the den-
sity of the atmosphere, KS ðhÞ is a specified local screen loss
parameter. Commonly, KS ðhÞ is a square-wave with a finite
value over part of the annulus and zero over the rest.
/ ¼ Cg =U, in which Cg is the axial velocity and U is the mean
rotor speed. The pressures in the following analysis are non-
dimensionalized by qU2 .
A similar form of Eq. (1) is specified when a distortion is
generated by a screen placed at the compressor inlet.3,14,16
The unsteady correction to the total pressure-drop across the
distortion screen is neglected because the length from the
screen to the first rotor is short when compared to other char-
acteristic lengths in the system. The use of a nonlinear screen
loss function has two main purposes: one is for a quantitative
description of the circumferential total pressure distortion and
the other is for an introduction of the non-uniform flow in a
nonlinear manner. Different forms have also been proposed,24
in which the pressure rise is a quadratic function of the circum-
ferential average flow which is a constant but nonlinear.
3.2. Model of upstream duct
In the upstream region, the flow field is treated as linear, even
when the flow in the compressor itself exhibits large
perturbations.24 The incompressible and non-rotational
A high-order model of rotating stall 901

assumption on the flow field implies the existence of a potential previously derived25 and suitable for the problem of inlet
flow H satisfying Laplace’s equation r2 H ¼ 0, and the solu- distortion. Combining Eq. (5) and the other component
tion is given as: models of the compression system, a set of ordinary differ-
X ential equations for all spatial modes is integrated in terms
H¼ an ðnÞ cosðnhÞ þ b~n ðnÞ sinðnhÞÞejnjg þ a~0 ðnÞg
ð~ of the real-value Fourier coefficients of the flow variable
n–0
as follows:
þ b~0 ðnÞ ð2Þ 8
>
> p_ p ¼ 1 2 ð/  UT ðpp ÞÞ
where H is the non-dimensional potential flow, whose axial >
> 4lc B
>
>
>
>
and circumferential partials are axial and circumferential flow > _
< lc / ¼ pcnew  pp
coefficients, such as / ¼ @H=@g. a~n ðnÞ and b~n ðnÞ are the real   ð6Þ
> 2 þ l /_ ¼ nk/ þ 1 R 2p p
>
and imaginary parts of complex Fourier coefficients of the >
> jnj rn p cosðnhÞdh
>
>
rn 0 cnew
potential flow, respectively. The final two terms of Eq. (2) rep- >
>   R 2p
>
resent the 0th harmonic (spatial mean part of the flow : 2
jnj
þ l /_ in ¼ nk/in þ p 0 pcnew sinðnhÞdh
1
perturbations).
As / ¼ @H=@g, the flow coefficient has a similar form: where pcnew ¼ pc þ ptscreen is the screen inlet total pressure to
X compressor exit static pressure rise which is viewed as a com-
/¼/þ ~ rn ðnÞ cosðnhÞ þ /
ð/ ~ in ðnÞ sinðnhÞÞejnjg ð3Þ pressor characteristic function under inlet distortion at a local
n–0
value of /; k is the non-dimensional inertia parameter for the
where / ~ in correspond to the real and imaginary parts
~ rn and / fluid in the rotating blade passages; l represents the overall
of complex Fourier coefficients of the disturbance flow, respec- inertia of the rotor plus stator blade passages; lc is the non-
~ rn ¼ jnj~
tively. In addition, / ¼ a~0 , / ~ in ¼ jnjb~n .
an , and / dimensional overall effective length of compressor ducting;
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
The flow variable is represented as a Fourier series with UT ðpp Þ ¼ 2pp =KT is the throttle characteristic; KT is the
respect to the circumferential variable h. A slightly non- exhaust characteristic parameter which depends on the degree
standard transform, which is equivalent to the standard for- of throttle closure and B is Greitzer’s stability parameter. The
mula as long as the complex Fourier coefficients are real, is other component models and integration procedures for all
adopted.25 spatial modes were described in detail in the Ref. 23.
Then, by superimposing the distortion on the upstream The new non-dimensional pressure rise pcnew includes the
flow field, the axial momentum equation is written as an pressure difference associated with the distortion screen com-
unsteady Bernoulli-type equation24: ponent. That is, the integrative result shows that the distortion
@H screen can be combined with the compressor as a whole. The
 ptscreen þ pt ¼ c ð4Þ
@n interaction between the compressor and the distortion screen
can be described by the new non-dimensional pressure rise
where c represents a constant and is evaluated far upstream pcnew in our model. Greitzer’s stability ‘B’ plays an important
from the compressor to obtain zero. The initial conditions of role in determining the system stability.17 For small values of
Eq. (4) are that the non-dimensional total pressure pt and the parameter, e.g., B ¼ 0:1, the general trend of the compres-
ptscreen are approximately zero at g ¼ lu (lu is the length of sion system will operate in the characteristic of pure rotating
ducting upstream from the compressor). stall.
The total pressure at the compressor face is obtained by Then, Eq. (6) is transformed into a finite-dimensional state-
putting Eqs. (2) and (3) into Eq. (4), yielding space form. The high-order distortion model can be obtained
X 1 _
pt jg¼0 ¼  ~_ in sinðnhÞÞ þ p
~ rn cosðnhÞ þ /
ð/ _ ð5Þ by performing the following steps:
tscreen  lu /
n–0
jnj
(1) A high-order harmonic Galerkin expansion of the dis-
where / is the annulus-averaged axial flow coefficient. Pertur- turbance flow, which is used to provide high-order stall
bations that grow far upstream (elu jnj term) are not consid- modes and reduce the infinite dimensional system to a
ered, because the distance between the compressor and the finite dimensional system of ODEs.
upstream location is sufficiently long in experiments. (2) A spatial discretization in the circumferential variable h
Compared with the case of uniform inlet flow, there is an is adopted accordingly. That is, hk ¼ 2N2kp
additional term ptscreen in Eq. (4), which can be considered as þ 1,
ðk ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; 2N þ 1Þ, in which 2N + 1 points are
an external force if the local flow remains unchanged. How-
equally spaced around the annulus to describe the flow
ever, the view of distortion as an external force is not strictly
coefficient /.
1 R 2p p
correct during large oscillations of the local flow in an experi-
mental scenario. In this paper, the coupling relationship (3) The integral term p 0 cnew sinðnhÞdh can be repre-
between the distortion and system dynamics is used as well sented by the Riemann sum approximation
as verified in the following derivation. X
2 2Nþ1
p sinðnhk Þ:
3.3. System model 2N þ 1 k¼1 cnew

In Sections 3.1 and 3.2, the dynamic models for the distor- Then, the final form of the flow at the compressor face is
tion screen and the upstream duct are restructured. The obtained as:
other component models of the compression system were
902 P. LIN et al.

X
N and
/ðhk Þ ¼ / þ ~ rn ðnÞ cosðnhk Þ þ /
ð/ ~ in ðnÞ sinðnhk ÞÞejnjg ð7Þ 2 pffiffiffi 3
n¼1 2
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi6 7
where N is the number of pairs of stall modes, and the value of 2N þ 16 6
1 7
7
G0 ¼ 6 .. 7
N is a power of 2 which can replace the Fourier transforms in 2 4 5
.
Eq. (7) with Fourier coefficient matrices.
Eq. (6) yields an overall system of 2N + 2 equations, that 1
is, then, G ¼ GT G0 , DB ¼ G10 G, and T ¼ G1 G0 T ¼
8
< DE /_ ¼ DA / þ DB pcnew  Tpp
T
½ 1; 1; . . . ; 1  .
  ð8Þ Thus, Eq. (8) can be rewritten as:
: p_ p ¼ 1 2 /  UT ðpp Þ 8
4lc B < E/_ ¼ A/ þ pcnew ð/Þ  Tpp
where ð9Þ
: p_ p ¼ 1 2 ðS/  UT ðpp ÞÞ
2 3 4lc B
0
 
6 0 k 7 where / ¼ ½/1 ; /2 ; . . . ; /M T ; M ¼ 2N þ 1 is the flow coeffi-
6 7
6 k 0 7 cient spaced around the annulus, in which /i ¼ /hi and
6 7
DA ¼ 6
6 ..
7;
7
6 7 hi ¼ 2N2pi þ 1; pp is the non-dimensional plenum pressure; the
6 .  7
4 0 Nk 5 specific forms of matrices E ¼ G1 DE G and A ¼ G1 DA G;
Nk 0 the vectors S ¼ ½ 1=M; 1=M; . . . ; 1=M . For simplicity,
2 3 Eq. (9) is called high-order distortion model.
lc
6 7 Lin et al.14,15 presented a distortion model in the form of par-
6 2=1 þ l 7 tial differential equation (PDE) and the equations were solved
6 7
6 2=1 þ l 7 numerically by using a pseudo-spectral method. Different from
6 7
DE ¼ 6 .. 7; their distortion model14,15, the distortion model given in our
6 . 7
6 7 paper is in a high-order state-space form in which the rotating
6 7
4 2=N þ l 5 stall dynamics with N pairs of stall modes corresponding to N
2=N þ l harmonics of spatial Fourier series for the local flow are taken
into account. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the
2 3
1=2 1=2 ... 1=2 1=2 first high-order distortion model for describing the stall incep-
6 cos h cos h2  cos h2N cos h2Nþ1 7 tion process in axial compressors with inlet distortion.Com-
6 1 7
6 7
2 6 sin h1 sin h2 ... sin h2N sin h2Nþ1 7 pared with models presented in previous works,3,14 the model
6 7
DB ¼ 6 .. .. .. .. 7; given in this paper possesses the following three features:
2N þ 1 6 . . . . 7
6 7 (1) The state space representation form of the distortion
6 7
4 cosðNh1 Þ cosðNh2 Þ ... cosðNh2N Þ cosðNh2Nþ1 Þ 5 model makes it convenient for active control design as
sinðNh1 Þ sinðNh2 Þ ... sinðNh2N Þ sinðNh2Nþ1 Þ well as the solving of Eq. (9) without using a pseudo-

T spectral method.
/ ¼ /; /r1 ; /i1 ;    ; /rn ; /in , and T ¼ ½ 1; 0; 0; (2) High-order harmonics are included in the disturbance
   ; 0; 0T . flow, making the nonlinear stall inception behavior
Simplifying Eq. (8) by a state transition G : / ! /, the being adequately described.
same independent variable equations are obtained. The state (3) Eq. (6) is accurately represented so that the situation
transition matrix is shown as follows: when N approaching infinity is recovered.
2 3
1 1 ... 1 1
6 cos h1 cos h2 ... cos h2N cos h2Nþ1 7 4. Simulation
6 7
6 7
6 sin h1 sin h2 ... sin h2N sin h2Nþ1 7
6 7
G ¼6
T
.. .. .. .. 7 To illustrate the effectiveness of our distortion model, simula-
6 . . . . 7
6 7 tions are performed on an eighteenth-order model, which in
6 7
4 cosðNh1 Þ cosðNh2 Þ . . . cosðNh2N Þ cosðNh2Nþ1 Þ 5 experiments would correspond to seventeen probes evenly
sinðNh1 Þ sinðNh2 Þ ... sinðNh2N Þ sinðNh2Nþ1 Þ placed around the circumference in front of a compressor as
shown in Fig. 3, with seventeen probes distributed around
If the circumference in front of a compressor. As is approximate
pffiffiffi
2 pffiffiffi pffiffiffi pffiffiffi 3 to 21.18° in each portion, we take N ¼ 8; M ¼ 17 as a case of
1= 2 1= 2  1= 2 1= 2 Eq. (9).
6 cos h cos h2  cos h2N cos h2Nþ1 7
6 1 7 Two distortion scenarios are given: one with a 42.35° dis-
6 7
2 6 6 sin h sin h2  sin h2N sin h2Nþ1 7 tortion screen placed at the region starting from Probe 5 and
1 7
G¼ 6 . .. .. .. 7 ending at Probe 7, and the other with two 21.18° distortion
2N þ 1 6 .. . . . 7
6 7
6 7 screens placed at Probes 1 and 11 respectively. To simplify,
4 cosðNh1 Þ cosðNh2 Þ . . . cosðNh2N Þ cosðNh2Nþ1 Þ 5 the two cases of distortion scenarios are named as Case 1
sinðNh1 Þ sinðNh2 Þ    sinðNh2N Þ sinðNh2Nþ1 Þ and Case 2, respectively. The process of rotating stall is simu-
lated through continuous adjustment of the exhaust character-
A high-order model of rotating stall
Fig. 3 Diagrammatic sketch of probe layout.
istic parameter KT from 7 to 9.41. Details on the two cases are
discussed in the following sections.
4.1. Distortion model parameters
The input parameters required are the basic geometry of the
compression system and the compressor’s performance charac-
teristic under inlet distortion. The parameters in the model are
chosen on the basis of the Mansoux-C2 compressor geome-
try.19 Table 1 lists the dimensionless geometrical parameters
of the Mansoux-C2 compressor. Greitzer’s stability parameter
‘B’ is set to be 0.1 in our simulations. Ideally, the inertia
parameter k, which is purely a geometrical quantity, should
be modified by a multiplicative constant to allow for the fluid
in the inter blade row gaps and for unsteady viscous effects.7,8
Herein, a geometrical quantity is chosen for the sake of
simplicity.
The axisymmetric characteristic without inlet distortion is
given as follows:
8 sectors are wider than the angles covered by the distortion
>
< 12:117/  2:423/ þ 0:221
2
/ 6 0:1
pc ð/Þ ¼ 49:642/3 þ 39:509/2  6:413/ þ 0:395 0:1 < / 6 0:4
>
:
10:0695/2 þ 9:430/  1:184 / > 0:4
Since the function /ðhÞ is unknown, the steady compressor
characteristic pcnew ð/Þ is an unknown function of the circum-
ferential variable h. In simulations, the loss coefficient KS ðhÞ
for the distortion screen is specified with a square sector and
fixed at 1.6. A particular value of pcnew ð/Þ can be determined
by numerical calculation in Case 1. Fig. 4 shows the curves
of the axisymmetric compressor characteristic pc ð/Þ and a par-
ticular pcnew ð/ðh5 ÞÞ (abbreviated as pcnew ð5Þ). It is noticed that
the compressor pressure rise has an apparent decline due to
inlet distortion at the same flow. The result shows that inlet
distortion has a remarkable effect on the compressor
performance.
Table 1 Values of dimensionless parameters.
Input parameter Value
m 1.29
lc 0.66
U(m/s) 36
R(m) 0.686
k 0.68
B 0.1
903
Fig. 4 Clean and distorted flow compressor characteristics.
4.2. Stall characteristics induced by distortion inflow
The circumferential non-uniform distributions of the axial flow
in a steady inlet distortion condition are shown in Fig. 5. The
results demonstrate that the important feature about the total
pressure non-uniformity is caught indirectly. The total pres-
sure distortion produces a corresponding distortion inflow in
front of the compressor. In Fig. 5(a), the flow coefficient grad-
ually decreases from the distorted Probe 5 until the undistorted
Probe 8 due to the nonlinear distortion loss function ptscreen .
The decrease at the undistorted Probe 8 demonstrates that
the distorted sectors are wider than the angles covered by the
distortion screen due to the effect of the rotor. Similar results
have been obtained by theoretical and experimental meth-
ods.14,15 In Fig. 5(b), the flow coefficient gradually decrease
from the distorted Probes 1 and 11 until the undistorted
Probes 3 and 13. The result also indicates that the distorted
screens.
Fig. 6 shows the partial state trajectories in the time
domain. The developments of stall inception are obviously dif-
ferent between distorted (such as Probe 5) and undistorted sec-
tors (such as Probe 9). Compared with the initial disturbances
at undistorted sectors, the initial disturbances at distorted sec-
tors are much smaller. From the trajectory of the flow coeffi-
cient, it can be concluded that the stall inception process
initiates with long length-scale disturbances. For instance,
the initial disturbance from the signal of Probe 5 stretches
from 198.6 to 206.5 rotor revolution which is approximately
7.9 times to that of the annulus. Moreover, as the occurrence
of rotating stall, the plenum pressure significantly drops. This
result demonstrates that the performance of the compression
system decreases significantly due to inlet distortion and also
verifies the accuracy of the distortion model. The onset of stall
in Case 2 is estimated at about 577 rotor revolution while at
about 200 rotor revolution in Case 1. Compared with Case 2
(keeping the total distorted sector angle constant), Case 1
(splitting the total distorted sector angle into two segments)
induces the stall in advance, that is, splitting the total distorted
sector angle into two segments has a smaller effect on the com-
pressor stability than keeping the total distorted sector angle
constant. This result agrees well with Reid’s experiment
results.1
To further explain the influence of inlet distortion, signals
from all probes are placed side-by-side in both cases, as shown
904
Fig. 5 Flow coefficient versus circumferential position at compressor inlet.
Fig. 6 Time evolution of three of states.
in Fig. 7. The flow coefficient from Probe 1 is placed at both
the bottom and top to represent the cyclic placement of the
probes. In Fig. 7(a),symbol # denotes virtual probe, the initial
disturbances take place in the region starting from Probe 5 and
ending at Probe 8, and then the disturbances become a mature
form at Probe 9. In Fig. 7(b), the initial disturbances take place
in the region starting from Probe 1 and ending at Probe 5 with
disturbances in a mature form at Probe 6. These results show
that the initial disturbances emerge out of the distorted back-
ground flow and travel around the compressor annulus in the
direction of rotor rotation. Intuitively, from the flow physics
point of view, the distorted sectors represent higher aerody-
namic loads to the rotor blade, so these sectors with higher
loads naturally become the sources of disturbances.15 More-
over, the results also provide guidance for stall detection.
For instance, the first probe able to detect significant stall dis-
turbances should be Probe 9, but not Probe 5 as in Case 1.
By contrasting, Fig. 7(c) shows time evolution of simulated
stall inception for the compressor with a clean inflow condi-
tion. It can be found that the onset of rotating stall with inlet
distortion is earlier than the case relative to the clean flow con-
dition. It is demonstrated that the distortion screen can trigger
initial disturbances that lead to the development of rotating
stall. Although the initial disturbances under distorted and
clean inflows conditions are long length-scale, the time evolu-
P. LIN et al.
tions of stall inception are significantly different in shape and
length-scale. As the time evolution of stall inception under
inlet distortion is short, there will be an increase of difficulty
in stall detection.
Compared with existing simulation results,3,14 our simula-
tion results can clearly reveal the size, shape, and structure
of the stall inception process. The flow disturbance which
grows into the stall cell appears from the distorted background
flow, and further induces the onset of rotating stall in advance.
In addition, the performance of the compression system
decreases significantly due to inlet distortion.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, we have made a theoretical study to demonstrate
the effect of circumferential inflow distortion on the dynamic
of rotating stall in low-speed axial compressors. The derived
high-order distortion model not only captures the essential
fluid dynamic features of rotating stall, but also depicts the
developments of initial disturbances induced by inlet distor-
tion. The following conclusions can be drawn from the simula-
tions: (1) the distorted sectors are wider than the angles
covered by distortion screens; (2) long length-scale initial dis-
turbances emerge out of the distorted background flow and
propagate in the direction of rotor rotation; (3) the total
A high-order model of rotating stall
Fig. 7 Time evolution of simulated stall inception.
distorted sector angle being split into two segments has a sig-
nificantly smaller effect on the compressor stability; (4) inlet
distortion triggers the initial disturbances and induces the
occurrence of rotating stall in advance. Based on simulation
results, the high-order distortion model can describe the tran-
sient behavior of stall inception and provide a theoretical foun-
dation for further research on stall detection. In addition, more
distortion scenarios and experimental investigations will be
undertaken to assess the validity of the high-order distortion
model in our future research.
905
Acknowledgements
This study was co-supported by the National Major Scientific
Instruments Development Project of China (No. 61527811),
the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars
of China (No. 61225014), the Guangdong Inovative Project
(No. 2013KJCX0009), the Guangdong Provice Natural
Science Foundation (No. 2014A030312005), the Guangdong
Provice Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, and the
Space Intelligent Control Key Laboratory of Science and
Technology for National Defense.
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