The onset of rotating stall has been delayed in a low speed, single-stage, axial research compressor using active feedback control. Control was implemented using a circumferential array of hot wires to sense rotating waves of axial velocity upstream of the compressor. Circumferentially travelling waves were then generated with appropriate phase and amplitude by “wiggling” inlet guide vanes driven by individual actuators. The control scheme considered the wave pattern in terms of the individual spatial Fourier components. A simple proportional control law was implemented for each harmonic. Control of the first spatial harmonic yielded an 11% decrease in the stalling mass flow, while control of the first and second harmonics together reduced the stalling mass flow by 20%. The control system was also used to measure die sine wave response of the compressor, which behaved as would be expected for a second order system.
In multispool engines, rotating stall in an upstream compressor will impose a rotating distortion on the downstream compressor, thereby affecting its stability margin. In this paper experiments are described in which this effect was simulated by a rotating screen upstream of several multistage low-speed compressors. The measurements are complemented by, and compared with, a theoretical model of multistage compressor response to speed and direction of rotation of an inlet distortion. For corotating distortions (i.e., distortions rotating in the same direction as rotor rotation), experiments show that the compressors exhibited significant loss in stability margin and that they could be divided into two groups according to their response. The first group exhibited a single peak in stall margin degradation when the distortion speed corresponded to roughly 50 percent of rotor speed. The second group showed two peaks in stall margin degradation corresponding to distortion speeds of approximately 25–35 percent and 70–75 percent of rotor speed. These new results demonstrate that multistage compressors can have more than a single resonant response. Detailed measurements suggest that the two types of behavior are linked to differences between the stall inception processes observed for the two groups of compressors and that a direct connection thus exists between the observed forced response and the unsteady flow phenomena at stall onset. For counterrotational distortions, all the compressors tested showed minimal loss of stability margin. The results imply that counterrotation of the fan and core compressor, or LP and HP compressors, could be a worthwhile design choice. Calculations based on the two-dimensional theoretical model show excellent agreement for the compressors, which had a single peak for stall margin degradation. We take this first-of-a-kind comparison as showing that the model, though simplified, captures the essential fluid dynamic features of the phenomena. Agreement is not good for compressors that had two peaks in the curve of stall margin shift versus distortion rotation speed. The discrepancy is attributed to the three-dimensional and short length scale nature of the stall inception process in these machines; this includes phenomena that have not yet been addressed in any model.
This paper presents a review of the different approaches to modeling the nonsteady fluid dynamics associated with two-dimensional compressor flow fields. These models are used to predict the time development of flow field disturbances and have been found useful in both the study of rotating stall and the development of active control. The opportunity to digest the earlier investigations has now made it possible to express the modeling ideas using only a very simple mathematical treatment. Here, the emphasis is on the underlying physical processes that the models simulate and how the assumptions within the models affect predictions. The purpose of this work is to produce, in a single document, a description of compressor modeling techniques, so that prospective users can assess which model is the most suitable for their application.
The onset of rotating stall has been delayed in a low-speed, single-stage, axial research compressor using active feedback control. Control was implemented using a circumferential array of hot wires to sense propagating waves of axial velocity upstream of the compressor. Using this information, additional circumferentially traveling waves were then generated with appropriate phase and amplitude by “wiggling” inlet guide vanes driven by individual actuators. The control scheme considered the wave pattern in terms of the individual spatial Fourier components. A simple proportional control law was implemented for each harmonic. Control of the first spatial harmonic yielded an 11 percent decrease in the stalling mass flow, while control of the first, second, and third harmonics together reduced the stalling mass flow by 23 percent. The control system was also used to measure the sine wave response of the compressor, which exhibited behavior similar to that of a second-order system.
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