The aerodynamic stability of aero engine compressors must be assured by active control systems in all operating conditions when the design surge margin is reduced in order to improve efficiency. While this has been investigated only on compressor rigs and single-spool engines in the past, this study focuses on the active control of the LARZAC 04 twin-spool turbofan. The objective is to demonstrate potential benefits, problems and solutions and also to provide a data base for numerical modeling and simulation of the capabilities of active control. Three different control strategies have been employed each of which refers to a specific operating condition and instability inception of the engine: The attenuation of disturbances travelling at rotor speed by modulated air injection into the LPC in the high speed range, the recovery of fully developed LPC stall at low speeds with a minimized amount of air and finally a constant air recirculation (HPC exit to LPC inlet) for stabilizing the compression system at different speeds based on the monitoring of a stability parameter. The injector is mounted upstream of the LPC and has ten circumferentially distributed nozzles for air injection into the tip region of the first rotor. The injected air which is either taken from an external source or from bleed air ports at the HPC exit is controlled by high-bandwidth direct-drive-valves. Disturbances travelling at rotor speed can be detected and attenuated with modulated air injection leading to a delay of stall onset. Fully developed rotating stall in the LPC was eliminated by asymmetric injection based on modal control strategies with less air than needed with constant air injection. By using online-stability-monitoring it is possible to initiate constant air recirculation when approaching the surge line, though the current design of the injector does not allow for large extension of the operating range for all spool speeds.
Modern engine operation is guided by the aim to broaden the operating range and to increase the stage loading allowing the stage count to be reduced. This is possible by active stability control measures to extend the available stable operating range. Different strategies of an active control system, such as air injection and air recirculation have been applied. While in the past results have been published mainly regarding the stability enhancement of compressor rigs or single-spool engines, this experimental study focuses on both the stability as well as the operating range extension of a twin-spool turbofan engine as an example of a real engine application on an aircraft. The objective of this investigation is the analysis of the engine behavior with active stabilization compared to unsupported operation. For this purpose, high-frequency pressure signals are used and analyzed to investigate the effects of air injection with respect to the instability onset progress and the development of any instabilities, such as rotating stall and surge in the low-pressure compression (LPC) system. These Kulite signals are fed to a control system. Its amplified output signals control fast acting direct-drive valves circumferentially distributed ahead of the LPC. For the application of air injection described in the paper, the air is delivered by an external source. The control system responsible for air injection is a real-time system which directly reacts on marked instabilities and their precursors. It allows the LPC System to recover from fully developed rotating stall by asymmetric air injection based on the pressure signals. Additionally, a delayed appearance of instabilities can be provoked by the system. Air injection guided by this control system resulted in a reduction of the required amount of air compared to constant air injection. Also, disturbances travelling at rotor speed can be detected, damped, and eliminated by this control system with a modulation of the injected air in such a way that the injection maximum travels around the ten injection positions.
Modern engine operation is guided by the aim to broaden the operating range and to increase the stage loading allowing the stage count to be reduced. This is possible by active stability control measures to extend the available stable operating range. Different strategies of an active control system like air injection and air recirculation have been applied. While in the past mainly results have been published regarding the stability enhancement of compressor rigs or single-spool engines, this experimental study focuses as well on the stability as also on the operating range extension of a twin-spool turbofan engine as an example for a real engine application on an aircraft. The objective of this investigation is the analysis of the engine behavior with active stabilization compared to not supported operation. For this purpose high frequency pressure signals are used and analyzed to investigate the effects of air injection with respect to the instability onset progress and the development of any instabilities like rotating stall and surge in the LP Compression system. These Kulite signals are fed to a control system. Its amplified output signals control fast acting Direct Drive Valves circumferentially distributed ahead of the LPC. For the application of air injection described in the paper, the air is delivered by an external source. The control system responsible for air injection is a real-time system which directly reacts on marked instabilities and their pre-cursors. It allows the LP Compression System to recover from fully developed rotating stall by asymmetric air injection based on the pressure signals. Additionally, a delayed appearance of instabilities can be provoked by the system. Air injection guided by this control system resulted in a reduction of the required amount of air compared to constant air injection. Also, disturbances travelling at rotor speed can be detected, damped and eliminated by this control system with a modulation of the injected air in such a way that the injection maximum travels around the 10 injection positions.
In the present publication, an existing twin-spool turbofan engine (Larzac 04 C5 as an example for a real engine utilized onboard an aircraft) is used for the preparation of a digital control system for an aero-engine which was originally driven by an analog controller. The application of the digital control itself is not yet covered by this paper, only the analog control baseline preparation and the combined testing are accomplished. A future publication will address the results of the digital control configuration, for which this paper is the basis. The assembly of the engine, the experimental setup, the instrumentation and the preparation work for the adaptation of the digital control system as well as the experimental results gained with the analog controller for later comparison purposes are described.
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