COMPRESSOR BLADE

A blade (2) for a compressor comprising a pressure surface (6) and a suction surface (4), wherein the suction surface (4) comprises: a discontinuity in the chord-wise curvature of an intermediate portion of the suction surface between the blade leading edge and blade trailing edge; and a slot (20) arranged along at least a portion of the blade (2) in a substantially span-wise direction, the slot (2) being disposed at or near the said change in curvature, such that when in use lower momentum fluid near the suction surface (4) is aspirated into the slot (20).

Self-regulating casing treatment for axial compressor stability enhancement

The operating range of an axial compressor is often restricted by a safety imposed stall margin. One possible way of regaining operating range is with the application of casing treatment. Of particular interest here is the type of casing treatment which extracts air from a high pressure location in the compressor and re-injects it through discrete loops into the rotor tip region. Existing re-circulation systems have the disadvantage of reducing compressor efficiency at design conditions because worked flow is unnecessarily re-circulated at these operating conditions. Re-circulation is really only needed near stall. This paper proposes a self-regulating casing treatment in which the re-circulated flow is minimized at compressor design conditions and maximized near stall. The self-regulating capability is achieved by taking advantage of changes which occur in the tip clearance velocity and pressure fields as the compressor is throttled toward stall. In the proof-of-concept work reported here, flow is extracted from the high pressure region over the rotor tips and re-injected just upstream of the same blade row. Parametric studies are reported in which the flow extraction and re-injection ports are optimized for location, shape and orientation. The optimized design is shown to compare favorably with a circumferential groove tested in the same compressor. The relationship between stall inception type and casing treatment effectiveness is also investigated. The self-regulating aspect of the new design works well: stall margin improvements from 2.2 to 6.0% are achieved for just 0.25% total air re-circulated near stall and half that near design conditions. The self-regulating capability is achieved by the selective location and orientation of the extraction hole; a simple model is discussed which predicts the optimum axial location. Copyright © 2011 by ASME.

Finite element analysis of compressor disc heat transfer using the transient conduction method with sparse boundary collocation points

Surface temperature measurements from two discs of a gas turbine compressor rig are used as boundary conditions for the transient conduction solution (inverse heat transfer analysis). The disc geometry is complex, and so the finite element method is used. There are often large radial temperature gradients on the discs, and the equations are therefore solved taking into account the dependence of thermal conductivity on temperature. The solution technique also makes use of a multigrid algorithm to reduce the solution time. This is particularly important since a large amount of data must be analyzed to obtain correlations of the heat transfer. The finite element grid is also used for a network analysis to calculate the radiant heat transfer in the cavity formed between the two compressor discs. The work discussed here proved particularly challenging as the disc temperatures were only measured at four different radial locations. Four methods of surface temperature interpolation are examined, together with their effect on the local heat fluxes. It is found that the choice of interpolation method depends on the available number of data points. Bessel interpolation gives the best results for four data points, whereas cubic splines are preferred when there are considerably more data points. The results from the analysis of the compressor rig data show that the heat transfer near the disc inner radius appears to be influenced by the central throughflow. However, for larger radii, the heat transfer from the discs and peripheral shroud is found to be consistent with that of a buoyancy-induced flow.

THE SENSITIVITY OF 2D COMPRESSOR INCIDENCE RANGE TO IN-SERVICE GEOMETRIC VARIATION

The loss mechanisms which control 2D incidence range are discussed with an emphasis on determining which real in-service geometric variations will have the largest impact. For the majority of engine compressor blades (Minlet>0.55) both the negative and positive incidence limits are controlled by supersonic patches. It is shown that these patches are highly sensitive to the geometric variations close to, and around the leading edge. The variations used in this study were measured from newly manufactured as well as ex-service blades. Over most the high pressure compressor considered, it was shown that manufacture variations dominated. The first part of the paper shows that, despite large geometric variations (~10% of leading edge thickness), the incidence range responded in a linear way. The result of this is that the geometric variations have little effect on the mean incidence range of a row of blades. In the second part of the paper a region of the design space is identified where non-linear behavior can result in a 10% reduction in positive incidence range. The mechanism for this is reported and design guidelines for its avoidance offered. In the final part of the paper, the linear behavior at negative incidence and the transonic nature of the flow is exploited to design a robust asymmetric leading edge with a 5% increase in incidence range.

Delayed control of a Moore-Greitzer axial compressor model

Several feedback control laws have appeared in the literature concerning the stabilization of the nonlinear Moore-Greitzer axial compression model. Motivated by magnitude and rate limitations imposed by the physical implementation of the control law, Larsen et al. studied a dynamic implementation of the S-controller suggested by Sepulchre and Kokotović. They showed the potential benefit of implementing the S-controller through a first-order lag: while the location of the closed-loop equilibrium achieved with the static control law was sensitive to poorly known parameters, the dynamic implementation resulted in a small limit cycle at a very desirable location, insensitive to parameter variations. In this paper, we investigate the more general case when the control is applied with a time delay. This can be seen as an extension of the model with a first-order lag. The delay can either be a result of system constraints or be deliberately implemented to achieve better system behavior. The resulting closed-loop system is a set of parameter-dependent delay differential equations. Numerical bifurcation analysis is used to study this model and investigate whether the positive results obtained for the first-order model persist, even for larger values of the delay.

Shape signifiers for control of a low-order compressor model

Rotating stall and surge, two instability mechanisms limiting the performance of aeroengines compressors, are studied on the third-order Moore-Greitzer model. The skewness of the compressor characteristic, a single parameter shape signifier, is shown to determine the key qualitative properties of feedback control.

Detailed measurements of spike formation in an axial compressor

This paper presents new experimental measurements of spike-type stall inception. The measurements were carried out in the single stage Deverson compressor at the Whittle Laboratory. The primary objective was to characterize the flow field in the tip clearance gap during stall inception using sufficient instrumentation to give high spatial and temporal resolution. Measurements were recorded using arrays of unsteady pressure transducers over the rotor tips and hot-wires in the tip gap. Pre-stall ensemble averaged velocity and pressure maps were obtained as well as pressure contours of the stall event. In order to study the transient inception process in greater detail, vector maps were built up from hundreds of stalling events using a triggering system based on the stalling event itself. The results show an embryonic disturbance starting within the blade passage and leading to the formation of a clear spike. The origins of the spike and its relation to the tip leakage vortex are discussed. It has also been shown that before stall the flow in the blade passage which is most likely to stall is generally more unsteady, from revolution to revolution, than the other passages in the annulus. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.

Investigation of a radial-inflow bleed as a potential for compressor clearance control

The mismatch in thermal response between a High Pressure Compressor (HPC) drum and casing is a limiting factor in the reduction of compressor clearance. An experimental test rig has been used to demonstrate the concept of radial inflow to reduce the thermal time constant of HPC discs. The testing uses a simulated idle - Maximum Take Off (MTO) - idle transient in order to measure the thermal response directly. The testing is fully scaled in the dimensionless sense to engine conditions. A simple closure model based on lumped capacitance is used to illustrate the scope of potential benefits. The proof-of-concept testing shows that HPC disc time constant reductions of the order 2 are feasible with a radial-inflow bleed of only 4% of bore flow at scaled MTO conditions. Using the experimental results, the simple closure modelling suggests that for a stage with a significant mismatch in thermal response, reductions in 2D axis-symmetric clearance of as much as 50% at MTO conditions may be possible along with significant scope for improvements at cruise conditions. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.

Detailed measurements of spike formation in an axial compressor

This paper presents new experimental measurements of spike-type stall inception. The measurements were carried out in the single stage Deverson compressor at the Whittle Laboratory. The primary objective was to characterize the flow field in the tip clearance gap during stall inception using sufficient instrumentation to give high spatial and temporal resolution. Measurements were recorded using arrays of unsteady pressure transducers over the rotor tips and hot-wires in the tip gap. Prestall ensemble averaged velocity and pressure maps were obtained as well as pressure contours of the stall event. In order to study the transient inception process in greater detail, vector maps were built up from hundreds of stalling events using a triggering system based on the stalling event itself. The results show an embryonic disturbance starting within the blade passage and leading to the formation of a clear spike. The origins of the spike and its relation to the tip leakage vortex are discussed. It has also been shown that before stall, the flow in the blade passage which is most likely to stall is generally more unsteady, from revolution to revolution, than the other passages in the annulus. © 2014 by ASME.

High efficiency and broad bandwidth grating coupler between nanophotonic waveguide and fibre

A high efficiency and broad bandwidth grating coupler between a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanophotonic waveguide and fibre is designed and fabricated. Coupling efficiencies of 46% and 25% at a wavelength of 1.55 mu m are achieved by simulation and experiment, respectively. An optical 3 dB bandwidth of 45 nm from 1530 nm to 1575 nm is also obtained in experiment. Numerical calculation shows that a tolerance to fabrication error of 10 nm in etch depth is achievable. The measurement results indicate that the alignment error of +/-2 mu m results in less than 1 dB additional coupling loss.