Transonic Axial Compressors With Total Pressure Inlet Flow Field Distortions

Abstract

Non-uniform inlet flow has come back into focus of research during the last years due to the need of increasing the operational range of airborne engines. Higher climbing rates for lower noise pollution at airports as well as boundary layer ingesting inlet designs lead to the demand of inlet distortion resistant engines and compressors, in particular. To fulfill this design task, a deep understanding of the dominant flow physics of the distortion transport through the compressor as well as the influence of the compressor on the upstream flow field is needed. This paper starts with the transport of a circumferential total pressure distortion through a compressor stage. Using numerical results, previously validated by experimental data, a phenomenological approach for the transport is presented. The most important finding is the essential role of the different propagation speeds of the static pressure distortion and the inflow velocity distortion and its decoupling. A static pressure and an inflow velocity distortion are present for all kinds of total pressure distortions caused by the upstream flow field redistribution of the compressor. This decoupling causes not only a significant circumferential increase of the distorted sector but also a strong variation of the distortion magnitude downstream of the compressor stage. All relevant phenomena are present in the phenomenological approach as well as in the numerical and the referred experimental results. Inlet distortions result in a decrease of stability margin [1],[2]. The crucial area for the stability of most modern transonic compressors is the tip region; therefore, the tip region was under particular investigation. The numerical results show that the flow field in the distorted area is shifted toward the stall line. The shock system and the tip clearance vortex behave similar to the results near stall with uniform inflow. No local stall can be observed, although the local operating points within the distorted sector travel beyond the stall line of the compressor map with uniform inflow. Finally, a new analytical approach for the critical distortion angle is presented. The main finding is the circumferential extent has to be big enough to separate the zones of decoupled distortion quantities.