44th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit 9 - 12 January 2006, Reno, Nevada

AIAA 2006-416

A Transonic Axial Compressor Facility for Fundamental Research and Flow Control Development
Joshua D. Cameron
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

Charles P. Gendrich
Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, CT, 06108, USA

Scott C. Morris and Thomas C. Corke

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA
A single-stage transonic axial compressor facility has been constructed at the University of Notre Dame. The initial blading consists of inlet guide vanes followed by a rotor and stator row. The stage has a design pressure ratio of 1.55 at a corrected mass ow rate of 9.97 kg/s. The design blade tip speed is 352 m/s and the rotor tip relative Mach number at design is 1.27. The casing outer diameter is 0.457 m. Eorts were made to ensure that the blade design is comparable to that found in the the current generation of aero-gas turbine engines. The compressor stage and facility were designed to withstand operation of the compressor in surge and stall. In addition, the facility is equipped with custom designed active magnetic bearings for active whirl actuation. These features, along with the substantial optical access provided by the casing design, make the facility ideal for detailed studies of the blade passage ow during and after stall inception. Baseline performance data in the form of pressure ratio characteristics are presented along with a brief description of the stall behavior of the stage. The operation of the magnetic bearing system and its expected utility as both a research tool and an actuator for stability control are also discussed.

Nomenclature
M p T cz N U m Mach Number Pressure Temperature Mass Averaged Axial Velocity Shaft Speed Blade Speed z Flow Coecient Uctip Loading Coecient hT U2 Inlet Total Temperature Normalized by Standard Day Temperature Inlet Total Pressure Normalized by Standard Day Pressure Mass Flow Rate Adiabatic Eciency
Ph.D. Sta
tip

Candidate, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Student Member AIAA. Engineer, Hollow Fan Blade Engineering. Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Member AIAA. Clark Chair Professor, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Associate Fellow AIAA.

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Copyright 2006 by J. D. Cameron, C. P. Gendrich, Scott. C. Morris, and T. C. Corke. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.

I.

Introduction

(ND-TAC) facility was designed operate single-stage axial The Notre Dame Transonic Axial Compressor while providing measurementscaletodrawingusually associated compressors with transonic rotor tip speeds capabilities only with low-speed compressors. A one-dimensional schematic and of the facility is
1,2,3,4

shown in Figure 1. The components of interest are identied with a capital letter for reference. The major components of the ND-TAC facility include the inlet and outlet ducting, drive train, bearings, and instrumentation. The inlet and outlet ducting are designed to supply the compressor with outside air and to route the hot uid exiting the stage. The compressor is driven by a variable speed DC motor (Location K in Figure 1). The motor is rated for 298 kW (400 Hp) continuous at a maximum speed of 1750 RPM. The motor drive is equipped with a dynamic brake for emergency shutdown. The output shaft of the motor is connected to the input shaft of a high speed gearbox (J). The gearbox ratio is 1:8.508; when the motor is at maximum speed, the output shaft of the gearbox rotates at 14889 RPM. The maximum estimated losses in the gearbox are 11 kW (15 Hp). The shaft power available to the compressor stage is then 288 kW (385 Hp). The rotor shaft is levitated by active magnetic bearings arranged for overhung mounting of the compressor disk. The ND-TAC facility has the capability to operate a variety of axial compressor stage geometries. Although the initial compressor blading was designed concurrently with the facility itself, an eort was made to ensure that features specic to the stage did not negatively inuence the design of the facility as a whole. Essentially any single-stage axial compressor of reasonable axial length, and an exit inner diameter greater than or equal to 0.343 m (13.5 in) can be operated in the ND-TAC provided that the tip diameter does not substantially exceed 0.457 m (18 in). Total and static pressure rakes and total temperature rakes are permanently installed in annular ow passages upstream and downstream of the compressor stage. Each rake consists of seven probes spaced equally in the radial direction. Combination Kiel/total temperature probes are installed at the same axial location; these probes can be used for setting and monitoring the operating point of the installed stage as well as for conducting basic radial traverses upstream and downstream of the compressor stage. Details of the facility ow path, the active magnetic bearings, and the design of the initial blading are discussed in later sections. Basic ND-Stage 01 performance data are presented along with a brief description of the stage stall inception behavior. Finally, it is demonstrated that feedback from magnetic bearing system can be used to detect the presence of rotating stall in the compressor.

II.

Description of Flow Path

Outdoor air is drawn into the facility through a large inlet box (see Figure 1 Location A). The ow area at the entrance is 3 m2 (32 ft2 ). The air is then ltered to remove particles larger than about 10 m. The duct downstream of the lters contains a series of screens and honeycomb ow straighteners which condition the ow before it enters a calibrated contraction which measures volumetric ow rate. The ducting components of the facility are designed for a maximum volumetric ow rate of approximately 7 m3 /s (15,000 ICFM). The duct work is 10 gauge stainless steel. The outlet of the ow rate meter empties into a sealed, acoustically treated box which turns the ow 90 degrees (Location B). At location C the air is throttled to sub-atmospheric total pressure by an electromechanically actuated buttery valve. After the upstream throttle, the ow is decelerated to low velocity in the upstream plenum (D). The ow in the plenum is conditioned by adjustable screens and then accelerated into the compressor inlet duct (I). This duct is fully congurable for future experiments such as inlet distortion studies. The default setup includes a single perforated plate for turbulence generation. The plate is 16 gauge steel with a porosity of 0.63% placed 20.32 cm (8 in) upstream of the rotor leading edge. The design correlations of Roach5 were used to predict the performance of this screen. The screen is expected to generate a turbulence intensity of 2% at the rotor inlet with a pressure drop equal to 1.5 times the dynamic pressure in the inlet annulus. After the turbulence screen, the ow enters the compressor stage (E) where the total pressure is raised to slightly above atmospheric pressure. The compressor exhausts into a small receiving plenum (F) which directs the ow through a second throttle (G) and then to the outlet of the facility (H). The dual throttle conguration provides a number of unique capabilities. Specically, the operating point can be set by throttling the inow to sub-atmospheric pressure or by raising the back pressure at the

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Figure 1. Schematic of the Notre Dame Transonic Axial Compressor Facility.

compressor outlet. The advantage of the former method is that, due to the low density of the throttled inlet air, the compressor consumes less power at a given corrected operating point than a compressor congured to ingest air at standard pressure. Additionally, the compression system dynamics (in the sense of Moore and Greitzer6 ) can be manipulated by using either the forward or aft throttle or both in combination.

III.

Active Magnetic Bearings

Active magnetic bearing technology has been investigated by the turbomachinery research community for many purposes. The use of the technology as actuators for axial compressor stability control has been suggested by Spakovszky et al.7 Active magnetic bearings were chosen for use in the ND-TAC early in the design phase. This simplied the integration of the bearing technology and allowed for certain design features that will maximize the utility of the magnetic bearings as dynamic tip clearance actuators. Magnetic bearings provide essentially innite life and negligible power dissipation. All of these features are important in ensuring a simple and easy to maintain facility that maximizes the mechanical power available to the compressor stage. The magnetic bearings used in the ND-TAC were built by Revolve Magnetic Bearings Inc., a subsidiary of AB SKF, Sweden. The bearing system is a typical ve-axis system consisting of two mechanical auxiliary bearings, two magnetic radial bearing stators, two magnetic thrust bearing stators, two magnetic bearing rotors, and a ve-axis controller. The radial bearings each have a static load capacity of 2.2 kN (500 lbf) and each thrust bearing can produce a static force of 5.8 kN (1300 lbf). The nominal air gap of the magnetic bearings is 508 m (0.020 in) radially and 889 m (0.035 in) axially. The design gap between the auxiliary bearings and the landing sleeves on the rotor shaft are 254 m (0.010 in) radially and 508 m (0.020 in) axially. Thus, static rotor movement of approximately 178 m ( 0.007 in) radially and 381 m ( 0.015 in) axially are possible during operation.

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IV.

ND-Stage 01 Design

The rst compressor stage to operate in the ND-TAC facility is referred to as ND-Stage 01. The compressor has a design total pressure ratio of 1.55 at a corrected mass ow rate of 9.97 kg/s (22 lbm/s). The design corrected shaft speed is 14684 RPM and the design tip speed is 352 m/s (1153 ft/s). The stage has a tip diameter of 0.457 m (18 in) and an inlet hub to tip ratio of 0.75. The tip relative Mach number at design speed is 1.27. A. Aerodynamic Design

Table 1. Aerodynamic Design Parameters.

Quantity

N m

Value 0.32 0.37 14684 9.97 1.55 0.86 0.91 352 1.27

RPM kg/s

pTexit /pTinlet

stage The ow passage geometry, inlet guide vanes (IGV), rotor blades, and stator blades of ND-Stage 01 were created using rotor a multi-stage transonic compressor airfoil design system. The Utip m/s design began with a set of one-dimensional ow parameters MtipRel based on the desired stage pressure ratio, eciency, stall margin, rotor-tip relative Mach number, tip clearances, and power requirements. This meanline design was rened using a twodimensional ow-through code, establishing the inner and outer owpaths and spanwise work distributions for all three blade rows. A multi-stage Navier-Stokes ow solver8,9 was used during the three-dimensional design phase. The nal three-dimensional design predictions met all of the desired characteristics established in the meanline specication. Important aerodynamic and mechanical parameters of ND-Stage 01 are tabulated in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. Design speed performance predictions are shown in Figure 2.
1.64 1.62 1.6 92 90 88 86 84 82 Rotor Only Stage Aerodynamic Design Point 8.5 9 9.5 10 Corrected Mass Flow Rate (kg/s) 10.5 80 78 8 Rotor Only Stage Aerodynamic Design Point 8.5 9 9.5 10 Corrected Mass Flow Rate (kg/s) 10.5

Total Pressure Ratio

1.56 1.54 1.52 1.5 1.48 1.46 1.44 8

(a)

Adiabatic Efficieny

1.58

(b)

Figure 2. Predicted Performance of ND-Stage 01 at Design Corrected Speed.

ND-Stage 01 consists of an inlet guide vane (IGV) row with 17 vanes, followed by an integrally bladed rotor with 20 airfoils and a 43-vane stator row (see Figure 3). The IGV counter-swirls the ow to achieve a rotor tip relative Mach number of 1.27 at the design shaft speed of 14684 RPM. The stage achieves its design pressure ratio of 1.55 with a stage adiabatic eciency of 85.6% and a predicted NASA stall margin of at least 10%. The rotor is forward swept 20 at the tip; forward sweep is an important stability enhancement with minimal eciency penalty.10 The outer casing has a constant diameter of 0.46 m (18 in) throughout the stage. The inner casing diameter varies as dictated by the aerodynamic design. The hub-to-tip ratio at the inlet is 0.75, and at the outlet it is 0.806. The nominal design speed rotor blade tip gap is 0.76 mm (0.030 in), 1.35% of the LE rotor blade span and 0.88% of the rotor tip chord. ND-Stage 01 was conceived as a general purpose, fundamental research stage. For this reason, several mechanical design choices were made that lowered the stage eciency. During the aerodynamic design
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iteration process, the inter-row spacing (see Table 2) was increased to allow probe access between the blade rows. Large inter-row spacing is known to increase the amount of viscous mixing losses that take place during rotor wake decay.11 In addition, the solidity of the static blade rows was kept low to maximize optical and mechanical access to the ow path between the stationary blades. This raised the losses associated with the stator row. The eect of these design choices on the eciency of the stage is evident in Figure 2(b) where the adiabatic eciency of the rotor alone is plotted along with the eciency of the entire stage.

Figure 3. ND-Stage 01 Blade Rows.

Figure 4. Predicted Hot Disk Deection and Stress Contours.

B.

Mechanical Design

A detailed nite element analysis was conducted to predict the stress, deection, and vibration characteristics for the integrally bladed disk (blisk). Because the stage is to be used for tip ow investigations, it was considered necessary to ensure that the uniformity of the tip gap at design speed could be controlled. Determination of blade mode frequency was also necessary for safe operation of the stage. To maximize the achievable tip deection amplitude and frequency response of the magnetic bearings during rotation, a rotordynamic analysis was performed by the magnetic bearing manufacturer. The analysis identied the mass of the rotor assembly as the quantity that most limits the ability of the bearings to dynamically actuate the rotor tip clearance. It was therefore decided to design a disk with low mass while maintaining reasonable safety margins and a uniform tip gap at all speeds. To meet these design goals, Ti-6Al-4V was selected for the blisk material and FEM simulations were conducted to optimize the disk web and rim geometry. The nal design has a static yield safety factor of 3. The web is 8.89 mm (0.350 in) thick and the rim has a maximum thickness of 6.35 mm (0.250 in). The disk mass is 6.8 kg. Maximum principal stress contours from the stress analysis at design speed are plotted in Figure 4; the plot also depicts the predicted deection (exaggerated for eect). The highest stresses, located at the web and blade roots, are approximately one third of the yield strength of the blisk material. The results of the rotordynamics modal analysis, along with the results of modal analyses of the stationary blades and blisk, were combined to produce a Campbell diagram for the facility. The diagram indicates no excitation of any blade or rotor mode at design speed. The rst six blade modes and the rst two rotor assembly modes were considered. C. Measurement Capabilities

The casing of ND-Stage 01 is composed of several separate annular rings that are mated together with a repeating seal design. This allows each casing ring to be rotated independently of the others and of the stationary components of the stage and facility (See Figure 5). The casing over the IGV row and the stator row are integral to the blade rows themselves. These stationary blade rows are tted with radial and face style o-rings which seal the ow passage and allow the removable casing rings to rotate relative to the stationary blades. The surfaces of the casing rings in contact with the o-rings are hard-coat-anodized to ensure long life and trouble free rotation. The ability of these casing rings to rotate while the compressor
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Table 2. Mechanical Design Parameters.

Quantity
General Casing Diameter Inlet Hub to Casing Ratio Exit Hub to Casing Ratio Inter-row Spacing IGV to Rotor Gap Rotor to Stator Gap Inlet Guide Vanes Blade Count IGV Hub Chord IGV Tip Chord IGV Tip Solidity

Value 45.72 cm 0.750 0.806 1.27 cm 1.27 cm 17 2.54 cm 2.59 cm 0.31 (18.000 in)

Quantity
Rotor Row Blade Count Rotor Hub Chord Rotor Tip Chord Rotor Tip Solidity

Value 20 7.19 cm 8.71 cm 1.21 43 4.95 cm 4.98 cm 1.49

(2.83 in) (3.43 in)

(0.50 in) (0.50 in)

Stator Row Blade Count Stator Hub Chord Stator Tip Chord

(1.95 in) (1.96 in)

(1.00 in) (1.02 in)

Stator Tip Solidity

is operating facilitates probe and sensor traverses in the tangential direction. The movement of the rings is achieved with high-torque stepper motors which drive timing belts attached to the casing rings. Removable sections of the casing rings (of 67 circumferential extent) provide the means to setup probe or ush mount measurement sensors without requiring modication to the casing and without major disassembly. Radial probe traverses can be accomplished with standard stepper motor driven linear traverse equipment through holes in the removable casing sections. Axial probe traverses can be accomplished by the use of several probe holes axially spaced or with a specially design slot in a removable casing section.

Figure 5. Cutaway Illustrating the Operation of the Figure 6. Exploded View of the ND-Stage 01 Stator Survey Rings. Row.

By replacing any or all of the removable casing sections with transparent windows, optical access to the compressor stage is provided. Depending on the design of the window, it is possible to obtain continuous optical access to a region of approximately 60 circumferential extent that extends from approximately one chord upstream of the IGV row to approximately one chord downstream of the stator row. This is accomplished by removing all of the survey rings along with casing sections (of 67 circumferential extent) over the stationary blade rows. These casing sections were separated from the blades by wire EDM after the blades rows were machined. Wire EDM was also used to separate some of the blades (3 IGV and 5 stators) from the blade rows. This was done to allow the installation of instrumented blades in the future. Figure 6 illustrates the removable casing and blades for the stator row. The IGV separates in a similar manner.

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V.
A. Baseline Performance

ND-STAGE 01 Commissioning Results

Pressure characteristic curves for ND-Stage 01 are presented in Figure 7. These data were collected with the permanently installed pitot-static rakes upstream and downstream of the stage. Two symbols are used in the plot; these aid in the identication of measurements made during rotating stall. For example a data point marked by a (.) is visible just above the speed curve at 41% N/ (marked by (x)), the (.) indicates that this operating point is part of the 47% N/ speed curve.

1.18 1.16 59% 1.14

65%

Total Pressure Ratio

1.12 1.1 1.08 1.06 1.04 1.02 17% 1 0 1 47% 41%

53%

35% 29% 23% 7 8

2 3 4 5 6 Corrected Mass Flow Rate (kg/s)

Figure 7. Constant Speed Curves for ND-Stage 01.

B.

Stall Inception Behavior

Unsteady pressures were recorded during stall inception at 4 circumferential locations at an axial location 10% rotor tip chord upstream of the rotor leading edge. The time histories were ltered using a 5th order Butterworth low-pass lter at the blade passing frequency. The results of a typical stall inception event at 41% corrected design speed are presented in Figure 8. Figure 8(a) includes data for several revolutions prior to and after stall inception, Figure 8(b) provides more detail of the inception itself. The individual time traces are oset from one another in proportion to the location of the sensor around the circumference. The sensors were not equally spaced. A short length scale stall inception event is evident in the data. The disturbance covers a few blade passages when it rst appears and rotates at 63% of the rotor speed during the rst revolution. During this time the disturbance grows rapidly for approximately 2 rotor revolutions. At the end of this period, the stall cell is rotating at approximately 55% of the rotor speed. From Figure 8(a) it can be seen that no obvious modal activity is present during the pre-stall phase. Spatial Fourier analysis of the unsteady pressure data conrm this observation; coherent rotating structures are only evident during rotating stall. These data, along with the observation that stall seems to occur on the negatively sloped region of the total to static pressure characteristic, provide good evidence that this compressor stalls via spike inception2,12 over the operating range tested.

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Figures 9(a) and 9(b) show the auto spectral density of the rotor position before and after stall respectively. These data come from the magnetic bearing controller. All ve of the bearing axis are plotted. A dominant once-per-revolution (N = 100Hz) whirl is highlighted in both gures. A smaller third harmonic vibration is also evident before and after stall inception. This type of vibration is often associated with mechanical looseness somewhere in the bearing support structure,13 but in this case it is more likely due to the magnetic bearing controller conguration. After the onset of rotating stall (Figure 9(b)) a sub-synchronous vibration at approximately 55% of shaft speed appears on all axes. This rotation frequency corresponds to the rotation speed of fully developed rotating stall at this shaft speed.

(a)

(b)

Figure 8. Unsteady Pressure Measurements During Stall Inception 41% N/ .

(a) No Rotating Stall.

(b) With Rotating Stall.

Figure 9. Power Spectrum of Magnetic Bearing Orbit Magnitudes (All ve axis are plotted).

VI.

Conclusions

Preliminary commissioning results for ND-Stage 01 were used to demonstrate the operation of the NDTAC. Unsteady casing pressure measurements and mass-averaged pressure characteristics were used to show that ND-Stage 01 stalls by spike type inception over the speed range considered. The magnetic bearing system was shown to be a viable means of supporting the radial and axial loads experienced during the operation of an axial compressor stage. In addition, it was shown that magnetic bearing position data can detect the presence of rotating stall in an axial compressor.
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VII.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the Air Force Oce of Scientic Research and Dr. Thomas Beutner (AFOSR-FA9550-04-1-0276).

References
1 Lakshminarayana, B., An Axial Flow Research Compressor Facility Designed for Flow Measurement in Rotor Passages, J. Fluids Engineering, Vol. 102, 1980, pp. 402411. 2 Day, I. J., Stall Inception in Axial Flow Compressors, J. of Turbomachinery, Vol. 115, 1993, pp. 19. 3 Paduano, J. D., Epstein, A. H., Valavani, L., Longley, J. P., Greitzer, E. M., and Guenette, G. R., Active Control of Rotating Stall in a Low-Speed Axial Compressor, J. of Turbomachinery, Vol. 115, 1993, pp. 4856. 4 Williams, D. R. and Cameron, J. D., An Axial Flow Compressor for Remote Site Education and Research, AIAA2003-796 . 5 Roach, P. E., The Generation of Nearly Isoptropic Turbulence by Means of Grids, Heat and Fluid Flow , Vol. 8, No. 2, 1987, pp. 8292. 6 Moore, F. K. and Greitzer, E. M., A Theory of Post-Stall Transients in Axial Compression Systems: Part I - Development of Equations, J. of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power , Vol. 108, 1986, pp. 6876. 7 Spakovszky, Z. S., Paduano, J. D., Larsonneur, R., Traxler, A., and Bright, M. M., Tip Clearance Actuation With Magnetic Bearings for High-Speed Compressor Stall Control, J. of Turbomachinery, Vol. 123, 2001, pp. 464472. 8 Rhie, C. M. and Gleixner, A. J., Development and Application of a Multistage Navier-Stokes Solver, Part I: Multistage Modeling using Bodyforces and Deterministic Stresses, ASME 95-GT-342 . 9 LeJambre, C. R. and Zacharias, R. M., Development and Application of a Multistage Navier-Stokes Solver, Part II: Application to a HPC Design, ASME 95-GT-343 . 10 Wadia, A. R., Szucs, P. N., and Crall, D. W., Inner Workings of Aerodynamic Sweep, ASME 97-GT-401 . 11 Van Zante, D. E., Adamczyk, J. J., Strazisar, A. J., and Okiishi, T. H., Wake Recovery Performance Benet in a High-Speed Axial Compressor, J. of Turbomachinery, Vol. 124, 2002, pp. 275284. 12 Camp, T. R. and Day, I. J., A Study of Spike and Modal Stall Phenomena in a Low-Speed Axial Compressor, J. of Turbomachinery, Vol. 120, 1998, pp. 393401. 13 Vance, J. M., Rotordynamics of Turbomachinery, John Wiley & Sons, 1988.

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