Response and stabilization of a two-stage axial flow compressor restricted by rotating inlet distortion

This paper considers effects of Rotating Inlet Distortion (RID) on a two-stage axial compressor and the stabilization effects of a casing treatment subjected to the considered RID. In multi-spool engines, the downstream compressor suffers a RID when the upstream fan/compressor is in rotating stall. A controlled rotating sectional screen upstream of the compressor was adopted to generate the RID in different intensities, and co- or counter spinning direction compared with the rotor. The response of the compressor to inlet distortion was interpreted as the changes of stall margin. Results show that there are two peaks for the stall margin degradation where the distortion screen rotates near 20% and 70% of the rotor’s rotational frequency, respectively. Based on the measurements taken during the pre-stall process, it is suggested that the two frequencies are associated with the eigen frequencies of the compressor. Specifically, the first is associated with a stall precursor that is suspected as an initial disturbance existing in compressor and the second is related to a spike-type stall precursor. At last, a kind of Stall Precursor-Suppressed (SPS) casing treatment was applied to enhance the compressor stability in RID conditions. The result indicates that the stall margin is improved by 6% at an average level and there is nearly no efficiency loss caused by the application of such casing treatment.