Turbomachinery Committee Best 1994 Paper Award: Dynamic Control of Rotating Stall in Axial Flow Compressors Using Aeromechanical Feedback

Dynamic control of rotating stall in an axial flow compressor has been implemented using aeromechanical feedback. The control strategy developed used an array of wall jets, upstream of a single-stage compressor, which were regulated by locally reacting reed valves. These reed valves responded to the small-amplitude flow-field pressure perturbations that precede rotating stall. The valve design was such that the combined system, compressor plus reed valve controller, was stable under operating conditions that had been unstable without feedback. A 10 percent decrease in the stalling flow coefficient was obtained using the control strategy, and the extension of stable flow range was achieved with no measurable change in the steady-state performance of the compression system. The experiments demonstrate the first use of aeromechanical feedback to extend the stable operating range of an axial flow compressor, and the first use of local feedback and dynamic compensation techniques to suppress rotating stall. The design of the experiment was based on a two-dimensional stall inception model, which incorporated the effect of the aeromechanical feedback. The physical mechanism for rotating stall in axial flow compressors was examined with focus on the role of dynamic feedback in stabilizing compression system instability. As predicted and experimentally demonstrated, the effectiveness of the aeromechanical control strategy depends on a set of nondimensional control parameters that determine the interaction of the control strategy and the rotating stall dynamics.