Modeling Rotating Stall of Axial

Compressor

Ali Salman Alhamaly

201406980
SCE 518 Term Project
King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals
December 2015

Abstract

The term project is concerned with modeling rotating stall dynamics in axial compressor
of aircraft jet engines. It is the intent of this work to simulate the effect of stall on the compressor
response. The response of the compressor is the transient evolution of the main performance
parameters of the compressor. These parameters will be described in terms of simulations of the
compressor pressure rise, average mass flow through the compressor, and the disturbed mass flow
through the compressor (amplitude of the rotating stall cell disturbance). The report presents
approximate theory for general post stall transients in axial compression system. The analysis is
able to predict rotating stall and surge and the transient behavior leading to them. The analysis is
based on two dimensional unsteady representation of the flow through the different components
in the axial compression system. The resulting equations are capable of predicting the coupling
between rotating stall and surge. Simulations of the derived equations show the growth and decay
of a rotating stall disturbance when the mass flow through the compressor varies with time. Also,
the simulations show the relation between compressor stall and compressor surge. In addition, it
is shown how the steady state pressure rise of a compressor changes when a rotating stall event
occurs within the compressor. Furthermore, Simulations show the effects of changing the
compressor physical parameters on the transient behavior of the pressure rise and mass flow in the
compressor.

1. Introduction

Compressor stall and surge are complex nonlinear instabilities that reduce the performance
and can cause failure of aircraft engines. Stall and surge represent the breakdown of orderly flow
through a compressor [1]. Stall is caused by a disturbance in the flow entering the compressor.
Because of the unique dynamics of the compression system in aircraft engines, a disturbance of
the right magnitude and shape in the air flow through the compressor can alter the whole
performance of the compressor. This leads to the fact that stall is always accompanied by a sudden
loss of pressure rise capability of the compressor [1].

Both Stall and surge are types of instabilities that compression systems suffer, they are not
the same phenomena though. In elementary terms, stall is a disturbance of the flow in the tangential
direction, while surge is a disturbance in the axial direction [1]. This means that stall is a
disturbance of the flow around the annulus of the compressor whereas surge is a disturbance in the
flow through the length of the compressor.
Rotating stall is localized disturbance that starts as small velocity perturbations at a
particular sector of the compressor annulus [2]. This perturbation then propagates
circumferentially as nonlinear traveling wave with speed that is usually less than the rotor speed.
The perturbation grows and decays until it settles to finite amplitude disturbance.
Surge is essentially a one dimensional, mass flow disturbance that effects the entire
compression system [2]. It causes the mass flow through the machine to fluctuate, generally with
inevitable flow reversal and performance degradation [2]. Surge is usually associated with
reversed flow through the compressor i.e. from back to front instead from front to back. It is worth
to mention that surge is considered as a consequence of rotating stall and not a disturbance in its
own right.
Both rotating stall and surge phenomena can be viewed, in a unified framework, as
eigenmodes of the compression system, with surge constituting the zero order mode and rotating
stall representing the higher order modes [2]. Both stall and surge cause the flow through the
compressor to be in the instable regime and hence they are major source of performance
degradation and fatigue failures.

2. Literature Review on Compressor Stall Modeling

This section presents a literature review on different models of axial compressor stall. Due
to the complexity of compressor stall phenomena and its subsequent transients, a lot of the models
available today are considered as semi-empirical models because they are mainly based on
experimental observations. However, the focus of this review will be on the compressor stall
modeling that are the outcomes of first principle treatments.
The model [3] considers how a small disturbance in the flow through the compressor can
lead to rotating stall. The paper assumes a single dynamic hysteresis for the compressor blade force
3

and finds conditions for the occurrence of a weak stall. Through considerations of axial momentum
balance through the inlet, outlet, and the blades of the compressor, linear equation is found which
governs the rotational speed of the rotating stall cell within the compressor. This linear equation
states that the combinations of three time lags related to: entrance flow passage, exit flow passage,
and the compressor blade passage allows the occurrence of rotating stall. Being a linear theory,
the model [3] cannot predict the evolution of the disturbance and their magnitude. In addition, the
performance degradation of the compressor cannot be inferred from this model.
A refined extended model from [3] which includes treatment finite disturbances and the
effect of nonlinearities of the system is [4]. In this model, finite amplitude flow disturbance through
the compressor is modeled. Finite amplitude disturbance consideration leads to nonlinear model
of rotating stall. The model [4] predicts the wave form of the flow disturbance during rotating stall
in addition to the disturbance rotation speed along the circumference of the compressor. The
compressor pressure rise performance during rotating stall which is different from the pressure rise
in a steady state operation with no stall is found using model [4] as well. The analysis done in [4]
assumes a steady state pressure rise of the compressor to be parabolic with the flow coefficient
which leads to some limitation in the form of the allowed rotating stall oscillations.
Model [5] is a small extension to [4] in which it incorporates a steady state compressor
pressure rise that is quite general rather than the parabolic one used in [4]. The use of more general
pressure rise curve provides estimates on the effect of rotating stall on the average compressor
performance. In addition, recovery from stall condition is another new outcome of the model [5]
compared with [4].
Model [6] discusses flow instabilities in the compressor and the compression system when
the compressor is subjected to inlet flow distortion. The distortion is given in terms of non-uniform
total pressure upstream of the compressor. Both temporal and spatial inlet flow distortion were
considered. The model [6] gives criterion for when the instabilities in the flow through the
compressor will lead to rotating stall or serge. These criterion were based on eigen mode analysis
of the disturbances. Model [6] includes analysis on stability of the compressor for an inlet
distortion which propagates like a rotating stall. The effect of these stall-like distortion on the
overall compressor performance were find, but actual modeling of the rotating stall and how would
it happen form the first place is missing from the analysis.

Finite dimensional perturbation model of rotating stall is described in [2]. The model is an
analytical state-space model intended mainly for control audiences. The model starts from basic
fluid dynamics description of rotating stall processes and reduces the infinite dimensional model
(arising because of partial differential equation) based on understanding of the fluid process and
experimental data. The flow through the compressor and the pressure upstream and downstream
of the compressor is described during rotating stall processes as a small linearized perturbation.
This perturbation is represented as a Fourier series, in which the Fourier coefficient describes the
spatial variation both along the compressor annuls and also from the front to back of the
compressor. Model [2] represents an excellent model for the purpose of linear feedback control
analysis and design. Since the model is intended mainly for control purposes and it was tuned
heavily using experimental data, it lacks the description of the fundamental rotating stall process
and its dynamics. It is worth to notice that the physics based modeling aspect of [2] comes from
the model of Moore and Greitzer [7] which we will discuss it in great details in this report.
Moore and Greitzer model (MG) [7] is an excellent first principle model that describes
post-stall transients in axial compression system. The model is based on conservation of mass and
momentum through the different parts of the compression system. The compression system
modeled in the paper are: the compressor, inlet duct, discharge duct, discharge plenum, and a
throttle device. The model has the theme of coupling an analysis of two dimension unsteady flow
through the compressor with lumped-parameter system approach. This is done to reduce the
complexity of the governing equations. The model is capable of describing the growth and decay
of rotating stall cell amplitude during compressor mass flow transients. The model is also able to
describe the coupling between rotating stall and surge and how they might develop in a
compression system. The model also predicts the effect of rotating stall and surge on the pressure
rise capability of the compressor. In fact, the model can give the instantaneous pressure map of the
compressor during the event of rotating stall. The final model is a set of three non-linear third order
partial differential equation that describe how the pressure rise, the circumferentially averaged
flow, and the localized flow changes with time and around the compressor annulus. The model is
very fundamental in nature and cover an inherently complex phenomena in simple terms. The
wonderful thing about this model, is that it considers a general instability in the compression
system. This leads to the ability to describe both surge and rotating stall simultaneously using the
same model without the need to change the equations. Previous work in the literature, assumes
5

the existing of surge alone or rotating stall alone in their modeling approach. This model is more
fundamental than any model discussed earlier and leads to end results which is very useful in terms
of understanding the transient in axial compression system. The model that is chosen and
implemented in this term project is [7].
Great amount of work has been done in the literature about controlling the rotating stall
using the model [7] for the dynamics of the compressor and the compression system as a whole.
We presents here a sample of these work. For instance, the control development in [2] is mainly
based on [7]. [8] Investigated higher order Galerkin expansion of [7] and developed a feedback
controller to eliminate hysteresis in the multi-model model. [9] Represents formulation of [7] that
is suitable for control and for stability analysis. [10], [11], and [12] presents different control aspect
of rotating stall using the model [7]. Interested readers should consult [13] for the literature review
on the extension of model [7] to three dimensions and also to compressible flow regime.

3. Description of the Model

In this section, detailed mathematical description of model [7] is presented. Schematic

description of the physical situation is presented followed by main simplifying assumption. Next,
the mathematical model for each part of the compression system is given and the full interaction
between different parts is presented. This yields to a distributed parameter system. Finally, the

Figure 1. Schematic of compressor and compression system goemetry taken from Fig. 1 In Ref
[8]
6

distributed parameter system is reduced to lumped parameter model using Galerkin method. This
section follows closely the development found in the original work.

Figure 1 shows a basic schematic of the compression to be analyzed. As can be seen I the
Figure, it consists of: the compressor, inlet duct, discharge duct, discharge plenum, and a throttle
device.
We assume that the plenum dimensions are large compared to those of compressor and its
ducts. This means that the velocity and the acceleration of air in the plenum can be neglected. in
addition, we assume that the air has low Mach number which implies incompressible flow through
eh compressor and its ducts. The air in the plenum is modeled as a comprisable fluid because it
acts dynamically as a gas spring.
The compressor is modeled as a high hub-to-tip ratio compressor (this refers to the height
of compressor blades and vanes to be small compared to the hub radius). This assumption justifies
treating the flow as two dimensional through the compressor. The compressor ducts have a
constant cross sectional area.
In the following derivations, all the lengths will be nondimensionalized by the mean
compressor radius (R). () is the angle along the circumferential direction of the compressor and
it has positive sense in the same direction as the direction of rotation of the blades. () is the
nondimensional axial distance. The nondimensional time which is dentate by the number of
radians travel by the compressor blades is given as ():
=

(1)

Where U is the linear speed of the blades and t is the real time.
The unsteady pressure rise a cross a single compressor blade row (blade row is the set
of rotating blades and the associated fixed stator vanes) is given by:

1 2
2

= ()

(2)

Where is the static pressure rise a cross a blade row, is the air density, (= /) is the
nondimensionalized flow coefficient through the compressor where represents the axial
velocity of air through the compressor, () is the axisymmetric steady performance of the blade
row (it tells the functionality of the compressor pressure rise with respect to the flow of air through
it), and can be viewed as a time constant associated with internal lags within the compressor
blade row.
The term

in Eq.2 need to have separate relation for the stator and rotor of a blade row.

This is because that unsteadiness of the flow through the fixed stator is only due to the transient of
the flow itself (meaning that if the flow where to be nonuniform in the circumferential direction
but is still steady one, then

will be zero for stator vanes). For the rotor, however, there is also

unsteadiness due to the rotor blade moving through a circumferentially nonuniform flow (meaning
that for rotor even when the flow is itself steady but is circumferentially nonuniform,

wont be

zero). Mathematically this can be describe as:

( )
=

(3)

)
= ( + )

(4)

Applying Equation 2-4 to a compressor with N blade rows (N stages) gives the pressure
rise through the compressor as:
1
1

=
()

(2
+ ),
2
2

(5)

The meaning of subscripts for pressure in Eq. 5 can be inferred from Figure 1.
Upstream of the compressor (in the compressor inlet duct) the flow is assumed to be
inviscid and irrotational and has a stagnation pressure . The flow coefficient at station 0,
which from Figure 1 can be seen to be the start of the inlet guide vane (IGV), can depend on both
and angle and also the time . If is to be varying with then there must be also a circumferential
flow coefficient developed at the IGV entrance (meaning that there must be velocity component
8

in the direction and not just simply axial velocity). We will denote this circumferential coefficient
as (, )). The average in the direction is defined as:

With Eq.6 can be defined as:

1 2
(, ) ()
2 0

(6)

= () + (, )

(7)

Hence (, ) represents circumferential nonuniformity of the flow coefficient. From Eqs. 6 and
7 and because we assume that the upstream flow is irrotational, we get the following useful
relations:

(, ) = (, ) = 0
0

(8)

The pressure difference from station 0 to station 1 is given by:

1 0 1
= 2
2
2

(9)

is a coefficient that represents the losses through the IGV. For the case of no losses through the
IGV, is unity.
As we have said before, the flow in the entrance duct upstream of the IGV is irrotational.
This leads to the existing of velocity potential which although is unsteady still satisfies Laplaces
equation. The gradient of velocity potential gives the axial and circumferential velocity
coefficient in the entrance duct. Henceforward, subscripts will denote partial differentiation. At
the IGV inlet (station 0) we have:
( ) = () + (, ),
0

( )0 = (, )

(10)

Where is the nondimensionalized axial coordinate. The boundary condition for far upstream
is that it self is zero. Using the unsteady Bernouillis equation from far upstream to station 0
leads to an expression for the pressure at station 0:

 0 1 2
= ( + 2 ) + ( )
0
2
2

(11)

The velocity potential in the inlet straight duct with dimensionless length of can be separated
into a disturbance part which depends on both time and angle, and a uniform (or axisymmetric to
be more precise) part which depends only time. Mathematically this can be written as:
= ( + )() + (, )

(12)

At station 0 we have:
( ) = (, ) ,

( )0 = (, )

(13)

From Eqs. 12 and 13 we can see that the last term on the right hand side of Eq. 11 can be written
as:

( ) =
0

+ ( )

(14)

In the compressor exit duct, the flow is complicated in general. Here, we assume that the
circumferential flow nonuniformities are sufficiently small to allow linearizing the governing axial
momentum equation. This lead to the exit pressure from the compressor to differ only slightly
from the static pressure in the plenum . Omitting the details, the pressure difference between
the compressor exit and the plenum is given by:

=
( 1) ( )
2

(15)

Where m is a system parameter that describes the configuration of the exit duct. m=2 refers to a
long exit duct while m=1 refers to very short one. is the dimensionless exit duct length.
In the above, we have describe how the flow and the pressure will vary from far upstream
until the plenum. In this region, the pressure and the flow is allowed to have circumferential
variation. Further downstream to this region, i.e. in the plenum and the throttle, we assume the
existence of axisymmetric disturbance only. The net pressure rise from far upstream to the plenum

10

can be found combining Equations (5, 9, 11, and 15). After introducing Equations 7 and 14 this
can be written as:

1
1

1
1

= ( 2 ) ( + + )
( )
(
+
) (1 )2
2

2
2
0

(16)

We will define the term on the left hand side of Eq. 16 as the total to static pressure rise coefficient
(). The first term in parenthesis on the right hand side of Eq. 16 is called the quasi-steady,
1

axisymmetric compressor characteristic (). The term ( + + ) is the effective flow

passage length through the compressor and its ducts and we denote it by .

() =

() = () 2

(17)

(18)

= +

1
+

(19)

In terms of velocity potential perturbation , Eq. 7 becomes:

= + ( )

(20)

Considering the definitions in Equations 17-20, Eq. 16 can be written for = 1 as,

() = ( + ( ) )
0

( )
( +
)
0

(21)

Before we proceed, we will introduce a simplifying assumption which will eliminate the axial
dependence of Eq. 21. The simplifying assumption is:

(22)

11

Using Eq. 22 it can be seen that:

( ) = (
)0
0

(23)

Also a convenient change of notation will be introduce as:

( )0 ( , ),

( ) =
0

(24)

Using Eq.24, Eq. 21 becomes:

() = ( )

1

( + )

(25)

It can be shown that the function like g and h, is periodic and has zero average in direction.
This implies:
2

(, ) = 0

(26)

Lets move now to modeling the flow downstream of the compressor exit, in the plenum
and across the throttle. The plenum receives mass of air at rate of and discharges the mass
at generally different rate where is the cross sectional area of the compressor and its
ducts. If and are different, this means that there will be mass accumulation in the plenum.
When the mass accumulates in a constant volume plenum, this means that the density of air must
change in the plenum. We will assume that the change in density occurs isentropically. Using this
allows us to relate density variation to pressure variation. Using simple mass balance at the plenum
along with the isentropic relation between the pressure and density gives:

1
[ ]
=

4 2

(27)

(28)

Where is the plenum volume, is the speed of sound of air in the plenum.

12

In the throttle, the air is discharges to atmosphere, which has the same pressure as the inlet
air far upstream of the compressor. Hence, the pressure difference is used to balance the
throttle loss. Mathematical this can be written:
1
(29)
2
2
Where is the throttle characteristics and the constant throttle coefficient. is given as the
= ( ),

invers of namely:

= 1 ()

(30)

We need one more equation to complete our analysis. This equation is found by taking the
circumferential average value of Eq. 25 utilizing Eq. 26. This gives:

1 2
(31)
=
( )
2 0
We have developed three equations that describe the pressure variation in the compression
+

system. These equations are listed below for convenience:

+

1
= ( )
( + )

(32)

1 2
=
( )
2 0

(33)

1
[ 1 ()]
=
2

(34)

Eq. 32 is the local (in ) momentum balance of the system, Eq. 33 is the annuls-averaged
(circumferentially averaged) momentum balance of the system, and Eq. 34 is the mass balance of
the plenum. Equations 32-34 are the equations that describes the dynamics of the compression
system and is able to predict the transient associated with rotating stall and surge.
To find solution of Equations (32-34) we need to know the functionality of the
axisymmetric compressor characteristic (). It is worth remembering that () is an inherent
13

feature of the compressor and is independent of any type of disturbance that exist in the air flow
through the compressor. For this reason, it is a system fixed parameter. We will choose () to
be a simple cubic function of the flow coefficient . Figure 2 shows a plot of () versus
along with the parameter that specifies the cubic function. It is believed that this cubic function is
generic enough and produce useful results in regards to studying rotating stall and surge for lowspeed three stages compressors. The specific formula for the curve shown in Figure 2 is:
3
3
1
() = 0 + [1 + ( 1) ( 1) ]
2
2

(35)

Figure 2. Axisymmetric compressor chrachterisitc () along with the parameters that defines
the cubic functionlaity. Taken from Fig. 3 In Ref [8]

Notice that the local flow coefficient to be used in Eq.35 is:

= +

(36)

In order to treat general transient disturbance which have both angular variation like
rotating stall and time dependent mean flow variation like surge, the complete solution of
14

Equations(32-34) is needed. Notice that these equations are third order in the angle but only first
order in time . What we are about to do is to devise a simple method of solution that can reduces
the order of equation in the angular variation . We will adapt the Galerkin method of nonlinear
mechanics. In Galerkin procedure, the solution to differential equation is written in terms of a
series of base functions. Depending on the appropriate choice of the base functions, the Galerkin
method can approximate the solution to very high degree of accuracy. For our purposes here, we
will only use one term expansion of the whole Galerkin series for simplicity. The base function
that is chosen is the sin function.
We will start the Galerkin procedure by representing by a sin function with unknown
amplitude , namely
= () ( ())

(37)

We need to substitute Eq.37 into Eq. 32, then following usual Galerkin procedure we form a
residual (this residual must vanish if the solution were exact) in which we require that various
moments of that residual be zero. First, the integral of the residual need to be zero, then the integral
of the ( ) moment need to be zero, and finally the integral of the ( ) moment need
to be zero. Mathematical this leads to:
1 2

( + ()) = +
2 0

(38)

1 2
1
() ( + ()) = ( + )
0

(39)

1 2
1
1
() ( + ()) = [( + ) ]
0
2

(40)

Using the orthogonality property of sin and cosine functions, the left hand side of Eq. 40 must
vanish if is regular function of its argument. So generally we see that

must be a constant.

This constant is called 0 :

= 0 ,

1/2
1 +

(41)
15

Notice that 0 is identical to the propagation speed of rotating stall cell in linearized theory of [3].
We are left right now with equations (34, 38, and 39) which have unknown functions of
time, , , and . What we need to do right now, is to introduce the specific from of ()
introduced in Eq. 35 into equations (34, 38, and 39). In doing this we will notice that must enter
the equations as the square. For convenience we will change notation and define:
() 2 ()

(42)

Note that with this definition must be strictly positive.

The final simplified equations for our model specific to the cubic characteristic () are
given by:

/
1 1

()]
=
[

4 2

(43)

3
0

3
1
1

= [
+ 1 + ( 1) (1 ) ( 1) ]

2
2
2

(44)

1
3
= [1 ( 1) ]

4 (1 + )

(45)

Equations (43-45) represent the final equation for modeling rotating stall and surge in axial
compression system. They represent the instantaneous values of the total to static pressure rise of
the compressor (), the circumferentially averaged flow coefficient (), and the squared
amplitude of the angular variation of the of the local disturbance (). The parameter of the system
as seen in the equations are: the steepness of the axisymmetric compressor curve (/), the shutoff head of the compressor (0 /), the compressor duct length ( ), the configuration of the
compressor duct (), internal compressor lag (), plenum volume and compressor annulus area
(), and the throttle characteristic function ( ()).

16

4. Qualitative Feature of the Model

In this section, general features of the model (Equation (43-45)) are discussed. The
possibility of the existing of pure rotating stall or pure surge without the other is investigated. The
equilibrium amplitude of rotating stall cell is examined and the general effect of rotating stall on
the compressor performance is identified. General transient feature of the solution is discussed in
the next section along with the dynamic simulations.
Let us investigate whether weather Equation (43-45) permits the existing of pure surge
cycles. Pure surge means that the flow through the compressor is axisymmetric. This means that
the flow cannot have any angular dependence. This requires that be identically zero. If is zero
then Eq.45 tells that will be zero indefinitely regardless of what dynamical events happen in
future. Hence Equations 43 and 44 describes the surge cycle of the compressor without existing of
rotating stall. This is an interesting results of this model because it says that surge can happen
without rotating stall being present.
Let us now investigate the case of pure rotating stall. Let us remember that rotating stall is
a steady phenomenon when viewed from a rotating coordinate system. It is a nonuniformity of the
flow around the annulus in which some part of the annulus operate at much reduced flow rates.
These sections of reduced air flow are called the stall cells. Pure rotating stall indicate that the
angle-averaged mass flow and the pressure in the plenum should be steady. This means that
both

and

are zero. With these condition our model reduces to solving Eq. 45 only. We can

see from Eq.45 that the amplitude squared of the rotating stall disturbance can reach an equilibrium
or steady state value. This value is denoted by and is given by:
2

= 4 [1 ( 1) ]

(46)

Eq. 46 states that the amplitude of the stall cell in pure rotating mode can reach an equilibrium
value that depends on the initial value of the flow coefficient . Solving Eq. 45 will give the details
about the evolution of the rotating stall cell from its initial value to the equilibrium value given by
Eq. 46. Since need to be always positive, Eq. 46 indicate that there is no equilibrium value when

( 1) is larger than one. This happens when the initial flow is to the right of the peak or to the
left of the valley in Figure 2. Actually the equilibrium value of in these locations is zero. This
17

means that the slope of the axisymmetric characteristic of the compressor dictates the amplification
or the decay of pure rotating stall cell. When the slop is positive the disturbance amplify until it
reaches the equilibrium value given in Eq. 46. When the slope is negative the disturbance decays
and reach zero. Hence, the slope of the axisymmetric characteristic determines the stability of the
compressor with respect to initial disturbance.
When the equilibrium value of is substituted in right hand side Eq.44 which should be
zero for pure rotating stall, we can get the equilibrium value of . This equilibrium value is
denoted by and is given by:
3
3
5
= 0 + [1 ( 1) + ( 1) ]
2
2

(47)

is the modified compressor performance during pure state of rotating stall. Figure 3 compares
the axisymmetric given by Eq.35 and the rotating stall compressor performance given by Eq.47.

Figure 3. Comparison between the axisymmetric compressor chrachterisitc () and the

rotating stall comnpressor chrachterstic . = .25 , / = .72, 0 / = 1.67

18

The coupling between pure surge and pure rotating stall is seen clearly by examining
Equations 44 and 45. This coupling is mediated by Eq. 43 and hence any detailed information
about general transient behavior requires solving the three equations (43-45) simultaneously. In
general, changes in dictates by Eq. 44 that a change in or must occur. This means that a
rotating stall disturbance cannot grow without inducing a variation of or . The disturbance
induced in might not be cyclic transient and hence it wont be simply a kind of surge. To restate,
the general case is that the flow coefficient will vary with time and therefore will also change
with time. To answer the question on whether the transients in coupled oscillations (coupled
oscillations refer to transient behavior which is not pure surge or pure rotating stall) reach
eventually or not depends on the solution of equations (43-45).

5. Numerical Results for General Post-Stall Transient Simulations

In this section, the results of simulating equations (43-45) is presented. The effects of the
and parameters on the compressor performance are investigated along with the effect of the
initial conditions.
The purpose of showing the simulation results is to present the implication of post stall
transients (rotating stall and/or surge) on the compressor performance. The performance metrics
that we are emphasizing here are the flow through the compressor and the pressure rise capability
of the compressor. Hence we are mostly interested in and .
The results are presented mainly in two forms following [14] . First form is the usual time
traces of the desired quantities in which the evolution of the quantity is plotted with time. The
second form is trajectories in the phase plane in which two state variables are plotted along the
axes. The phase plane plots helps illustrating the operation of the compressor in terms of both the
flow and pressure rise.
In the calculations, the axisymmetric compressor characteristic () is taken to be the
one given in Eq. 35. The specific parameter values of the curve that are used in the calculations

19

are given as: 0 = 1.67, = .18 , = .25. In addition, the value compressor parameters
and are taken to be: 1.67and 1/3.5 respectively. The throttle curve are given by Eq.29 with the
value of = 6.5 unless otherwise specified. The initial conditions are generally given by
(subscript zero indicates the initial value of the quantity): 0 = .5 , 0 = .66, and 0 = 4 104 .
Hence the initial condition are defined to be at the peak of the () curve with the addition of
imposed circumferential nonuniformity disturbance given by the initial value of .

Compressor transient behavior in rotating stall and surge. The transient behavior of the
compressor due to initial circumferential nonuniformity disturbance is shown here. Two cases are
presented: one in which the disturbance leads to rotating stall and the other leads to surge. The two
cases are obtained using the same initial conditions as discussed above. The difference is that for
the rotating stall case the value of the and parameters are taken as: .5 and 5.5 respectively,
whereas for surge case the value of the and parameters are taken as: 2 and 6.5 respectively.
Both cases are simulated with = 8.
Rotating stall case is shown in Figure 4 while surge case is shown Figure 5. The two figures
show the nondimensional annulus averaged () and local () axial velocity versus
nondimensional time (Figure 5 shows only since for surge case and are the same). The
local velocity is given by the following expression obtained by combining equations (36, 37, and
41):
= () + () sin(0 )

(48)

Figure 4 shows the evolution of and with non-dimensional time. The figure shows that
has transient behavior up to about = 400 after which becomes constant and does not change
anymore. It is seen also that the initial value is more than the value when it reaches steady
state. Hence the disturbance led to eventual decrease in the averaged flow through the compressor.
If we look at the evolution of which is the local flow coefficient at a given location in the annulus,
we can see that the amplitude of oscillation grows from its initial small value until the amplitude
saturates and reaches steady state amplitude oscillation. It is clear from the time traces of that
the situation is rotating stall because fluctuates between low and high value while remain
constant. This means that the stall cell rotate around the annulus and that what causes to fluctuate
20

with time as given in Figure 4. This behavior is exactly rotating stall. It is worth to notice that
reaching constant amplitude is consistent with earlier results of Eq. 46.

Figure 4. Time history of local ()and annuls-averaged () axial velocity coefficient during
transient to rotating stall. = .5, = 5.5, and = 8

Figure 5. Time history of annuls-averaged () axial velocity coefficient during transient to

surge. = 2, = 6.5, and = 8

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Figure 5 shows that unlike the case of rotating stall, in surge, the annulus-averaged flow
coefficient is oscillating rapidly in what it is known as relaxation oscillations. The local flow
coefficient is not plotted in Figure 5 because except for small initial transient, and have the
same value. From Eq. 48 we can see that when and have the same value it implies that = 0.
being zero is consistent with the pure surge phenomena in which there is no circumferential
nonuniformity in the flow, but instead, the flow through the annulus varies periodically with time.
Figure 5 shows that the flow transient leads to mostly a decrease in flow through annulus. This can
be seen by noticing that most of the time traces is below the initial value of . It is also worth
noticing that part of the oscillation that happen leads to reverse flow. This is indicated when
becomes negative in part of the oscillation cycle.
Figures 4 and 5 give good representation to the time history of the flow through the
compressor during rotating stall or surge. They also give indication about the role of the
parameter in determining the existing of stall or surge in response to initial disturbance. However,
these figures do not show the instantaneous compressor performance during stall or surge. What
is of interest to know is whether the compressor operates along the axisymmetric characteristic
given by Eq. 35 or along the rotating stall modified characteristic given by Eq.47 during the
mass flow transient. The answer of this question is presented in the next sub section.
Effect of B parameter. The effect of the parameter on the performance and the trajectory
of pressure rise versus mass flow of the compressor is explained in this sub section.
Figure 6 shows the transient compressor performance in terms of the overall pressure rise
and annulus-averaged flow coefficient for three different values of parameter. The figure
includes the axisymmetric characteristic and the rotating stall modified characteristic for
purpose of illustration and comparison.
Figure 6 shows that for low values of ( = 1 1.4) the compressor operates at new
equilibrium point on the curve (remember that the initial condition is at the peak of the
curve). This new operating point is different from the initial operating point in terms of both the
and values. Since the eventual state of the system reaches a constant value of , this means
that the initial disturbance led to rotating stall. It is worth to notice that the pressure and flow
transients neither follow nor curves. The transient trajectories follow paths that depend on
the specific value of . The higher the value of the greater the deviation of the flow from its
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initial condition. It is interesting to notice that for low value of the trajectories reach the same
final steady state value.
For = 2, the compressor does not operate at an equilibrium point but instead undergoes
a limit cycle oscillation. Hence, for high value of , the fixed point of operation bifurcates into
limit cycle. This limit cycle is what we have shown earlier in Figure 5 as surge cycles. Figure 6
shows that in surge cycles both the flow and pressure rise of the compressor oscillates.

Figure 6. Transient compressor response ( . ) for different values of . = 6.5 = 8

Figure 7 shows the evolution of rotating stall amplitude during the compressor transients
( vs. ) for the same conditions as Figure 6. Indicted in the figure as well is the equilibrium value
of rotating stall squared amplitude for different values of as indicated by Eq. 46. curve
represents the locus of equilibrium states toward which rotating stall disturbances must tend [14].
Figure 7 shows that for low values of

( = 1 1.4) the squared amplitude of the

circumferential disturbance reaches equilibrium that lies on curve. This is expected since Figure
6 suggests that transients with low values of tend to rotating stall state. So just like tends to
when rotating stall is the equilibrium state, tends to . Figure 7 shows that for high values of
( greater than about .25) the values of are much less compared with the steady state value.
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The figure also shows that during compressor transient, there exist regions of both growth and
decay for .
For = 2, Figure 7 shows that does not settle to but instead grows and then decays
and diminishes. We know by now that the transient for = 2 leads to surge cycle, hence it is
expected that the value of be of small value since surge is characterize by uniform flow
circumferentially.

Figure 7. Evolution of rotating stall amplitude during compressor transients ( . ) for different
values of . = 6.5 = 8

Effect of initial level of disturbance. The effect of initial disturbance i.e. 0 on the
compressor transients is investigated here. Figure 8 shows the transient compressor performance
in terms of vs. for three different values of initial disturbance 0 . Figure 8 shows that even
though there are two order of magnitude between the highest and lowest initial disturbance, the
different trajectories are very similar to each other. Regardless of the initial conditions, the steady
state operations is the same.
Figure 9 shows the evolution of rotating stall amplitude during the compressor transients
( vs. ) for the same conditions as Figure 8. Figure 9 shows that the effect of initial disturbance
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level on is very strong during the early transients. However, as the value of gets closer to the
steady state value, the behavior of the different trajectories becomes very similar.
Effect of compressor length to radius ratio ( ). The last parameter to be studied is lc .
Figure 10 shows the transient compressor performance in terms of vs. for three different
values of lc . Figure 10 shows that for lc = 8 and 10, the compressor transients are similar to those
of low value of . Namely, the pressure and flow move from the initial conditions to the same
final steady state point which lies on curve. On the other hand, the case of lc = 6 shows that
the transient leads to limit cycle and hence to the final result is not rotating stall but surge.
Figure 11 shows the evolution of rotating stall amplitude during the compressor transients
( vs. ) for the same conditions as Figure 10. Figure 11 shows that for lc = 8 and 10, the
evolution of have very similar behavior in terms of initial transient as well as the approach to
steady state amplitude. For the case of lc = 6, we can see that the transient behavior is entirely
different. For lc = 6 the stall cell amplitude increases then decreases slightly and then rapidly
increases before the eventual decrease to zero value. This behavior have been seen earlier for the
case of high value of . Figures 10 and 11 shows that in addition to the paremeter, lc parameter
has an effect on whether an initial disturbance becomes rotating stall or surge.

Figure 8. Transient compressor response ( . ) for different values of 0 . = 6.5, = 8, 25

=1

Figure 9. Evolution of rotating stall amplitude during compressor transients ( . ) for different
values of 0 . = 6.5, = 8, = 1

Figure 10. Transient compressor response ( . ) for different values of . = 6.5, = 1

26

Figure 11. Evolution of rotating stall amplitude during compressor transients ( . ) for
different values of . = 6.5, = 1

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6. Conclusions
The focus of this report has been to model post stall transients in axial compression
systems. The goal has been to predict the performance of the compressor during transient
instability that leads to rotating stall or surge. The report presented approximate theory for general
post stall transients in axial compression system. The analysis is able to predict rotating stall and
surge and the transient behavior leading to them. The analysis is based on two dimensional
unsteady representation of the flow through the different components in the axial compression
system. The resulting equations are capable of predicting the coupling between rotating stall and
surge. The model presented is a first principle type model in which simple conservation laws are
used as starting basis of the model. The equations account for many compression system features,
including system volumes, inlet and outlet duct shapes, axisymmetric compressor characteristic,
throttle characteristic, compressor basic geometry, compressor speed, and internal lag processes
in the compressor. It is shown that the equations allows the existing of pure rotating stall or pure
surge without the other being present. System parameters study has shown that for the same initial
disturbance, the compressor might ended up with either rotating stall or surge depending on the
specific system parameters of the compressor. It has been shown that the and parameters has
great effect on whether the compressor experience stall or surge. Calculations has been presented
for the transient behavior of the compression system which has been subjected to initial
circumferential nonuniformity. The compressor performance degradation due to rotating stall has
been found and compared to the steady state compressor operation. It is shown that the compressor
performance during rotating stall is totally different from the steady state performance. Both the
flow and pressure rise is reduced during rotating stall compared with regular operation.

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