• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2016

Behaviors of surges appearing near the stall stagnation boundaries in various fashions in systems of a single-stage compressor and flow-path systems were studied analytically and were tried to put to order. Deep surges, which enclose the stall point in the pressure-mass flow plane, tend to have either near-resonant surge frequencies or subharmonic ones. The subharmonic surge is a multiple-loop one containing, for example, in a (1/2) subharmonic one, a deep surge loop and a mild surge loop, the latter of which does not enclose the stall point, staying only within the stalled zone. Both loops have nearly equal time periods, respectively, resulting in a (1/2) subharmonic surge frequency as a whole. The subharmonic surges are found to appear in a narrow zone neighboring the stall stagnation boundary. In other words, they tend to appear in the final stage of the stall stagnation process. It should be emphasized further that the stall stagnation initiates fundamentally at the situation where a volume-modified reduced resonant-surge frequency becomes coincident with that for the stagnation boundary conditions, where the reduced frequency is defined by the acoustical resonance frequency in the flow-path system, the delivery flow-path length and the compressor tip speed, modified by the sectional area ratio and the effect of the stalling pressure ratio. The real surge frequency turns from the resonant frequency to either near-resonant one or subharmonic one, and finally to stagnation condition, for the large-amplitude conditions, caused by the non-linear self-excitation mechanism of the surge.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.119-137
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• 2017

Although the stall stagnation phenomena have often been experienced in site and also analytically in numerical experiments in surges in systems of compressors and flow paths, the fundamental causes have not been identified yet. In order to clarify the situations, behaviours of infinitesimal disturbance waves superposed on a main flow were studied in a simplified one-dimensional flow model. A ratio of the amplifying rate of the system instability to the characteristic slope of the compressor element was surveyed as the instability enhancement factor. Numerical calculations have shown the following tendency of the factor. In the situation where both the sectional area ratio and the length ratio of the delivery flow-path to the suction duct are sufficiently large, the enhancement factors are greater in magnitude, which means occurrence of ordinary deep surges. However, in the situation where the area ratio and/or the length ratio is relatively smaller, the enhancement factor tends to lessen significantly, which situation tends to suppress deep surges for the same value of the characteristic slope. It could result in the stall stagnation condition. In the domain of area ratio vs. length ratio of the delivery duct to the suction duct, contour-lines of the enhancement factor behave qualitatively similar to those of the stall stagnation boundaries of a fan analytically obtained, suggesting that a certain range of the enhancement factor values could specify the stagnation occurrence. The significant decreases in the factors are observed to accompany appearances of phase lags and travelling waves in the wave motions, which macroscopically suggests breaking down of the complete surge actions of filling and emptying of the air in the delivery duct. The strength of the action is deeply related with acoustic interferences and is evaluated in terms of the volume-modified reduced resonance frequency proposed by the author. These observations have shown the fundamental cause and the sequence of the stall stagnation in principle.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.56-74
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• 2013

Stall stagnations in the system of axial-flow compressors and ducts occur in transition from deep surge conditions to decayed or converged stall conditions. The present study is concerned with the boundaries between the deep surges and the stagnation stalls on the basis of analytical results by a code on surge transients analysis and simulation. The fundamental acoustical-geometrical stagnation boundaries were made clear from examinations of the results on a variety of duct configurations coupled with a nine-stage compressor and a single stage fan. The boundary was found to be formed by three parts, i.e., B- and A-boundaries, and an intermediate zone. The B-boundary occurs for the suction-duct having a length of about a quarter of the wave-length of the first resonance in the case of very short and fat plenum-type delivery duct. On the other hand, the A-boundary occurs for the long and narrow duct-type delivery flow-path having a length about a fifth of the wavelength and relatively small sectional area in the case of short and narrow suction ducts. In addition to this, the reduced surge-cycle frequencies with respect to the duct lengths are observed to have respective limiting values at the stagnation boundaries. The reduced frequency for the B-boundary is related with a limiting value of the Greitzer's B parameter. The tendency and the characteristic features of the related flow behaviors in the neighborhood of the boundaries were also made clearer.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.338-353
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• 2016

Information on the surge behaviors and stall stagnation boundaries for a nine-stage axial flow compressor are summarized on the basis of analytical data in comparison with those for a single-stage one, with attention to the pressure ratio effect. The general trends of the surge loop behaviors of the pressure-mass flow are similar for both compressors including the fact that the subharmonic surges tend to appear very near the stall stagnation boundaries. With respect to the nine-stage compressor, however, the mild loops in the subharmonic surges tend to be very small in size relative to the deep loops, and at the same time, insufficient surge recovery phenomenon, which is a kind of subharmonic surge, appears also far from the stagnation boundary for relatively short delivery flow-paths. The latter is found to be a rear-stage surge caused by unstalling and re-stalling of the rear stages with the front-stages kept in stall in the stalled condition of the whole compressor, which situation is caused by stage-wise mismatching in the bottom pressure levels of the in-stall multi-stage compressor. The fundamental information on the stall stagnation boundaries is given by a group of normalized geometrical parameters including relative delivery flow-path length, relative suction flow-path length, and sectional area-pressure ratio, and by another group of normalized frequency parameters including relative surge frequencies, modified reduced resonance frequencies, and modified reduced surge frequencies. Respective groups of the normalized parameters show very similar tendency of behaviors for the nine-stage compressor and the single-stage compressor. The modified reduced resonance frequency could be the more reasonable parameter suggesting the flow-induced oscillation nature of the surge phenomena. It could give the stall stagnation boundary in a more unified manner than the Greitzer's B parameter.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.160-173
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• 2014

Surge phenomena in multi-stage axial flow compressors were studied with attention to the frequency behaviors. A new parameter "volume-modified reduced surge frequency" was introduced, which took into consideration the essential surge process, i.e., emptying and filling of the working gas in the delivery plenum. The behaviors of the relative surge frequencies at the stall stagnation boundaries, compared with the corresponding duct resonance frequencies, have demonstrated the existence of two types of surges; i.e., a near-resonant surge and a subharmonic surge. The former, which has fundamentally a near-resonance frequency, occurs predominantly at the stall stagnation boundary for the short -and-fat plenum delivery flow-path and the long-and-narrow delivery duct flow-path, and possibly in the intermediate conditions. The latter, which has a subharmonic frequency of the fundamental near-resonant one and occurs mainly in the intermediate zone, is considered to be caused by the reduced frequency restricted to a limited range. In relation with those dimensionless frequencies at the stall stagnation boundary, the surge frequency behaviors in more general situations away from the boundaries could be estimated, though very roughly.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.110-124
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• 2014

Surge phenomena in the zone of reduced speeds in a system of a nine-stage axial flow compressor coupled with ducts were studied analytically by use of a surge transient simulation code. Main results are as follows. (1) Expansion of apparently stable, non-surge working area of the pressure vs. flow field beyond the initial stage-stall line was predicted by the code in the lower speed region. The area proved analytically to be caused by significantly mismatched stage-working conditions, particularly with the front stages deep in the rotating stall branch of the characteristics, as was already known in situ and in steady-state calculations also. (2) Surge frequencies were found to increase for decreasing compressor speeds as far as the particular compressor system was concerned. (3) The tendency was found to be explained by a newly introduced volume-modified reduced surge frequency. It suggests that the surge frequency is related intimately with the process of emptying and filling of air into the delivery volume. (4) The upstream range of movement of the fluid mass having once passed through the compressor in surge was found to reduce toward the lower speeds, which could have caused additionally the increase in surge frequency. (5) The concept of the volume-modified reduced surge frequency was able to explain, though qualitatively at present, the behaviors of the area-pressure ratio parameter for the stall stagnation boundary proposed earlier by the author.