A high-order model of rotating stall in axial compressors with inlet distortion

In this paper, a high-order distortion model is proposed for analyzing the rotating stall inception process induced by inlet distortion in axial compressors. A distortion-generating screen in the compressor inlet is considered. By assuming a quadratic function for the local flow total pressure-drop, the existing Mansoux model is extended to include the effects of static inlet distortion, and a new high-order distortion model is derived. To illustrate the effectiveness of the distortion model, numerical simulations are performed on an eighteenth-order model. It is demonstrated that long length-scale disturbances emerge out of the distorted background flow, and further induce the onset of rotating stall in advance. In addition, the circumferential non-uniform distribution and time evolution of the axial flow are also shown to be consistent with the existing features. It is thus shown that the high-order distortion model is capable of describing the transient behavior of stall inception and will contribute further to stall detection under inlet distortion. (C) 2017 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.National Major Scientific Instruments Development Project of China [61527811]; National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China [61225014]; Guangdong Inovative Project [2013KJCX0009]; Guangdong Provice Natural Science Foundation [2014A030312005]; Guangdong Provice Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering; Space Intelligent Control Key Laboratory of Science and Technology for National DefenseSCI(E)中国科学引文数据库(CSCD)ARTICLE3898-9063