Davide Biliotti

Department of Industrial Engineering,

University of Florence,
Via di Santa Marta 3,
Firenze 50139, Italy
e-mail: biliotti@vega.de.unifi.it

Alessandro Bianchini
Department of Industrial Engineering,
University of Florence,
Via di Santa Marta 3,
Firenze 50139, Italy
e-mail: bianchini@vega.de.unifi.it
Giuseppe Vannini
GE Oil&Gas,
Via Felice Matteucci 2,
Florence 50127, Italy
e-mail: giuseppe.vannini@ge.com
Elisabetta Belardini
GE Oil&Gas,
Via Felice Matteucci 2,
Florence 50127, Italy
e-mail: elisabetta.belardini@ge.com
Marco Giachi
GE Oil&Gas,
Via Felice Matteucci 2,
Florence 50127, Italy
e-mail: marco.giachi@ge.com
Libero Tapinassi
GE Oil&Gas,
Via Felice Matteucci 2,
Florence 50127, Italy
e-mail: libero.tapinassi@ge.com
Lorenzo Ferrari
CNR-ICCOM,
National Research Council of Italy,
Via Madonna del Piano 10,
Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy
e-mail: lorenzo.ferrari@iccom.cnr.it
Analysis of the Rotordynamic
Response of a Centrifugal
Compressor Subject to
Aerodynamic Loads Due
to Rotating Stall
In the current industrial research on centrifugal compressors, manufacturers are showing
increasing interest in the extension of the minimum stable flow limit in order to improve
the operability of each unit. The aerodynamic performance of a compressor stage is
indeed often limited before surge by the occurrence of diffuser rotating stall. This phe-
nomenon generally causes an increase of the radial vibrations, which, however, is not
always connected with a remarkable performance detriment. In case the operating curve
has been limited by a mechanical criterion, i.e., based on the onset of induced vibrations,
an investigation on the evolution of the aerodynamic phenomenon when the flow rate is
further reduced can provide some useful information. In particular, the identification of
the real thermodynamic limit of the system could allow one to verify if the new load con-
dition could be tolerated by the rotordynamic system in terms of radial vibrations. Within
this context, recent works showed that the aerodynamic loads due to a vaneless diffuser
rotating stall can be estimated by means of test-rig experimental data of the most critical
stage. Moreover, by including these data into a rotordynamic model of the whole
machine, the expected vibration levels in real operating conditions can be satisfactorily
predicted. To this purpose, a wide-range analysis was carried out on a large industrial
database of impellers operating in presence of diffuser rotating stall; the analysis high-
lighted specific ranges for the resultant rotating force in terms of intensity and excitation
frequency. Moving from these results, rotordynamic analyses have been performed on a
specific case study to assess the final impact of these aerodynamic excitations.
[DOI: 10.1115/1.4028246]

Giovanni Ferrara
Department of Industrial Engineering,
University of Florence,
Via di Santa Marta 3,
Firenze 50139, Italy
e-mail: giovanni.ferrara@unifi.it

Introduction In particular, renewed interest is being paid to a more in-depth

comprehension of rotating stall.
Recent design trends for industrial compressors are mainly
This complex aerodynamic phenomenon generally precedes the
focused on finding solutions both to maximize the efficiency and
surge and establishes the minimum flow condition of the operating
to extend the limits of the operating curve in order to improve the
curve, as it causes both a decrease of the stage performance and,
operating flexibility of the machine.
even severe, rotor subsynchronous vibrations [1,2]. In detail, in
If, on one hand, the aerodynamic efficiency levels have nearly
common industrial practice, the most restrictive of these two
reached a technological limit, on the other hand the operating
effects defines the last acceptable point of the curve. In particular,
curve extension is thought to have room for further improvements.
it is worth noticing that the former criterion is related to the slope
of the head coefficient (sgp) curve, and the limit is basically ther-
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF TURBOMACHINERY. Manuscript received July 15, 2014;
modynamic, whereas the second one represents a mechanical limit
final manuscript received July 30, 2014; published online September 10, 2014. not necessarily connected with a performance detriment of the
Editor: Ronald Bunker. stage.

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 In this study, the attention is particularly focused on vaneless
diffuser rotating stall [3,4]. Since the fundamental study by Jansen
[5], who first showed that the stall onset could be triggered by the
local inversion of the radial velocity component in the vaneless
diffuser, several studies have analyzed the physics of the phenom-
enon, with particular reference to the influence of the diffusers
geometry [69], the impeller type [1012] and the determination
of the minimum flow angle at the impeller outlet which can gener-
ate the separation of the boundary layer within the diffuser and
the consequent reverse flow [13,14].
More recently, increasing attention was instead focused on the
effects of the rotating stall on the rotordynamic behavior of the
compressor [15,16]. In particular, attention was paid to the deter-
mination of the related aerodynamic forces due to the unbalancing
of the pressure field in stall conditions [17,18].
In particular, recently a systematic approach has been proposed
by Bianchini et al. [19] to estimate the resultant of the pressure
field distortion during the stall, in terms of amplitude and fre-
quency, and hence evaluate the effects of the rotating stall on the
vibrations of the compressor. Using this approach, the author
showed the possibility to predict the stall induced vibrations on a
real machine by analyzing the experimental data of the critical
stage in test-rig similitude conditions through a proper scaling
criterion to on-site conditions.
An accurate estimation of the rotating stall force, could in fact
allow one to identify the actual operating conditions and evaluate
if rotating stall effects could represent a problem for the vibration
behavior of the compressor. With this in mind, an investigation on
the evolution of the aerodynamic phenomenon when the flow rate
is further reduced is thought to provide some useful information
to find the real thermodynamic limit of the system, as one could
be able to verify if the new load condition could be tolerated by
the rotordynamic system in terms of radial vibrations. In this
study, a detailed analysis of a wide industrial model test database
was first carried out in order to highlight the stall characteristics in
terms of frequencies, forces and geometry parameters. Starting
from these considerations, a rotordynamic analyses campaign has
been carried out on different case studies to evaluate the actual
impact of the rotating force by varying its value, frequency and
journal bearings characteristics. In particular, the attention was
focused on the safety margin theoretically available to let the
machine operate safely beyond the stall onset.
Industrial Database Analysis
In order to assess some realistic variation ranges for the rotating
stall characteristics (e.g., resulting force amplitude and fre-
quency), a wide industrial database of stages in stall conditions
was analyzed. The available data set consisted of experimental
data coming from 15 different stages having different configura-
tions, peripheral Mach number (Mu) and working pressure, result-
ing in a global amount of more than 60 different tests. All the
experimental data were collected in a specialized test-rig able to
operate in a closed loop either with air at ambient pressure and
temperature at the inlet, or with other gases with higher molecular
weights (e.g., R134a) in pressurized conditions [19]. An inlet
pressure up to 13 bar was allowed by the rig. The tested models
reproduced intermediate and pseudo-axial stages of industrial cen-
trifugal compressors equipped either with a 2D or a 3D impeller
and a preswirler, an upstream deswirler, a return channel (RC), or
a scroll, according to the configurations shown in Table 1.
Although geometric details cannot be reported in the study (due
to a nondisclosure agreement with the industrial partner), it is
worth pointing out some important parameters able to identify the
stages. All the study cases had b2/R2 and R4/R2 ratios in the
ranges 0.050.15 and 1.401.65, respectively. The peripheral
Mach numbers were in the range between 0.3 and 1.3, whereas
the design flow coefficients (u) of the impellers were enclosed
between 0.02 and 0.16. The impellers (both bidimensional and tri-
dimensional) had a number of blades between 17 and 23.
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Table 1 Tested stages configurations
Configuration 2D3D impeller Preswirler Deswirler RC/scroll
Intermediate x x x x
Pseudo-axial x x
During all the tests, five measurement sections were equipped
with different sensors, corresponding to the stage inlet, the impel-
ler outlet, the diffuser inlet and outlet and the RC bend. In all sec-
tions, conventional measurements of pressure and temperature
were performed (for further details on the typical instrumentation
used in a similar test rig, please see Refs. [4,7,8,19,20]). In addi-
tion, to investigate the pressure fluctuations in aerodynamically
unstable functioning, three dynamic pressure measurements were
provided at an angular positioning of 0 deg, 90 deg, and 120 deg in
Secs. 20 and 40, i.e., the diffuser inlet and outlet. Although two
sensors were hypothetically enough for the analysis at each sec-
tion, the additional probe allowed cross-checks between the sig-
nals to verify the reliability of the results.
Before showing the result of the analysis it is worth remarking
that a non-negligible number of the considered model tests high-
lighted a stall inception according to the mechanical criterion, i.e.,
the pressure unbalance due to the rotating stall did not seem to
affect the performance curve.
As an example, in Fig. 1, the head coefficient curve of one of
the model tests is reported: as one may notice, the curve definition
based on the stall onset would notably limit the curve even if the
machine maintains its thermodynamic stability.
Test Data Analysis. The analysis of the database was carried
out by means of a systematic procedure based on dynamic pres-
sure sensors, which allowed to define the stall frequency, the rotat-
ing force intensity and the number of lobes of each available
study case [21].
Collected data were categorized by impeller family, geometri-
cal characteristics (i.e., impeller diameter, diffuser width, diffu-
sion ratio), and design performance in order to look for relevant
trends in stall characteristics, as will be shown later in the study.
The methodology to calculate the external force due to the
rotating stall needed some important assumptions; in particular,
since the reconstruction of the stall pattern is based on the transpo-
sition of the signal recorded by dynamic pressure probes from the
time domain to the space domain, the hypothesis that the stall
rotates like a rigid body must be imposed [4]. This hypothesis has
been, however, widely verified (e.g., Refs. [4] and [2123]). In
order to shift from the time to the space domain, the ensemble
average approach was exploited, which allowed to average the
time signal in a specific interval t to obtain the mean pressure
Fig. 1 Dimensionless head coefficient versus dimensionless
flow coefficient (i.e., u* 5 u/udes) for a tested stage
Transactions of the ASME
 value; a correct estimation of the time period of the phenomenon
is therefore needed. The first step of the reconstruction consists in
a signal filtering of two dynamic pressure probes with a low-pass
digital filter in the time domain which cut out the frequency con-
tents higher than the 1xREV frequency (e.g., the blade passing
frequency). Then, the autocorrelation and the cross-correlation
functions were applied [24]. The autocorrelation function defined
in Eq. (1) allows verifying if a signal contains a component that is
related with itself in a sufficiently long time analysis window (T),
i.e., the stall frequency
X
1
Cxx s xtxt s (1)
t1

Then, the cross-correlation function (Eq. (2)) was used to define

the phase shift (D#) between the signals of a couple of dynamic
pressure probes; this procedure leads to a verification of the pres- Fig. 2 Distribution of the dimensionless force coefficient in
sure pattern shape, i.e., the number of lobes. the analyzed test models
X
1
Cxy s xtyt s (2)
t1

Once the frequency of the phenomenon has been calculated,

assuming that the pressure pattern due to the stall pattern is rotat-
ing subsynchronously like a rigid body (see Ref. [4,19]), the anal-
ysis can be transposed from the time domain to the space domain
by an ensemble averaging process.
The outcome of the averaging process is therefore a reconstruc-
tion of the pressure level along the diffuser circumference in
correspondence with the radius at which the sensors have been
inserted. If one neglects as a first approximation the induced dis-
tortions of the radial velocity distribution at the impeller exit [21],
the unbalancing force acting radially to the rotor is indeed given
by Eq. (3), i.e., considering the resultant of the nonaxisymmetric
pressure pattern around the impeller [19], i.e.,
2p
Fig. 3 Analyzed stall patterns as a function of the dimension-
Fstall pwb20 R20 dw (3) less frequency and the force coefficient
0

As a last step, the calculated force was applied to the rotordy-
namic model of the system (single stage or whole multistage com-
pressor) to predict the vibrations on the rotor shaft during the stall
condition. Further details on the systematic approach can be found
in Bianchini et al. [21].
Main Results. The first aspect that has been investigated
based on the database analysis was the frequency of the stall. In
particular:
87% of the model tests analyzed showed a stall frequency in
the range of 520% of the 1xREV
13% showed a stall frequency over 20% of the 1xREV up to
a maximum of about 80%, noticed in a specific impeller fam-
ily with a high flow coefficient
Moreover, the stall cases were characterized in term of pressure
pattern shape (i.e., lobes number), which actually represents a
key point in the evaluation of the resulting force, as discussed by
Bianchini et al. [21]. Upon examination of the results, it was
noticed that
the single lobe pattern is by far the most likely configuration,
with 89% of the total.
the multilobes stall cases appeared only with a two and three-
lobes shape in 9% and 2% of the total tests, respectively. In
details, multilobes stall cases appeared for higher values of
the b2/R2 ratio and low diffusion ratios (R4/R2) than those
connected to single lobe stall cases.
Another very relevant piece of information obtained through
the database analysis refers to the stall force intensity [19].
A wide range of values was measured and no well-marked trend
was identified. For two-lobes and three-lobes stalls, however, the
force value tended to be very low as a result of a partial compen-
sation of the pressure field among each lobe. In detail, to compare
impellers with different geometric proportions and design points,
a dimensionless coefficient (v) was defined, as in Eq. (4). The v
coefficient correlates the stall force with the dynamic pressure and
the geometrical characteristics at the exit of the impeller.
Fstall
v (4)
0:5  q2  c22  A2
As a result, it can be used to scale the resulting force in the
model test to the operating conditions. More specifically, in order
to verify the scaling criterion, the measured vibration levels of
some real compressors subject to rotating stall conditions were
compared to those predicted on the basis of the rotordynamic sim-
ulation carried out with the estimated stall force. Good agreement
between experimental and numerical data was found and the scal-
ing criterion could be considered as verified [19]. The distribution
of measured values of the dimensionless force coefficient is
reported in Fig. 2.
It is worth noticing that the largest part of the analyzed model
tests (70%) is gathered in the v range 00.03, with a total average
value of 0.029.
Figure 3 shows the relationship between the v coefficient in
function of the stall frequency presented in a dimensionless form,
using Eq. (5). In particular, as common practice, the stall fre-
quency is here reported as a fraction of the revolution frequency
of the rotor

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Fig. 4 Analyzed stall patterns as a function of the flow coeffi-
cient range and the force coefficient
fstall
f (5)
f1xREV
Although no consistent trend can be highlighted, it is worth
noticing again that the multilobed stalls exhibit lower force coeffi-
cient; moreover, the two shadowed zones show that very intense
stalls took place only at low frequencies, whereas high-frequency
stalls were generally characterized by low exciting forces. Finally,
Fig. 4 reports the stall behavior of the tested stages in terms of
force coefficient as a function of the flow coefficient range,
defined as follows:
low range: u < 0.03
medium range: 0.03 < u < 0.06
high range: u > 0.06
Even though very well-marked trends are still not present, the
reader can, however, notice that the force coefficient is generally
increasing with the nominal flow coefficient of the impellers.
Moreover, the few multilobes stall cases all showed up in case of
stages with high flow coefficients.
Methodology of the Analysis
Based on the indications coming from the industrial database, a
reliable estimation of the expected exciting forces due to rotating
stall was obtained.
Moving from this background, the main purpose of this study
was to investigate the effects of similar forces on the rotordy-
namic behavior of a real compressor operating at on-site condi-
tions (i.e., working pressure and speed) in case the rotating stall
occurs before the thermodynamic limit, where the head coefficient
slope becomes negative.
In particular, the final goal of the analysis was to verify if a low
flow margin extension in the stall zone could represent a feasible
solution in case the induced rotor vibrations are below the accept-
ability limit.
Case Study. A case study was first selected. In details, an
industrial multistage centrifugal compressor was analyzed. The
machine is composed by four stages designed to operate with nat-
ural gas between an inlet pressure of 6.6 bar and a discharge of
29.3 bar. Numerical models and experimental measurements (see
Ref. [19]) confirmed that the critical stage (i.e., the first to reach
the rotating stall conditions) is the fourth one. This stage was pre-
liminary tested as a model test in the specialized rig, showing a
stall frequency of about 7% of the revolution frequency and a v
coefficient of 0.021.
The full compressor was then tested in a specialized closed-
loop test rig operating with R134a. This technical solution is
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Fig. 5 Comparison between predicted vibrations and
experiments
Table 2 Sensitivity study parameters
Parameter Analyzed values
Dimensionless stall frequency (f*) (0.011.00) f1xREV
Dimensionless force coefficient (v) 0.0050.0200.0350.075
Stiffness levels MIN MAX
Bearing clearance/preload Max/min Min/max
Oil inlet temperature Max Min
commonly applied by the industrial partner based on the higher
molecular weight of this gas with respect to air which allows test
in similarity conditions with lower inlet pressure. In the present
test, the inlet pressure was 0.7 bar and the flow was discharged at
a pressure of 7.25 bar. The test procedure was started from the
overflow condition and a regulation throttle valve was then closed
step by step toward the surge condition. After the flow instability
conditions occurred, well-marked subsynchronous frequencies
appeared (for further details see Ref. [19]). The vibration level on
the fully developed subsynchronous phenomenon was compared
to that attended on the basis of the rotordynamic simulation,
which was carried out around the stall frequency with the esti-
mated stall force based on the v value. Figure 5 shows a very
good agreement between simulations and experiments, which are
here both presented in a dimensionless form, i.e., the vibration di-
vided by the maximum measured value. The proposed approach
was then considered sufficiently representative of the compressor
behavior to be applied for a general design guideline.
Sensitivity Analysis. On this basis, this compressor was then
used as a common test case to analyze the rotordynamic effects of
a different rotating stall force in terms of intensity and frequency
with respect to the 1xREV.
In details, the database analysis provided some values of inter-
est (Table 2) for the dimensionless parameters (v and f*) that
were then properly scaled to the operating conditions of the
machine. As one may notice, Table 2 also reports the extreme
clearance/preload values of the journal bearings together with oil
inlet temperature range to be considered in the analysis. It is in
fact of crucial relevance exploring all the tolerance and tempera-
ture range during the design phase (as it is typical in rotordynamic
analysis done according to API617 7th ed. [25]) to cover the mini-
mum (MIN) and maximum (MAX) stiffness conditions, which
correspond to the opposite levels of both the aforementioned
variables.
Proper combinations of the parameters of Table 2 provided a
set of stall forces that were then applied to the rotordynamic
model of the compressor, which provided the response in terms of
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 6 Rotordynamic model of the compressor
maximum vibrations at the bearings. The results were compared
to maximum acceptable values, highlighting the limit conditions
for an hypothetical operation during rotating stall.
As a reference, the maximum allowable total vibration level
(Alimit) was set to 25 lm peak to peak and the maximum allowable
subsynchronous vibration level (due to the rotating stall) was
set to 20% Alimit: 5 lm peak to peak according to API617 7th
ed. [25].
Rotordynamic Model
The rotordynamic model of the compressor was assessed by a
numerical code based on a finite elements approach [26].
The schematization used in the code is reported in Fig. 6,
coupled with the mechanical drawing of the rotor.
Upon examination of the figure, some of the main rotor features
can be readily noticed:
Beam Rotor design: the rotor is typical of a multistage
compressor where the impellers are located between the
journal bearings.
In Fig. 6, all the elements red in color have both stiffness and
inertial properties while the gray in color elements have iner-
tial properties only.
Each impeller is modeled mainly in terms of inertia (the rele-
vant lumped mass is placed in the center of gravity).
Among the other main items: the flexible coupling is modeled
as a lumped mass placed in the relevant center of gravity, the
thrust collar, balance piston and dry gas seals are modeled
through real geometry as inertial elements.
Journal bearings locations are also indicated. They are hydro-
dynamic tilting pad type bearings and they are modeled
through a pair of stiffness and damping matrices. Synchro-
nous reduced coefficients are computed through a numerical
code capable of accounting for pad pivot flexibility and pad
thermalmechanical deformations [27]. Synchronous reduced
coefficients are used here following both the design standard
guidelines [25] and Company authors internal practice.
Internal seals locations are identified. The seals effects can be
accounted for through the relevant dynamic coefficients. For
laby seals, the code described in Thorat and Childs [28] is
used at Authors Company, while in case of a honeycomb
seal the relevant code by Kleynhans and Childs [29] can be
adopted. The seal coefficients are conventionally accounted
for in the stability analysis only, as the rotor damping factor
is of primary interest in this analysis (actually the seals have
a major impact on the rotor effective damping due to their
high cross coupled stiffness term, see Eq. (6)). For this spe-
cific forced response analysis (performed at full load condi-
tion), however, they may have theoretically an impact. From
a practical viewpoint, if only labyrinth seals are present, the
forced response is almost unaffected in the low frequency
region (i.e., far from the rotor natural frequency) because the
seals contribution to the effective stiffness (see Eq. (7)) is
negligible with respect to the journal bearings contribution.
On the other hand, in the frequency range near the natural
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frequency (where the effective damping is more important),
they can effectively reduce the system damping, as will be
shown later in the study. Finally, in case a honeycomb seal is
present (typically on the balance piston), its contribution is
likely important from a stiffness viewpoint and it may change
the forced response even at low frequency.
Ceff Cxx  Kxy =x (6)
Keff Kxx Cxy  x (7)
The calculated aerodynamic force in each load case was finally
applied to the rotordynamic model in the location of the critical
impeller center of gravity (e.g., the force is applied only on the
impeller relevant to the stage which is more likely to exhibit a
rotating stallsee Ref. [30]).
The forced response to the aerodynamic excitation was mod-
eled via the asynchronous response module of the software which
is able to predict the behavior of the rotor under an external load
not synchronized with the running speed (differently from the
more conventional study case of rotor imbalance). In details, the
external excitation was modeled as a rotating force with constant
amplitude (scaled by Eq. (4)) and variable frequency.
The whole subsynchronous range was investigated, although
special attention was reserved to the range between 0.1f1xREV and
0.8f1xREV that was highlighted by the database as the most com-
mon range for rotating stall frequency.
Results and Discussion
The rotordynamic response of the system to the aerodynamic
excitation due to rotating stall was first analyzed.
In details, Fig. 7 reports the maximum expected vibrations at
the plane of the vibration probes closer to the critical impeller
(i.e., on the drive end side for the case in object) as a function of
the stall force (in terms of dimensionless v coefficient) and the fre-
quency of the stall itself (f*). Moreover, in this first case, the two
bearings clearance values provided by the manufacturer were
investigated together with the extreme oil inlet temperatures, in
order to simulate the MIN and MAX stiffness conditions (see
Table 2), whereas the labyrinth seals were not considered.
The gray-shadowed zone in Fig. 7 represents the range of
acceptability in terms of subsynchronous vibration of the system
according to the API617 Standard (7th ed.) [25].
Upon examination of Fig. 7, some interesting remarks can be
made. Specifically:
as expected, the vibration amplitudes are directly propor-
tional to the force intensity in the analyzed range of
frequencies.
Fig. 7 Predicted vibrations as a function of the stall force in-
tensity and frequency for the two clearance limits of the bear-
ings (no seals)
FEBRUARY 2015, Vol. 137 / 021002-5
 Fig. 8 Predicted vibrations as a function of the stall force in-
tensity and frequency with the laby seals effect
the journal bearings stiffness has a notable impact on the
rotordynamic behavior of the system. In particular, a larger
clearance and a higher oil inlet temperature imply a lower
bearing stiffness; as a result, the maximum vibrations are
magnified and the resonance region is extended in frequency.
Moreover, the first critical frequency of the system is also
shifted toward lower frequencies, closer to the typical stall
range, i.e., (00.3)f1xREV.
The analysis was then repeated, introducing the effect of
labyrinth seals (Fig. 8). As expected, the forced response was
practically unaffected in the low frequency region (i.e., far from
the rotor natural frequency), as the seals contribution to stiffness
is remarkably lower than that of journal bearings. On the other
hand, in the frequency range near the natural frequency, the seals
effectively reduced the system damping, increasing the predicted
vibration of the system. It is worth noticing, however, that the fre-
quency response was affected only in the region outside of the
acceptability range (i.e., no change in the estimation of the maxi-
mum allowable force).
Figures 7 and 8 can be further analyzed combining the accepta-
ble limit indicated by the standard with the presented response
curves. More specifically, for each value of the rotating stall fre-
quency, the maximum tolerated force intensity can be defined in
Fig. 10 Approach of the study
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Fig. 9 Maximum tolerated v values as a function of the stall
frequency (with respect to f1xREV) and the clearance of the
bearings
the two stiffness configurations. The results of this analysis are
presented in Fig. 9.
From a perusal of the figure, one can readily notice that the
impact of rotating stall force can be very different depending on
the relative distance between the rotating stall frequency and the
critical frequency of the system.
The information contained in Fig. 9 represents the main
outcome of the current study. More specifically, when the rotordy-
namic design of the compressor has been assessed, a specific map
similar to that reported in Fig. 9 might be plotted. Then, the
test-rig measurements on the most critical stage will provide an
estimation of both the attended v value for the stall force and its
rotational frequency f*.
Combining these two data, a point in the map is promptly
defined and can be compared with the maximum tolerated force
on the system. In case the limits are not exceeded, a curve exten-
sion of the critical stage can be then taken into account. Other-
wise, a review of the rotordynamic characteristics, especially in
terms of bearing stiffness, might be carried out to mitigate the
vibrations connected to the stall if the operating curve extension is
worth pursuing. A scheme of the proposed approach developed in
this study is reported in Fig. 10.
Transactions of the ASME
 For example, with the present values of v 0.021 and f* 0.07
f1xREV, the expected force at site conditions was estimated in the
order of 290 N, producing a subsynchronous vibration at the probe
closer to the impeller equal to 1.5 lmP-P and 6.1 lmP-P at the max-
imum and minimum stiffness cases, respectively.
Based on these results, as the expected vibrations at minimum
bearing stiffness are higher than the acceptable limit imposed by
the standard, if an extension of the curve is needed, the machine
should be operated at the maximum bearing stiffness or a different
bearing design should be selected.
Conclusions
In this study, an extended analysis of an industrial database of
impellers operating in rotating stall conditions was first carried
out, mainly focusing on the characterization of the stall pattern
and its resulting force in terms of both frequency and intensity.
The analysis showed that the largest part of the impellers (87%)
showed a stall frequency in the range 520% of the 1xREV,
although frequencies up to a maximum of about 80% were also
noticed, especially for high flow coefficient stages.
The single lobe pattern was by far the most likely configuration,
with 89% of the total. Multilobes stall cases appeared only with a
two and three-lobes shape in 9% and 2% of the total tests, respec-
tively. In order to compare impellers with different geometric pro-
portions and design points, a dimensionless force coefficient was
then defined dividing the calculated force by the dynamic pressure
and the geometrical characteristics at the exit of the impeller.
Based on this definition, approximately 70% of the model tests
revealed a force coefficient in the range 00.03.
Moving from the indications of the industrial database, the
effects of similar forces on the rotordynamic behavior of a real
compressor operating at site conditions were evaluated, to verify
if a low flow limit extension in the stall zone could represent a
feasible solution in case the induced rotor vibrations are below the
acceptability limit.
More specifically, by means of a real case study, a procedure to
verify the vibration behavior in case of rotating stall was assessed
and verified in the present case, also accounting for different bear-
ings stiffness levels. This new approach is thought to provide a
very useful tool in the design phase of a machine and a first step
toward a practical extension of the minimum flow margin of the
operating curve.
Acknowledgment
Thanks are due to GE Oil&Gas for supporting this research
activity and providing the permission to show the results. The
authors would like also to acknowledge Professor Ennio Antonio
Carnevale of the University of Florence for his invaluable contri-
bution to this study.
Nomenclature
A area (m2)
Alimit maximum allowable total vibration (lm)
b diffusers width (m)
c absolute velocity (m/s)
C correlation function
Ceff effective damping (Ns/m)
Cij direct/cross coupled damping coefficient (Ns/m)
fstall stall frequency (Hz)
Fstall stall force (N)
f1xREV revolution frequency (Hz)
f* dimensionless stall frequency
Keff effective stiffness (N/m)
Kij direct/cross coupled stiffness coefficient (N/m)
MAX maximum stiffness condition
MIN minimum stiffness condition
Mu peripheral Mach number
Journal of Turbomachinery
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p pressure (bar)
R radius (m)
RC return channel
t time (s)
x, y generic phenomena/quantities
1xREV rotational frequency (Hz)
Greek Symbols
D# phase shift between two sensors (deg)
gp polytrophic efficiency
q density (kg/m3)
s time shift (s)
sgP head coefficient
u flow coefficient
v dimensionless force coefficient
w azimuthal angle (deg)
Subscripts
des design
2 outlet section of the impeller
20 inlet section of the diffuser
40 outlet section of the diffuser
Superscript
* dimensionless value
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