Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar

Summer 2004

Special Problem Report

Advanced Control Techniques for Modern

Compressor Rotors

submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirement for the degree of
Masters of Science

In

Aerospace Engineering

by

Vishwas Iyengar
gtg874k@mail.gatech.edu

under the guidance of

Dr. Lakshmi N. Sankar

School of Aerospace Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta

July 2004

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Abstract
Performance characteristics of a transonic axial flow compressor called NASA Rotor 67 have
been analyzed using a three-dimensional time accurate Navier-Stokes analysis. Active control methods
have been developed to eliminate the surge/stall phenomena. This study investigates the use of ‘Self-
Recirculation’ treatment to alleviate the stall phenomena and compares it to previously obtained results
from bleed control. It also studies the effect of ‘Coanda Jets’ circulation control on rotor aerodynamics. It
is demonstrated that the stable operating range can be extended by delaying the initiation of surge/stall. It
was found that circulation control was useful in reducing trailing edge separation, and in turning the flow
downstream of the trailing edge, no appreciable increase in sectional loads was observed.

Introduction
High-speed, high pressure ratio axial compression systems are widely used in many aerodynamic
applications. However they have a limited range of stable operations at low-mass flow rates because of
fluid dynamic instabilities. These instabilities cause deteriorations in system operations due to the
compressor reaching a state of rotating stall or surge.
Rotating stall is essentially a 2-D unsteady local phenomenon where the flow is no longer
uniform. It is defined as a region of separated flow moving along a blade row. The stalled regions rotate
about the shaft axis and move from blade to blade. The resulting vibrations cause severe blade stresses to
be imposed at low mass flow operation.
Surge is a self excited cyclic phenomenon affecting the whole compression system, and
accompanied by low frequency fluctuations in pressure and mass flow rate. Reversal of flow is also
possible. Surge is classified into four different classes based on flow and pressure fluctuations: Mild
surge, Classis surge, Modified surge, Deep surge.
Throughout the aero-propulsion history, much work has been done to broaden the compressor
operating range by developing control strategies to alleviate the rotating stall and surge. In the last two
decades considerable progress has been made in understanding and modeling of axial compressor stall
and surge. It is well known that the adverse flow conditions in tip clearance can cause the surge/stall
phenomena and reduce the pressure rise, flow range and efficiency of the turbomachinery.
With the growth in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as an effective analysis technique, in
CFD we have a resourceful tool which provides us with a way to simulate and understand the complex
flow phenomena in turbomachinery. 3-D codes that are capable of analyzing unsteady turbomachinery
flow with single and multiple blade passages have been developed by several researchers 1-5. But these
have been limited to modeling steady flow phenomena in axial and centrifugal compressors, near/or at
design conditions. Active control methodologies, which can alleviate the stall/surge phenomena, such as
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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
Summer 2004
bleeding and air injection can be studied extensively by CFD as long as an appropriate numerical model is
available.
Active control approaches, while effective, have two drawbacks. Firstly, since the air is being
bleed, we have a loss of high pressure air which hinders the total pressure rise from the compressor. And
secondly there is still the need for an active controller and actuator. Passive concepts which involve no (or
very few) moving parts will be preferable. One such concept called the “self-recirculation” was recently
proposed by Hathaway6 (2002) and has already been applied to the Rotor 67 configuration.
Circulation control technology is an effective way of achieving high levels of lift without stall. It
makes use of thin jets that follow highly curved surfaces without separation due to the Coanda effect and
are particularly effective in that they can entrain a large mass of surrounding air. Several researchers 7-8
have successfully applied this technology to fixed wing and nacelle configurations. Coanda jets may
eliminate or mitigate trailing edge stall, which is often encountered by rotors. It may also be used to
control the flow turning angle at the rotor trailing edge. Coanda jets used on a fixed guide vane can turn
the inviscid flow outside the shear layers by very large angles, mimicking a variable geometry
stator/guide vane.
The purpose of this present study is to apply this concept to the Rotor 67 configuration and to
compare this concept to the active bleeding that has already been studied 9-11 for the same configuration.
The Coanda jet concept is also applied to the same Rotor 67 configuration in order to determine its effects
on rotor aerodynamics. The impact of circulation control technique on axial compressor performance,
particularly at low mass flow rates is also investigated. The study also discusses efforts made in
improving the robustness of the in-house code ‘GT-Turbo3D’. Code development studies include the
implementation of the Lower-Upper Gauss Seidel Scheme (LU-SGS).

Mathematical and Numerical Formulation

The 3-D unsteady compressible Reynolds averages Navier-Stokes equations are solved in the
strong conservation form. The governing equations (1) are solved in the control volume form and can be
written as:
∂ − − − −

∂t ∫∫∫
ÓV
qdV + ∫∫S
(E i + F j+ G k )⋅ n dS =

− − − −
(1)
∫∫
S
( R i + S j + T k )⋅ n dS

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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−
In Equation (1), S and V refer to the control surface and control volume respectively, and n is the

outward normal vector to surface S.

The inviscid fluxes E, F, and G are calculated to third order spatial accuracy using Roe’s
approximate Riemann solver whereas the viscous fluxes R, S and T are computed explicitly. The time
derivatives are computed with a two- or three- point backward difference scheme, making the employed
scheme first or second order accurate in time. Turbulence viscosity effects are accounted for using the
eddy viscosity model of Spalart-Allmaras.
The Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes equations are numerically solved using an explicit time
marching scheme. Here the governing equations are solved at each time step by marching in time with
appropriate boundary condition from an initial flow condition.

LU-SGS Scheme:

In three dimensional Cartesian coordinates, the conservative differential form of (1) in

generalized curvilinear coordinate system can be written as:

∂q ∂E ∂ F ∂ G ∂ R ∂ S ∂ T
+ + + = + + (2)
∂t ∂ ξ ∂ η ∂ ζ ∂ ξ ∂ η ∂ ζ
By applying a first-order approximation to the time derivative of the state vector and linearizing
the inviscid fluxes in time (2) can be rewritten in the linearized delta form as

 ∧ ∧ ∧ 
 I + ∆τ (δ ξ A+ δη B+ δζ C ) ∆ q = RHS (3)
 
∧ ∂E ∧ ∂ F ∧ ∂ G
where A= ,B = ,C = are 5x5 flux Jacobian matrices.
∂q ∂q ∂q
Many researchers12-13 have reported that the computation of A, B and C in (3) as being very cumbersome
and expensive computationally. Yoon and Jameson12 developed a Lower-Upper Symmetric-Gauss-Seidel
(LU-SGS) method. In this approach eqn. (3) can be written in the form

( L + D + U ) ∆q = RHS (4)

where U is a upper diagonal triangular matrix with null matrices on the diagonal, D is a block diagonal
matrix and L is the lower diagonal matrix. For the case where D is a non-singular matrix, (4) can be
rewritten as:

(
D D −1L + 1 + D− 1U ∆q ) (5)

Performing LU-factorization on (5),

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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( D + L ) D −1 ( D + U ) ∆ q (6)

where (D+L), D and (D+U) are given by (7), (8) and (9).

 A− B− C− 
( D + L ) = I − ∆ τ  − δ ξ A + − δ η B + − δ ζ−C + 
− + − +
(7)
 ∆ξ ∆η ∆ζ 
∆τ + ∆τ ∆τ
D=I+
∆ξ
(
A − A− +
∆η
)
B + − B− + (
∆ζ
C+ − C− ) ( ) (8)

 A+ B+ C+ 
( D + U ) = I + ∆ τ  + δ ξ+A −+ + δ η+B −+ + δ ζ+C − 
 (9)
 ∆ξ ∆η ∆ζ 
In the above expressions A, B and C are given by (10),
1
A± = ( A ± σ AI )
2
1
B ± = ( B ± σ BI ) (10)
2
1
C ± = ( C ± σ CI )
2
where, σ A ,σ B ,σ C are the spectral radii of A, B and C respectively.

Code Validation Studies

The Rotor 37 configuration is used to carry out the code validation studies. A nominal 60x36x21
grid with 5 points in the clearance gap is used. Performance of the rotor is investigated at design speed
(16043 RPM) and 70% design speed. The computational results are plotted on figures 1 and 2, and are
compared to experimental results obtained from Ref 14. The computational results are in good agreement
with the experimental results, especially at 70% of the design rotor speed.

LU-SGS Validation:

The LU-SGS scheme was implemented and the results were validated by comparing it with the
existing ADI (Alternating Direction Implicit) scheme. Figure 3 shows performance map obtained from
the LU scheme. Clearly it shows the implemented LU-SGS scheme is in good agreement with the
previously obtained performance map for the Rotor67 configuration. Although ADI scheme is used for
the entirety of the control studies carried out in this investigation.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Figure 1: Performance map of Rotor 37 configuration at the design speed of 16043 RPM. Experimental
results from Ref 14.

Figure 2: Performance map of Rotor 37 configuration at 70% design speed of 11230 RPM. Experimental
results from Ref 14.
atio

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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1.7

1.6
Figure 3: Rotor67 performance map comparing the results obtained from ADI and LU-SGS scheme.

Computational Grid and Configuration

The control studies were evaluated for the Rotor67 configuration. There is a large body of
experimental and computed data available for controlled and baseline configurations. The design pressure
ratio for the Rotor 67 configuration is 1.63, at a mass flow rate of 33.25 kg/sec. A nominal grid with 125
cells in the streamwise direction, 63 and 41 in radial and circumferential directions, respectively was
used. The clearance gap was spanned by six cells in the radial direction.
The body fitted H-grid was used for the purpose of this study is shown in figure 1. The original
configuration (figure 1(a)) is used for the ‘recirculation’ treatment concept whereas the modified

1.5
configuration (figure 1(b)) which has 3 more cells in the streamwise direction is used for the Coanda jet
studies.
The original trailing edge was modified, by adding blowing slots at a location that is 2% chord
upstream of the trailing edge. The existing curvature of the airfoil was used to achieve the Coanda effect.
The slot was modeled as a 30 deg ramp and the jet velocity is prescribed at 8 points which are assumed to
be uniformly distributed across the slot.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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3-D body fitted H-grid

(a) (b)

Blowing slot

Original Configuration Modified Configuration: 8 points

across the slot

Figure 4: Original and modified computational grid for the Rotor 67 configuration.

Boundary Conditions
The analysis implemented the following boundary conditions:
Inflow Boundary: The total pressure P0 and the stagnation temperature are assumed to be known for
inflow. The tangential components of velocity at the flow boundary conditions are set to zero, hence
assuming no swirl.
Outflow Boundary: It is assumed that the outflow downstream of the rotor exhausts into a plenum
chamber with a constant volume VP. From conservation of mass and isentropic gas law it can be shown
that the pressure in the plenum PP is given as:
dPp a 2p ⋅ ⋅
= (mc − mt ) (11)
dt Vp

⋅ ⋅
In the above expression mc represents the exit mass flow rate, and mt is the mass flow rate at the

plenum throttle. First order discretization of equation (11) gives:

⋅ ⋅
Ppn +1 = Ppn + K (mc − mt ) (12)

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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The constant K in equation (12) is dependent on the plenum chamber volume, and the time step
⋅
chosen. For the purpose of this study K is chosen at 0.10. The quantity mt is a prescribed input parameter

which represents the nominal mass flow rate. It lets the compressor run at different operating conditions.
The three components of velocity, density and all other quantities are extrapolated from the interior.
Periodicity: Only one blade passage is modeled in this study as the simulation of the entire flow requires
significant computational resources. It is assumed that the flow through blade passage considered is
identical to the next one, and hence periodic boundary condition is applied. The flow properties are
computed by averaging the properties on either side of the boundary at the periodic boundaries.
Zonal: The flow field is divided into patched zones where neighboring zones share grid lines on their
boundaries. At these boundaries the flow properties are computed by averaging the properties on the
neighboring points.
Solid Walls: A no-slip boundary condition is used a t the solid walls. The velocity for grid points on the
→ →
compressor blades and the shaft were set equal to Ω× r , while the velocity on the walls of the inlet and

diffuser were set to zero. Density, pressure and temperature values at all the solid surfaces were
extrapolated from the interior.
Injection Boundary: It is assumed that a ring of jets continually injects fluid into the tip region of the
rotor. Injection location, injection angle, injection yaw and injection mass flow rate are the user specified
inputs. These input values were converted into Cartesian velocity components along the computational
boundary. The pressure is extrapolated from the interior as the flow at the jet is subsonic, and the density
is computed from the equation of state.
Bleed Boundary: It is assumed that azimuthally uniform fluid is bled downstream of the compressor face.
Bleed valve location, and bleed valve pressure or bleed mass flow rate are the user specified inputs. The
normal velocity is then calculated using the input information. The pressure, density and two tangential
components of velocity are extrapolated from the interior.
Coanda Jet Boundary: A no-slip boundary condition is assumed at solid wall. This no slip boundary
condition on the blade surface was suitably altered in order to accommodate the jet. A jet velocity is
prescribed at the uniformly distributed across the slot.

Results and Discussion

The performance map of a compression system is the relation between the total pressure ratio and
the compressor mass flow. In practice, a characteristic performance map for a compressor is usually
obtained by changing its mass flow rate using a throttle valve in the plenum chamber.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Calculations were done in order to obtain the complete performance map for the Rotor 67
configuration. Figure 5 shows the performance map for the same configuration for 19 different operating
conditions. The back pressure is calculated from the user specified mass flow rate at the plenum exit. The
pressure difference between the compressor inlet and diffuser exit is defined as the total pressure ratio in
this study.
Design mass flow rate for this configuration being 33.25 kg/sec, calculations were done at mass
flow rate below design point till the rotor reached a state of rotating stall/surge. The plot clearly shows
that at the unstable operating points, variation of the total pressure ratio with mass-flow rate increases
suggesting the onset of stall regime.

Figure 5: Performance map for the Rotor 67 configuration.

Three points, A, B and C, indicated on the performance map are the operating points where the
detailed flow field was studied. The mass-flow rate and total pressure ratio variation at off design
conditions, A and C, are further shown in figures 6 and 7 respectively. At an operating point 4% less than
the design condition, figure 6 shows a small variation between the total pressure ratio and the mass-flow
suggesting stable operation. When the mass flow rate was further decreased to 88.6% (29.5 kg/sec) of the
design mass flow rate, it was found that the compressor experiences very large amplitude fluctuations in
both mass flow rate and total pressure ratio. Figure 7 shows this increased variation, which essentially
suggests that the compressor is experiencing increasing instability similar to the state of rotating stall and
surge.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Figure 6: Total pressure ratio and mass flow rate fluctuations for Rotor 67 at 96% of design condition ‘A’
(mdot =32 kg/sec).

Figure 7: Total pressure ratio and mass flow rate fluctuations for Rotor 67 at 88.6% of design condition ‘C’
(mdot =29.5 kg/sec).

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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From the above studies it is evident that for compressors; stall and surge impose limits on its
operability at low mass flow rates and that the useful operating range may be only as small as 10% of the
design condition. Active control methods such as bleeding and injection have been used to shift the surge
line to lower mass flow rates. Open and closed loop bleeding was investigated by Niazi9-10, where as
injection was studied by Stein11.
The present study uses a combination of both bleeding and injection in a ‘self-recirculation’
treatment concept proposed by Hathaway6 (2002). The concept as shown in figure 8 requires both bleed
and injection mass flow rates to be the same. The injected fluid is directed to lie along the casing end-wall
to energize the local low momentum fluid. The injection port is located just upstream of the region of low
momentum fluid.
4-5% of the prescribed mass flow rate is bled which is then injected upstream of the blade. The
fluctuation of total pressure ratio and mass flow rate for the recirculation control case is shown in figure
9. Clearly it can be interpreted that the fluctuation are much less as compared to the one with out control
which is also shown on the same plot.

Figure 8: ‘Self-recirculation’ control treatment concept as proposed by Hathaway6.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Figure 9: Total pressure ratio and mass flow rate fluctuations for Rotor 67 at 89% of design condition ‘C’
(mdot =29.5 kg/sec) with and without control.

Coanda jet studies:

Results from this study were compared with the baseline case without the Coanda jet. For the
Coanda jet studies the operating mass flow rate was chosen to be 32 kg/sec, which is lower than the
design mass flow rate (33.25 kg/sec). The flow field for flow over a rotor at a typical radial location at
design and off design conditions is shown in figure 10 (a) and (b) respectively.
At the off-design condition some reversal of flow is expected, this is confirmed from figure 10 (b)
where a region of reversed flow exists. This is due to the lower mass flow the compressor is undesirably
operated at. By operating the compressor at much lower mass flow rates, it was found that the region of
flow reversal grows rapidly eventually leading the compressor into a state of modified stall as discussed
previously.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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Design Case- 33.25 kg/sec Off-design Case- 32 kg/sec

Large area of
flow reversal

(a) (b)

Figure 10: Flow field for flow over a rotor at design (a) and off design condition (b).

At the operating mass flow rate, the baseline configuration shows trailing edge separation over
most of the rotor as shown in figure 11 (a) and 12 (a), at two radial locations near the hub and mid-span
respectively. The separation line lies just upstream of the slot location. The Coanda jets were turned on
and the non-dimensional blowing parameter ‘cmu’ was set to 0.11, which corresponds to a jet mach
number of 0.8. It was found that there was no significant energization of the boundary layer by the jet.
Nevertheless, the Coanda jet reduced the separated flow near the hub, as seen in figures 11 (b), where the
separated flow is over a smaller region. At the mid span, the jet blowing coefficient (and jet velocity) was
too low compared to local flow Mach number in a blade fixed frame to be of significant effect as shown
in figure 12 (b).

Larger magnitude of Smaller region

cmu=0.0 reversed flow cmu=0.11 of flow reversal

(a) (b)

Figure 11: Flow field for flow over the trailing edge with (a) and without (b) Coanda jet at 10% radius from
hub.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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cmu=0.0 cmu=0.11

(a) Coanda jet was ineffective in turning the flow

downstream of the trailing edge
(b)

Figure 12: Flow field for flow over the trailing edge with (a) and without (b) Coanda jet at mid passage.

A significant turning of the flow downstream of the trailing edge was found, when Coanda jets
were employed. This is evident from Figure 13 (b) which shows that the Coanda jet was successful in
turning some of the flow that may be used to advantage mimicking a variable vane/stator.

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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
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cmu=0.0 cmu=0.11

More turning of flow

Figure 13: Flow field for flow downstream of blade with (a) and without (b) Coanda jet at 10% radius from
hub.

While Circulation control was useful in reducing trailing edge separation, and turning the flow
downstream of the trailing edge, no appreciable increase in sectional loads was observed. As a
consequence the pressure rise across the stage was not significantly affected. A slight 1.6% improvement
(or increase) in the pressure ratio is found at the off-design operating mass flow rate (32 kg/sec) with the
jets activated.

Conclusion
The effects of Coanda jets and ‘self-recirculation’ control treatment on performance of axial
compressor rotors were numerically investigated. It was found that the stable operating range can be
extended by delaying the initiation of surge/stall by employing the ‘self-recirculation’ control treatment
concept. A previously unstable operating point was shown to be more stable by the employment of this
discussed control concept.
The Coanda jets were not able to completely eliminate all the separation. In particular, the flow
field in the vicinity of the casing was not significantly affected. It may be necessary to tailor the jet Mach
number, so that it gradually increases from the shroud to the tip. The high rotational speed of compressors
makes the application of Coanda jets in rotor blades very difficult and unfeasible. Under off-design
conditions, Coanda effects reduced the separated flow over most of the rotor. The effects of blowing were
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Special Problem Report Vishwas Iyengar
Summer 2004
minimal, however, a total pressure rise was found across the stage. A significant turning of the flow
downstream of the trailing edge was found, when Coanda jets were employed.

References
[1] Chima, R. V., and Yokota, J. W., “Numerical Analysis of Three-Dimensional Viscous Internal Flow,”
AIAA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 5, 1990, pp. 798-806.
[2] Hall, E. J., “Aerodynamic Modeling of Multistage Compressor Flow Fields - Part 1: Analysis of
Rotor/Stator/Rotor Aerodynamic Interaction,” ASME paper 97-GT-344, 1997.
[3] Dawes, W. N., “A Numerical Study of the 3D Flowfield in a Transonic Compressor Rotor With a
Modeling of the Tip Clearance Flow,” AGARD Conference Proceedings n 401, Neuilly sur Seine, Fr.
[4] Hah, C., and Wennerstrom, A. J., “Three-Dimensional Flowfields Inside a Transonic Compressor
With Swept Blades,” Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol. 113, 1991.
[5] Hathaway, M. D., and Wood, J. R., “Application of a Multi-Block CFD Code to Investigate the
Impact of Geometry Modeling on Centrifugal Compressor Flow Field Predictions,” Transactions of the
ASME, Vol. 19, Oct 1997, pp. 820-830.
[6] Hathaway, M.D., “Self-Recirculating Casing Treatment Concept for Enhanced Compressor
Performance,” Turbo-Expo 2002, Amsterdam, Holland.
[7] Liu, Y., “Numerical Simulations of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of Circulation Control Wing
Sections,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering, March 2003.
[8] Wu, J., Sankar, L.N., Kondor S., “Numerical Modelling of Coanda Jet Controlled Configurations,”
AIAA Paper 2003.
[9] Niazi, S., “Numerical Simulation of Rotating Stall and Surge Alleviation in Axial Compressors,”
Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering, July 2000.
[10] Niazi, S., Stein, A., and Sankar, L.N., “Computational Analysis of Stall Control Using Bleed Valve
in a High-Speed Compressor,” AIAA Paper 2000-3507.
[11] Stein, A., “Computational Analysis of Stall and Separation Control in Centrifugal Compressors,”
Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering, May 2000.
[12] Yoon, S., Jameson, A., “Lower-Upper Symmetric-Gauss-Seidel Method for the Euler and Navier-
Stokes Equations,” Journal of AIAA, Vol.26, No. 9.
[13] Jameson, A., Caughey D.A., “How Many Steps are Required to Solve the Euler Equations of Steady,
Compressible Flow: In Search of a Fast Solution Algorithm,” AIAA Paper 2001-2673.
[14] Bright, B. M., Qammar, H. K., and Hartley, T. T., “Dimension Determination of Precursive Stall
Events in a Single Stage High Speed Compressor,” NASA TM 107268, 1996.

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