High performance computing of compressor rotating stall and stall control

Abstract

The performance of gas turbine engines is limited by compressor stall. Stall control technologies developed recently have demonstrated the effectiveness of steady tip injection to increase the stable operating range of high-speed axial and centrifugal compressors. To help understand the fluid mechanic processes of stall, and how stall is mitigated by the stall control technology to achieve increased compressor operability, two of the most challenging problems of gas turbine engines, high performance parallel computing is applied to simulate flows in stall. This paper presents an efficient parallel algorithm to conduct such large-scale simulations. Simulations of the rotating stall of a full-annulus axial compressor stage and the tip injection to extend its operating range are demonstrated. Similar simulations were obtained for a centrifugal compressor stage. The simulations demonstrate a new capability to model rotating stall and tip injection flow control.