Calculation of Stall Margin Enhancement With Micro-Tip Injection in an Axial Compressor

Although steady micro-injection is experimentally validated as an attractive method in improving the stall margin of axial compressors, up to now a fast prediction of stall boundary remains some way off. This investigation is to propose such a prediction model. A flow stability model is developed to further consider the effect of high-speed micro-injection. After the base flow field is calculated by steady computational fluid dynamics simulation, a body force model is applied to reproduce the effect of blade on the flow turning and loss. A group of homogeneous equations are obtained based on linearized Navier–Stokes equations and harmonic decomposition of small flow disturbance. The stall onset point can be judged by the imaginary part of the resultant eigenvalue. After the existing experimental results are summarized, an unsteady numerical simulation reveals that the computed characteristics and radial profile of pressure rise coefficient are almost unchanged. The unsteady response of compressor to the micro-injection is preliminarily verified based on the observation of the disturbed spillage of tip leakage flow. It is verified that this approach can provide a qualitative assessment of stall point with acceptable computational cost. Both high injection velocity and short axial gap between injector and rotor leading edge are beneficial for the stall margin extension. These theoretical findings agree well with experimental measurements. It is inferred that the spillage of tip clearance flow, which is inward pushed by higher speed injection with shortened distance away from rotor, could lead to further stable flow field.