Experimental investigation of instability inception on a transonic compressor under various inlet guide vanes

The utilization of Inlet Guide Vane (IGV) plays a key factor in affecting the instability evolution. Existing literature mainly focuses on the effect of IGV on instability inception that occurs in the rotor region. However, with the emergence of compressor instability starting from the stator region, the mechanism of various instability inceptions that occurs in different blade rows due to the change of IGV angles should be further examined. In this study, experiments were focused on three types of instability inceptions observed previously in a 1.5-stage axial flow compressor. To analyze the conversion of stall evolutions, the compressor rotating speed was set to 17 160 r/min, at which both the blade loading in the stator hub region and rotor tip region were close to the critical value before final compressor stall. Meanwhile, the dynamic test points with high-response were placed to monitor the pressures both at the stator trailing edges and rotor tips. The results indicate that the variation of reaction determines the region where initial instability occurs. Indeed, negative pre-rotation of the inlet guide vane leads to high-reaction, initiating stall disturbance from the rotor region. Positive pre-rotation results in low-reaction, initiating stall disturbance from the stator region. Furthermore, the type of instability evolution is affected by the radial loading distribution under different IGV angles. Specifically, a spike-type inception occurs at the rotor blade tip with a large angle of attack at the rotor inlet (−2°, −4° and −6°). Meanwhile, the critical total pressure ratio at the rotor tip is 1.40 near stall. As the angle of attack decreases, the stator blade loading reaches its critical boundary, with a value of approximately 1.35. At this moment, if the rotor tip maintains high blade loading similar to the stator hub, the partial surge occurs (0° and +2°); otherwise, the hub instability occurs (+4° and +6°).