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Axial Flow Compressors

Overview Content
Overview
With difference to the centrifugal compressors, the
Basic
axial compressors allows achieving higher pressure Operation
ratios, efficiency and flow rate. Rotor
blades
Current designs (2017) reach pressure ratios of
Stator
40:1. It is important to have into consideration vanes
than higher stage pressure ratios imply high Mach Turbofan
numbers and large gas deflection. engines
Construction
The following considerations apply for subsonic
Materials
compressors (the velocity at entry is below Case
supersonic speeds). Stator
vanes
Rotor
Basic Operation discs
Fan
A series of stages consisting of a row of blades and blades
a row of vanes. The working fluid (air) is Operating
accelerated in the rotor stage while the stator conditions
stage increases the pressure reducing the air speed Surge

during the process called diffusion. Airflow

Control

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 The compressor is driven by the engine turbine and Elementary
theory
is directly coupled to the turbine shaft. As
Velocity
multiple stages of rotor blades are connected to a
triangles
single shaft it's necessary to vary the stator vane Factors
angle affecting
stage
With the increase of pressure, the cross section pressure
area gets reduced to maintain constant axial ratio
velocity. The changes are accompanied by an increase Blockage in
the
in temperature.
compressor
As the flow pressure is increased, it is more annulus
Degree of
difficult to design the next stage of the
reaction
compressor. Each stage pressure ratio varies between Contents
1:1 and 1:2. To ensure the compressor is efficient Sources
for a wide range of velocities a system of variable
stator angles is used for the first stages.
Sources
Rotor blades
The rotor blades are designed with and airfoil
section and are given twist along its length to give
a pressure gradient and maintain a uniform axial
velocity. To compensate for the boundary layer in
the inner and outer wall of the compressor, an extra
camber is introduced into the root and tip chords.
The blades are also subject to gas bending stresses
which may cause fatigue failure.

Stator vanes
The stator vanes are of airfoil section and fixed
into the casing to ensure there is no rotation of
the stators. The interior edge of the vanes are
connected to avoid vibration on the longer vanes.

Turbofan engines
Twin spool compressors are used for by-pass engines
(Turbofan engines) in which a large air mass is
accelerated in a single compressor stage.

Axial Flow Compressors 2

 Usually the fan moves six times the airflow of the
core compressor. The fan stage increases the inlet
pressure by a ratio of 1.6. The speed at the rotor
tip reaches Mach 1.5.

Construction
The rotor shaft is supported in ball and roller
bearings. The compressor casting can be of two
types, an assembly of cylindrical casings or two
halves.
Usually the rotor discs are welded together forming
an integral drum to support the centrifugal load
caused by the high rotational speeds of the blades.

There are two fixing methods for the rotor blades:

Circumferential

Axial

Each blade is independent to ensure proper

manufacture and maintainability.

Materials
The materials are selected for a cost-effective
solution looking for the lightest design.

Case
The case for the low pressure stages is made from
aluminum followed by steel alloys for the high
pressure stages where the temperature is increased.
In certain designs nickel alloys are used for the
final stages.

Recently, the use of titanium is more common.

Stator vanes
They are made from steel or nickel based alloys.
Prime requirement is high fatigue strength. Titanium

Axial Flow Compressors 3

 is only used for the first stages.

Rotor discs
The centrifugal forces are the principal strains
suffered by the rotor discs making necessary that a
metal with a high strength to density ratio is
selected. Titanium alloys are used for the first and
medium stages and nickel alloys for the final
stages.

Fan blades
The fan blades became possible with the use of
titanium alloys. The weight is maintained low by
incorporating a honeycomb core.

Operating conditions
The characteristics of each compressor stage has to
be carefully designed to match those of their
neighbors. In addition to the differences of air
conditions between each stage, the wide range of
conditions such as an aircraft encounters during its
operation difficult the design of the compressor.
When the operating conditions are outside of design
parameters, two conditions can occur, the blades may
stall due to very high angle of attack due to very
low speeds (causing a positives stall) or due to too
high speeds (causing a negative stall).

Surge
The phenomena of surge are presented when the
pressure ratio required by the engine exceeds the
ratio that the compressor can produce, inverting the
flow and resulting in a loss of engine thrust.

Airflow Control

Axial Flow Compressors 4

 To adapt to the variation of conditions, the airflow
is controlled by two mechanisms:

Variable inlet guide vanes (IGVs): In the first

stages, a mechanism to allow the adjustment of
the vanes' angles to compensate for the air speed
variations. Other benefits include easing of
noise and icing problems.

Interstage bleed: Air is expelled from the

compressor between stages, this method is not
used since it causes considerable loses of fuel.
There are three types of air bleed systems:

Hydraulic

Pneumatic

Electronic

Elementary theory
A simple analysis of the compressor assumes the
process to be adiabatic, the work input of the rotor
is given by:

W = mcp (T02 − T01 )

The process made in the stator is assumed adiabatic

and there is zero input power. Causing the
temperature at the exit of the stator and at the
entry to be equal.

Velocity triangles
A simple bi dimensional analysis is made at the mean
chord, the peripheral speed U is assumed to be
tangential to the mean radius. This applies for the
later stages of compressor where the blade length
isn't too big making the speed at the root and tip
very similar.

Axial Flow Compressors 5

 The flow approaches with a velocity C1 at an angle
α1, taking into consideration the blade speed U, the
airfoil relative speed is V1 at an angle β1, the
fluid exits the rotor at an increased speed V2 with
an angle β2. With the effect of the rotor whirl, the
velocity of the flow entering at the stator ring is
c2 with at an angle α2.

The flow exits the stage at a velocity C3 with an

angle α3. Typical design assumes that the velocity
and angle of the flow entering the stage equals the
conditions leaving the stage (C1 = C3, α1 = α3).

Velocity triangles for one stage (Saravanamutto)

Assuming that the axial velocity remains constant

through the stage with a value Ca, the following
considerations can be obtained:

Axial Flow Compressors 6

 U
= tan α1 + tan β1
Ca
U
= tan α2 + tan β2
Ca
The power input, obtained as the change in angular
momentum of the air passing through the rotor is
usually expressed in terms of the stagnation
temperature rise in the stage and the rotor blade
air angles:

UCa
ΔT0S = (tan β1 − tan β2 )
cp

While the pressure ratio is given by:

γ
ηs ΔT0S γ−1
= [1 + ]
p03
Rs =
p01 T0 1

To obtain a high pressure ratio it is necessary to

combine:

High blade speed

High axial velocity

High fluid deflection on the rotor blades

Factors affecting stage

pressure ratio
The stress in the rotor blades depends on the
rotational speed, material and length of the blades.
The maximum centrifugal tensile stress considering
constant cross-section area is given by:

2
= Ut2 [1 − ( ) ]
ρb rr
(σct )max
2 rt

Axial Flow Compressors 7

 In practice, the blade sectional area will decrease
with the radius.

While high axial velocities are desired to achieve

high pressure ratios, it must be limited to avoid
stall at the tips. This can be avoided with the
implement of IGVs.
As the deflection angles are increased, the rate of
diffusion increases. A limit for the diffusion is
set by the Haller number which establish that V2/V1
shouldn't be lower than 0.72. A more complete
analysis considers the diffusion criterion based on
the velocity distribution over the airfoil. The
diffusion factor D, can be expressed as:

V2 ΔCw s
D≈1− +
V1 2V1 c

Where:

ΔCw is the difference of whirl velocities

s is the blade mean pitch

c is the blade mean chord

In the hub region, the losses are unaffected by

variation of D up to 0.6.

Blockage in the compressor

annulus
The growth in the boundary layer can reduce the area
available for the flow below the geometric area of
the annulus, this causes a considerable difference
of velocity along the blade height, phenomena which
gets increased with the last compressor stages.

Axial Flow Compressors 8

 The work-absorbing capability of the stage
considering this effect is given by:

W = mU[U − Ca (tan α1 + tan β2 )]

The reduction in work capacity can be described by

the use of the work-done factor λ given in the
following chart:

The actual stage temperature rise is given by:

UCa
ΔT0S = λ (tan β1 − tan β2 )
cp

Degree of reaction

Axial Flow Compressors 9