GAS-TURBINE COMPRESSORS

Understanding
stall, surge
By Lee S Langston, professor emeritus, UConn

A
Bleed
xial-flow compressors are used INLET Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
First stage stage
in the majority of large gas GUIDE stage stage stage stage
turbines, both in powerplants VANES
and aircraft jet engines. Over To
the last 75 years these compressors combustor
have been improved continuously,
today achieving component efficiencies
of more than 90%. However, no matter Leakage
how advanced, they must be carefully
controlled in their operation to avoid Leakage
the power-robbing effects of stall and
the convulsive effects of complete flow 1. Gas path is traced through inlet guide vanes, rotating blades, and stationary
reversal, brought about by surge. vanes in a gas turbine’s six-stage axial compressor
Although modern design and fuel
control systems are capable of keep- tion, parallel to the gas turbine’s axis of If the incline (akin to the compressor
ing a gas turbine in electric generation rotation. The compressor is assembled pressure ratio) is too steep, the water
service away from operating condi- in stages, each stage comprised of a runs backward, down the slope.
tions conducive to stall and surge, ring of moving rotor blades (or blades), By contrast, gas-path flow in a tur-
it is important to know something mounted on a rotating disc or drum, bine operates in a decreasing static
about each condition. With this as an and a downstream ring of case-mount- pressure field in the axial direction.
enjoinder, let’s look at how an axial ed stationary stator blades (or stators). This is termed a favorable pressure
compressor operates. Blades do work on the gas-path air gradient: think of water being brush-
flow, increasing its static and total stroked down a declined channel.
Axial compressor basics pressure, and kinetic energy. Stators
remove blade-induced swirl velocity, Multistage axial
To efficiently compress a gas over a thereby decreasing kinetic energy,
range of operating conditions is not an serving to also increase static pres- compressors: The basics
easy task. About 50% to 70% of the out- sure and align flow for blades in the The gas path in a typical single-spool
put of the turbine component in a gas next stage. six-stage axial compressor is shown
turbine is used to drive its compressor. Compressor blades and stators in Fig 1. Air enters IGVs (inlet guide
Contrast that to a steam plant where then operate on gas-path flow to pro- vanes, which are not present on all gas
only about 1% of the turbine output is duce what aerodynamicists term an turbines) and passes through each of
used to power feedwater pumps to resup- adverse pressure gradient in the flow the stages, on its way to the combus-
ply incompressible water to the boiler. direction—that is, from low to high tor section. Each stage increases both
Axial compressors get their name static pressure. This is analogous to the gas-path static and total pressure.
because gas-path air flows in more or pushing water up an inclined channel, Typically, each compressor stage in
less a straight line in an axial direc- with many small, rapid brush strokes. an industrial gas turbine (IGT) oper-

Vai 2. Velocity vector diagram illustrates the gas flow path

across an axial compressor’s inlet guide vane and its first-
U stage blade and stationary vane (stator blade), where:
Guide vane Vri Throat n Vai is the absolute velocity (relative to the engine) at the
Throat inlet to the first-stage rotating blade;
n Vao is the absolute velocity of the gas as it exits the
Rotor blade rotating blade;
Vro Stator blade n Vri is the velocity relative to the blade at its leading edge;
n Vro is the velocity relative to the blade at its trailing edge;
U n U is the rotational velocity.
Source: Bill Gunston, “The Develop-
ment of Jet and Turbine Aero Engines”
Vao

26 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, Number 50, Third Quarter 2016

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GAS-TURBINE COMPRESSORS
Design air Increased air
inlet angle inlet angle very thin, almost immeasurable layer
of air on the blade surface, within
which the viscous frictional effects are
concentrated. The velocity changes
in the boundary layer from that of
the streamlines just outside it to zero
(relative to the blade surface) at the
Boundary-layer
separation point blade surface.
The existence of a boundary layer
Blade boundary was introduced by the German engi-
layers intact
neer Ludwig Prandtl in 1904—an
appropriate time to profoundly influ-
ence the design of aircraft as well as
Rotation Rotation turbomachinery, in the last century
and today.
Boundary layers are very sensi-
tive to the conditions brought about
by adverse pressure gradients, which
NO STALL STALL
is what a compressor produces. Thus
the designer is careful to insure that
3. Flow over a blade at design conditions is at left, with an increase in the air boundary-layer separation does not
inlet angle at the right—the latter causing a stall. Boundary-layer separation take place at design air inlet angles.
could be caused by a reduction in air velocity or an increase in engine rpm When air inlet angles (measured in
the axial direction) are increased, sepa-
ration of the blade boundary layers can
occur, as shown by the streamlines
Actual Actual 4. A single-
around the blade at the right in Fig
blade stall is
3. Here the streamlines on the suction
conducive to
Design side do not follow the blade surface aft
stalls of other
of the boundary-layer separation point.
blades, and the
This compressor blade is stalled.
formation of a
Stall immediately increases stage
Rotation stall cell. Next
aerodynamic loss: The blade lift
phenomenon is
goes down and the desired pressure
a rotating stall
increase is not achieved. The larger
air inlet angle precipitating the stall
could have been caused by a drop in air
ates in a pressure-ratio range of more As Fig 1 shows, the compressor velocity as might occur from a sudden
than 1.0:1 up to about l.4:1. To calcu- gas path narrows in going from the downstream backpressure event—for
late a machine’s compression ratio, first to the sixth stage. Given that the example, one resulting from a block-
simply multiply the pressure ratios average gas-path velocity in an axial age in the combustor or turbine—or an
for each stage. Example: Referring to direction is relatively constant for a upstream flow disturbance. Other sep-
Fig 1 and assuming each stage has a GT compressor, as pressure and air aration causes could be blade surface
pressure ratio of 1.2:1, the compression density increase in the direction of flow roughness or excessive tip leakage.
ratio would be 1.2 to the nth power, the blades and stators become shorter. When one blade goes into stall, it
where “n” is the number of stages—six Tip-clearance issues can occur in high- can cause an upstream blockage which
in this case. The result: 2.99:1. pressure stages because the allowable diverts approaching stage flow (Fig
The benefit of a high compression clearances are more significant for 4). This is conducive to increases in
ratio is top performance. Bear in mind shorter airfoils. the air flow angles for adjacent blade
that the thermal efficiency of a gas passages—in a direction opposite
turbine increases as pressure ratio is Compressor stall to rotation. If flow angles are large
increased. To illustrate: In the early enough, these blades also will stall,
1950s, an axial compressor with 15 An engineer may begin the design of forming a so-called stall cell. If the
stages might have had an overall an axial compressor using velocity vec- stall cell itself moves, it becomes a
pressure ratio of 4:1. Today, GE’s tor diagrams for just the IGV and the rotating stall, which spins opposite to
most advanced F-class gas turbine, first compressor stage (Fig 2). They compressor rotation, at about half the
the 7FA.05 gas turbine (231 MW), has will identify the necessary air inlet shaft speed. Needless to say, rotating
a 14-stage compressor with an overall flow angles for blades and stators to stalls can greatly reduce blade life,
pressure ratio of 18.4:1. meet the desired operating conditions. because of the increased stress and
This represents a reduction of one The resultant air-flow streamlines vibration they cause.
stage and an almost five-fold increase around a compressor blade are shown
in compression ratio in seven decades in Fig 3 (left) for the design flow angle. Compressor surge
of compressor design progress. Pres- (The sketch for a stator would be simi-
sure ratios of the latest frame engines lar, but without rotation.) Going from Rotating stall can morph into the
go as high as 30:1; those for aeroderiva- low pressure at the blade’s leading extreme case of a compressor perfor-
tive machines, up to about 40:1. Such edge to a higher pressure at its trailing mance failure called surge.
compression ratios translate to gas- edge, the streamlines closely follow the In the words of compressor expert
turbine thermal efficiencies in the 35% blade’s suction and pressure surfaces. Ivor Day, stall is a disturbance of
to 45% range. The earliest IGT (1939) The flow around the blade is con- compressor flow in the tangential
had an efficiency of 18%. trolled by its boundary layer. This is a direction, while surge is a disturbance
28 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, Number 50, Third Quarter 2016
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 O
ne of the biggest challenges
facing owners and operators
of generating assets in dereg-
ulated markets is the need to
continually improve the performance
of their facilities—to increase revenues
and decrease expenses. One component
of this goal of “continual improvement”
is best practices. These are the methods
and procedures plants rely on to assure
5. Surge is in evidence at takeoff. Flame duration is very short—milliseconds top performance on a predictable and
repeatable basis.
in the axial direction. During stalled the order of several rotor revolutions. The Best Practices Awards program,
operation, the average air flow through One rotor revolution for an aircraft launched in late 2004 by CCJ, has as
the compressor is steady, but during gas turbine typically is about 5 msec, its primary objective recognition of the
surge, the flow rate will rapidly (mil- while for a large IGT it might be as valuable contributions made by owner/
liseconds, msec) pulse—sometimes so long as 20 msec. The difficulty of hav- operator personnel to improve the
violently that reverse flow is induced, ing the Fadec sense a precursor and safety and performance of generating
often accompanied by a loud “bang.” take the necessary activation to pre- facilities powered by gas turbines. The
In extreme cases, a sudden com- vent stall and surge becomes obvious program continues to evolve by encour-
bustor-induced flame may shoot out when considering the disparity of these aging entries pertinent to industry-
the back end of the machine (Fig 5) time intervals. wide initiatives.
and possibly out of the compressor Despite the difficulties of sensing In 2016, plants were recognized for
inlet as well. Thus it’s important to modal-wave precursors, there have best practices in water management,
avoid surge. been some successes in utilizing a O&M, performance improvement,
Fadec to sense an impending stall/ fast start procedures, monitoring and
Preventing stall, surge surge in sufficient time to either pre- diagnostics, outage management, and
vent its occurrence or limit repetitive safety. One-third of the entries focused
As explained earlier, the onset of stall surges. One example has been with on O&M best practices, 27% on perfor-
(and surge) can be traced back to the twin-spool aircraft gas turbines where mance improvement, 17% on safety.
behavior of the boundary layer on the initial stall originates in the fan There are two levels of awards to rec-
compressor blades and stators. Since stream from FOD damage or exces- ognize the achievements at individual
this is the result of the basic physics sive clearance or flow distortion from plants: Best Practices and The Best of
of boundary layers, no “cure” has been nacelle inlet separation. the Best (BoB). The five BoB awards
found to eliminate stall. Here’s what likely would happen: presented this year were profiled in
When an OEM designs a new Fan stall leads to loss of flow capacity the 1Q/2016 issue (Dogwood Energy,
compressor it usually is tested to see which causes the low-rotor speed to Doswell Energy, Brandywine Cogen,
when it will stall, using hindsight to increase above the normal level for the Pleasant Valley Generating Station, and
determine what conditions to avoid. engine power setting. A higher-than- Tuaspring Cogen). Also profiled in 1Q
Then engine control systems, such as normal low-spool rotor rpm coupled were Waterside Power and Lawrence
Fadec (Full-Authority Digital Electric with a normal high-spool rotor speed and Worthington Generating Stations.
Control), are programmed to keep the elevates the low-pressure compressor The second quarter issue featured Best
operating point of the compressor well (booster) operating line to its stall line, Practices from Athens, Effingham
away from the so-called stall or surge resulting in rotating stall and eventual County, T A Smith, Armstrong Energy,
lines. Variable-pitch stators (to control surge. The time required for the low MEAG Wansley Unit 9, Green Country,
flow angles), compressor bleeds, casing spool to increase its rpm is now suf- Paris, and Brooklyn Navy Yard Cogen.
treatments, and tip clearance controls ficiently long for the Fadec to sense
all are used to avoid stall conditions. the unusual relationship between In this section:
The study of stall and surge is a low- and high-spool speeds and be n Fremont Energy Center............... 37
very active area of R&D in the world- able to activate a bleed to prevent the
wide gas-turbine community. Accord- occurrence of surge. n Granite Ridge Energy.................. 32
ing to Robert Mazzawy of Trebor Another example: Aircraft gas tur- n Lea Power Partners..................... 38
Systems LLC, who in 1980 was one bines operating in severe rain or hail
n Millennium Power Plant............... 31
of the first to report on surge-induced storms where extra fuel is required
structural loads, researchers have to process and evaporate the water n New Harquahala Valley Generating
found that subtle modal waves are being swallowed by the engine. Here Station......................................... 35
precursors to the rotating stall that again, the Fadec can sense the abnor-
precipitates surge. The hope is that mal amount of fuel flow for the power
detection of such waves will allow the setting and take preventive action to 2017 CCJ Best
Fadec to prevent stall and surge. prevent any engine instability. Practices Awards
The fundamental problem is the Neither of these examples would be
nominal time period required for the applicable to IGTs but they serve to Submit entries by Jan 31, 2017 at
actuation of a variable stator or a bleed illustrate that given enough time for ccj-online.com/bestpractices
is about 200 msec. This contrasts with the Fadec to sense an unusual mode Questions?
the time period for the development of of operation, it is possible to prevent Contact Scott at scott@ccj-online.com
rotating stall and surge which is on stall/surge. ccj
30 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, Number 50, Third Quarter 2016