THE AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR COMPROMISE.

1. Introduction.

For a jet engine to work air comes in through the intake of the engine, it is mixed
with fuel then ignited. The hot accelerated air is then expelled through the exhaust of the
engine to provide thrust. The power produced is directly proportional to the fuel burned,
while the fuel burned is directly proportional to the amount of air present at the time of
combustion. Thus air at normal atmospheric pressure will not provide the power needed
for the aircraft to function.Therfore there is a need for a compressor to provide the
correct fuel to air ratio for sufficient burning of the fuel thus providing the power needed
to fly the aircraft. This led to the search of an appropriate compressor which turned out
to be one of the major stumbling blocks of the early jet engines. The axial compressor,
although complex, does this compression work easily and efficiently, but as it is with
machines, it’s not perfect. In this report we will investigate why it is not 100% efficient
and the compromise engineers and designers have to make in order for these types of
compressors to function. To do this, the report is split into two main sections, the
description of the compressor, and its design where the compromise arises.

2. Description of axial flow compressors.

Axial compressors as seen in fig 1 below, are rotating aerofoil based compressors
found between the inlet turbine and the exhaust blades where the working fluid, in this
case air, flows parallel to the axis of rotation thus the name axial flow.

Fig 1 shows the two basic components of an axial flow compressor where the rotor blades
are on the left while the stator vanes are in the centre. Both the rotors and stators are
assembled to form the compressor on the left. (Sweet haven 2008)

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The axial compressor consists of stationary parts and rotating parts. A shaft that is
connected to the turbine drives a central drum retained by bearings. On these bearings
are a number of annular rows attached to them. These annular rows alternate between
rotating rows known as rotors and stationary rows known as stators or vanes. For the
compromise made by engineers and designers to be fully understood, understanding
how the compressor functions is essential.
Air enters the engine from the intake and is then directed to the compression
stage. In some modern aircraft engines, there will be inlet guide vanes which will be
discussed later on. The rotor blades spin at a certain velocity tangential to the flow of air.
This increases its velocity and decreases its pressure of the air in accordance to
Bernoulli’s principle which we will look at in depth.

2.1 Bernoulli’s principle

This is a fluid law which states that the pressure of a fluid varies inversely with the
speed. An increase in the speed producing a decrease in pressure (such as a drop in
hydraulic pressure as the fluid speeds up following a constriction in the pipe) and vice
versa. (Farlex 2008).this can be demonstrated in fig 2 below.

Fig 2 shows the Bernoulli’s principle in a

venturi where the fluid entering the venture
has a high
pressure and a low velocity but in the
constricted part of the tube the velocity
increases while the pressure deacreses.The
energy of the fluid however remains a
constant all through the tube.(Yeisican-
science 2008)

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The above diagram can be explained by the following equation;
Ρ + (k.e / v) = constant.
Where p is the pressure of the fluid, k.e is the kinetic energy of the fluid while v is the
volume of the fluid passing through the venturi. (Grace, Lovett and Dobson 2002) The
increase in velocity of the fluid will in turn increase its kinetic energy, thus for one to
maintain the constant the pressure will have to decrease and vice versa.
In the compressors case, the air has an increase in velocity after the first stage of
rotor blades therefore a decrease in pressure. Since the rotors are spinning at a high
velocity, normaly between 3500 to 6000 rpm, the air loses its initial angle of attack. The
stator vanes, whose main purpose is to diffuse the air from the rotor blades increasing
the pressure of the air even more, therefore have to guide the air into the next stage of
rotors. This is done by swirling the airflow into the direction of rotor rotation. Thus the
velocity of the air “see-saws” up and down whereas the pressure constantly
inceases.This process continues until the last stage of compression where air is mixed
with fuel and ignited to produce power. The key to success when using these types of
compressors is in the design of the compressor.

3. Design of an axial flow compressor.

An axial compressor is design according to its requirements. Compressors are
designed with the objective of minimising the aerodynamic loss of pressure thus
achieving an acceptable level of thermodynamic efficiency through its stages, reduced
weight of the compressor components and an adequate surge margin to avoid stalling of
the engine.Theoreticaly it sounds simple enough but with the reduction of weight, comes
the decrease of thermodynamic efficiency of the compressors while the increase in
efficiency will in turn decrease the surge margin which increases the chances of the
engine to stall. Because of these three factors and their influence on each other, a
compromise has to be made among them for optimisation of the engines
performance.(Chen,Sun and Wu 2004).

3.1 Aerodynamic design of a compressor.

The building block of the aerodynamic design of these types of compressors is
the cascades, a seemingly endless repeating array of aerofoils. The blade which is what
works on the air is a key component. We need to distinguish the blade direction which
here is denoted as β and the direction which the air flows as, α.The angle between the

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blade and the flowing air is known as the angle of incidence represented by ί. Therefore
the equation is:

ί = α1 – β1
Where α1 is the air getting in whereas β1 is the blade angle the air encounters first. The
corresponding angle between the flow of air leaving the blades and the blade outlet
angle is given by:

δ = α2 – β2
Where α2 is the angle of air leaving the blade while β2 is the angle of the blade at the

outlet. The flow does not turn quit as much as the blade thus the deviation which is δ is
a positive value. A number of factors affect the deviation mainly, angle of incidence, the
inlet air speed, the design of the rotor blades, just to mention a few.
An indication of one of the many problems this type of compressors have is the
very narrow range of incidence for which thermodynamic losses is small. When the loss
starts to rise rapidly, the engine stalls and hence surges. Therefore the angle of
incidence should be closer to zero. This proves to be a stumbling block for designers

because when α1 is 0o, the rotor blades turn the flow to about 20o;the inlet turbine,
which as we saw is before the first stage of compressor blades, turns the inlet flow of 0o

incidence to about 63o and even 90o on these modern turbine blades. This greatly

increases α1 which will lead to stall. (Cumpsty 2001).This problem led to the use of inlet
guide vanes (IGVs) as a solution.

3.1.1 Inlet guide vanes.

IGVs are basically stationary aerofoil shaped blades that are placed before the
first stage of the axial compressors. Their main purpose is to straighten the flow of air
into a suitable angle of incidence for the rotor blades, thus increasing the airs
compressibility hence the efficiency of the compressor. Fig 3 on the next page shows a
cross section of an axial compressor showing the IGVs, rotor and stator blades. Note the
direction in which the aerofoils are pointing. Both the upper camber of the blades of the
IGVs and rotors are facing away from the direction of rotation while the stators upper
camber is facing opposite the rotors, towards the direction of rotation. This is to increase
the chances of the air being swirled or controlled to enter the next stage of rotors by
providing an opposite aerodynamic effect from the rotors.

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 Fig 3 shows the placement of the IGVs, rotors and stator blades. The direction air is
flowing and the direction the rotors are moving. (Wikipedia 2008)

Going back to the blade angle, it has already been established that the angle of air
leaving a compressor stage should be less than the inlet angle of incidence. Thus

α2 < α 1

Taking the velocity of the rotor blades as Vx, the velocity of the air V1 at the inlet of the
compressor stage will be given by;

V1 = Vxcosα1

Where α1 is the angle of attack of the air. So then the velocity of the air leaving the
stage of compressors will be;

V2 = Vxcosα2

It is important to note that the velocity of air travelling in a radial movement is small
therefore negligable.It also follows that;

V1 / V2 = cosα2 / cosα1

And since α2 < α1, it also follows that V2 < V1 thus the flow, although “see-sawing” up
and down, is decelerated across each stage of compression. Again by Bernoulli’s law,
pressure increases. Other additions like increasing the hub diameter have been applied.

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3.1.2. Hub diameter

Another way engineers and designers have improved thermodynamic efficiency,

is the use of Bernoulli’s principle but instead of varying the velocity, this time they are
increasing the diameter of the hub. Bernoulli’s formula states that;

p*A*t = constant

Where p is the pressure of the air, A is the cross sectional area of the air passage
whereas t is the temperature of the air. As the diameter of the hub increases its cross
sectional area does. This in turn reduces the area of the air passage thus to maintain the
energy constant, pressure and temperature subsequently increase. (Flack 2005).these
improvements increase the efficiency of the compressor but it also becomes more likely
to stall and hence surge.

3.2 Compressor surge margin.

Compressor surge is normally caused by a complex combination of factors. The

most common of these factors is fairly simple. Each blade acts like I miniature plane
wing which when subjected to a high angle of attack on oncoming air, the blade will stall.
Also caused by the pilling of air in the high pressure regions of the compressor which is
caused by over compression of air therefore the line that separates super efficiency and
zero efficiency and thus stall, is called the surge margin.

This problem of air pilling in previous stages can be minimised by reducing the
pressure ratio across the compressor stages by giving off airflow. This can be done
efficiently and easily by bleeding air from the middle or towards the end of the
compressor stages.BVs (bleed valves) are the solution engineers came up with. As
stated above there main function is to release some of the airflow when the ambient
pressure of the air exceeds the required pressure preventing choking in the high
pressure regions of the compressor thus avoid stalling at the inlet. some BVs are large
apertures cut into the casing of the compressor and sealed by a shut off valve of either
the sliding gate type or an outward moving piston normally held against its seating by a
spring, while in some engines part or all of the periphery right round the casing between
the two stages, is perforated by quite large holes which are normally closed by a close
fitting ring slid axially towards the front and rear of the engine. (Gunston.B 2008)

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 To further explain the above principle, one can use a fairly simple model
illustrated clearly by Hill and Peterson (1992) using pressure coefficients,Cp which is
defined as;

Cp= Δp /0.5*pi*ωi2

Where Δp is the change in pressure across a stage, pi is the initial or starting pressure

of that stage and ωi is the inlet relative velocity of air in that stage. Thus by dividing the
change in pressure of the air by half the initial pressure multiplied by the inlet relative
velocity of air one will obtain Cp of the blades in that stage.

4. Conclusion.

All these extra additions like valves and extra guide vanes in crease the weight of the
compressor an even more the cost of manufacturing the component. But off all the
considerations engineers have to make, the thermodynamic efficiency is the most
important in that it determines the performance of the engine. compressors are designed
for different conditions for example in fighter jets, the compressors are made to be super
efficient for maximum power, while in passenger aircrafts there made as light and safe
as possible by avoiding the stall margin meaning reducing the efficiency of the
compressor. Major problems of the axial compressor that engineers encountered in thee
past are now made easier to solve and understand by the use of computer software and
decades of development and improvement in technology. the axial compressor is the
most frequently used in jet engines, chances of an easier and more efficient type of
compressor to be developed for future usage are slim but one can never be accurate in
predicting technology.

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References.
1. Chen.L, Sun.F and Wu.C, (2004).Optimum design for a sub sonic axial
compressor stage. Applied Energy. Volume 80. (187-195).
2. Cumsty.N. (2001).Jet Propultion.Cambridge.Cambridge university press.
3. Farlex (2008).Online Encyclopaedia. <a
href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Bernoulli's+principle">Bernoulli's
principle</a>16/05/2008.
4. Flack.D.R. (2005) Fundamentals of jet propulsion with applications.NewYork.
Cambridge university press.
5. Grace D, Lovett D, Dobson K, (2002).Physics.Hammersmith.Happer Collins
publishers limited.
6. Gunston B. (2002).The development of jet, turbine and
aeroengines.England.Haynes publishing.
7. Hill P.G, and Peterson .C.R. (1992), Mechanics and thermodynamics of
propultion.Reading.Addison Wesley publishing.
8. Sweet haven publishing services (2005).online.
http://64.78.42.182/sweethaven/Aviation/AvEngines01/lessonMain.asp?iNum=02
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9. Axial flow compressors. (2008).Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_compressor.15/05/2008
10. Yeisican-science (1998). http://resources.yesican-
science.ca/lpdd/g06/lp/aero/bernoulli1.html