Engineering topics

Mccaughan, F. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Mccaughan, F. E..

4 records

NASA NTRS1992

Stability of fully developed rotating stall

In McCaughan (1989b) it was observed that the slopes of both the axisymmetric and rotating stall characteristics play a major role in determining the mode of instability of the engine and the recovery point. That analysis was carried out for the grossly simplified model where the stall cell was considered as a traveling sine wave. That work has been extended to the more reasonable situation where the stall cell is represented by forty Fourier modes. The results from the simple model of three ordinary differential equations are discussed in the light of the more realistic calculations. In particular we discuss the effects of two parameters: the steepness of the axisymmetric characteristic and the shutoff head.

Mccaughan, F. E.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Bifurcation analysis of axial flow compressor stability

With a one-mode truncation it is possible to reduce the Moore-Greitzer model for compressor instability to a set of three ordinary differential equations. These are approached from the point of view of bifurcation theory. Most of the bifurcations emerge from a degenerate Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation point. The bifurcation sets are completed using the numerical branch tracking scheme AUTO. Despite the severity of the truncation, the agreement with experimental results is excellent.

Mccaughan, F. E.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Application of bifurcation theory to axial flow compressor instability

When a compression system goes unstable, the mode of response depends on the operating and system parameters, such as throttle setting and B parameter. Previous numerical work on the model developed by Moore and Greitzer (1986) has provided a limited picture of the parametric effects. Applying bifurcation theory to a single-harmonic version of the model has supplied much more complete information, defining the boundaries of each mode of response in the parameter space. Specifically, this is shown in a plot of B vs. throttle setting, which compares well with the corresponding map produced experimentally. The importance of the shape of the rotating stall characteristic is emphasized. The analysis shows a qualitative difference between classic surge and deep surge.

Mccaughan, F. E.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Numerical results for axial flow compressor instability

Using Cornell's supercomputing facilities, an extensive study of the Moore-Greitzer model was carried out, which gives accurate and reliable information about compressor instability. The bifurcation analysis in the companion paper shows the dependence of the mode of compressor response on the shape of the rotating stall characteristic. The numerical results verify and extend this with a more accurate representation of the characteristic. The effect of the parameters on the shape of the rotating stall characteristic is investigated, and it is found that the parameters with the strongest effects are the inlet length, and the shape of the compressor pressure rise vs. mass flow diagram (i.e. tall diagrams vs. shallow diagrams). The effects of inlet guide vane loss on the characteristic are discussed.

Mccaughan, F. E.↗