Inception mechanism and suppression of rotating stall in an axial-flow fan

Abstract

Inception patterns of rotating stall at two stagger-angle settings for the highly loaded rotor blades were experimentally investigated in a low-speed axial-flow fan. Rotor-tip flow fields were also numerically investigated to clarify the mechanism behind the rotating stall inception. The stall inception patterns depended on the rotor stagger-angle settings. The stall inception from a rotating instability was confirmed at the design stagger-angle settings. The stall inception from a short length-scale stall cell (spike) was also confirmed at the small stagger-angle setting. The spillage of tip-leakage flow and the tip-leakage vortex breakdown influence the rotating stall inception. An air-separator has been developed based on the clarified inception mechanism of rotating stall. The rotating stall was suppressed by the developed air-separator, and the operating range of fan was extended towards low flow rate. The effect of developed air-separator was also confirmed by application to a primary air fan used in a coal fired power plant. It is concluded from these results that the developed air-separator can provide a wide operating range for an axial-flow fan.