Effect of geometric uncertainty on a one stage transonic compressor of an industrial gas turbine

The geometrical uncertainties can result in flow asymmetry around the annulus of compressor which in turn can detrimentally affect on the compressor stability and performance. Typically these uncertainties arise as a consequence of in-service degradation and/or manufacturing tolerance, both of which have been dealt with in this paper. The paper deals with effects of leading edge damage and tip gap on rotor blades. It was found that the chord-wise damage is more critical than radial damage.

It was found that a zigzag pattern of arranging the damaged rotor blades (i.e. most damaged blades between two least damaged blades) would give the best possible performance and stability when performing maintenance and overhauling while a sinusoidal pattern of arrangement had the worst performance and stability. This behaviour of zigzag arrangement of random damaged blades is consonant with the behaviour of zigzag arrangement in random tip gaps. It is also shown in this work that the level of damage has a bigger impact on the compressor performance and stability than the number of damaged blades.