EFFECT OF INLET DISTORTIONS, CO-SWIRL AND COUNTER-SWIRL ON

SINGLE AXIAL FAN AND CONTRA-ROTATING AXIAL FANS

Bhaskar Roy, Sq. Ldr. Hari Kumar and Amit Batra

Aerospace Engineering Department, IIT-Bombay, Mumbai
E-mail: aeroyia@aero.iitb.ernet.in
Abstract Introduction

Inlet distortions are flow non-uniformities that result One of the most important problems faced by the
in a decrease in performance and lessening of the designers of gas turbine engines is the adverse effect
operating flow range of a compressor. This paper of inlet flow distortions on the engine performance
presents an inlet flow distortion study on a single and stability. Extensive theoretical and experimental
axial fan and a contra-Rotating Twin rotor axial fan. research has been done on multistage axial
Experiments were carried out for the following compressors, and has yielded marginal
configurations: (a) Clean inlet condition, (b) 90o improvements in offsetting these adverse effects.
Circumferential Extent Steady Total Pressure The focus has now shifted to the concept of contra-
Distortion and (c) A combination of 90o Total rotation, (rotation of two rotors in the opposite
Pressure Distortion and localized 90o swirl (both co- direction without any stator), with a view to achieve
swirl and counter swirl). Total pressure high pressure rise per stage as well as an
measurements were done at the inlet and exit of the improvement on the stability of the stage through
axial fan/contra-stage, both in the distorted and rotating stall/surge suppression.
clean regions. The experimental results were The contra-rotation concept has found acceptability
analyzed to obtain distortion parameters like in recent developments of fuel-efficient aero-
Distortion Index and Axial/Contra-Fan performance engines. Since inlet distortion is an unavoidable
parameters like the Pressure Rise coefficient, Mean phenomenon, its effect on the design of contra-
flow coefficient etc. It is observed that the rotating compressors cannot be disregarded. The
Distortion Index is highest for the case of term “inlet distortion” is used to denote the non-
combination of 90o Total Pressure Distortion and uniformity of any of the flow properties such as
90o Localized Counter-Swirl. The severity of the total pressure, static pressure, temperature, velocity
combined distortion is more for a contra-rotating or flow angle existing at the engine inlet. These
stage as compared to the single axial fan. A have been broadly classified as:
significant outcome of the study is the fact that in
spite of a higher distortion, counter-swirl produces a ♦ Total pressure distortion, which may be steady
lower degradation in performance compared to the or dynamic
co-swirl, which has a lower distortion intensity. ♦ Temperature distortions
Also, the performance penalty in the case of the ♦ Inlet swirl distortions
contra-rotating unit is less as compared to the single ♦ Inlet duct geometry (asymmetric geometry)
axial fan. ♦ Back pressure distortions
♦ Rotating distortions (geometric and flow
Nomenclature related)
Flow Variables
Ca -- Axial Velocity Inlet flow non-uniformities arise due to various
DC(θ) -- Distortion Index reasons like changes in aircraft attitudes due to
Pt -- Total Pressure maneuvers, flow separation in air intake due to
R -- Blade Tip Radius shock wave/boundary layer interaction, wakes of the
r/R -- Radius Ratio aircraft or other aircrafts, vortices, cross winds and
SC(θ) -- Swirl Co-efficient atmospheric turbulence, ingestion of hot gases in
Um -- Mean Blade Velocity VSTOL aircraft etc. Regions of localized swirl can
Ut -- Blade Tip Velocity be generated due to upstream flow field
α -- Inlet Vane Swirl Angle redistribution. Other causes may be secondary flow
α -- Flow Angle effects in the end-wall, or due to inlet vortex
ψ -- Pressure rise Co-efficient problems. The effect of swirl and inlet total pressure
φ -- Mean Flow Co-efficient distortion appear to interact in a non-linear manner
Post Scripts such that their combined effect is more severe than
1 -- rotor inlet that might be inferred from the simple addition of
2 -- rotor exit the effects of swirl and distortion.
Objective
In the present study, the effect of inlet distortion
flow on the performance of axial Fan and contra-
rotating twin-rotor axial fan unit was investigated.
The experiments were carried out for the following
configurations:
a) Clean inlet condition
b) 90o Circumferential Extent Steady Total
Pressure Distortion
c) A combination of 90o Total Pressure Distortion
and 90o Localized swirl
The experiments for the above configurations were
carried out on the contra-fan test rig with and
without the second (contra) rotor. The localized
swirl is produced by deflecting the inlet vane
mechanism both at positive and negative incidences.
The positive deflection of the inlet vanes results in a
circumferential flow in the direction of rotation of
the rotor, which is termed as co-swirl in this context.
Similarly, the negative deflection produces a
circumferential flow that is counter to the rotation of
the rotor (the first rotor, in case of the contra-
rotating fans) and is termed as counter-swirl. The
flow measurements were taken using standard Pitot-
static tubes along with the digital micro-manometer.
Past Work
The effect of inlet distortion on axial compressor
performance was recognized in as early as 1950’s,
when NACA undertook an extensive experimental
investigation of the problem. At the same time,
several analytical examinations of the non-
axisymmetric inflow based on the actuator disk
model of a compressor blade also appeared1. Since
then a large amount of theoretical and experimental
work has focused on axial compressors and fans
because of their use in military and commercial
aircrafts. These efforts have yielded in an overall
improvement of the performance of axial
compressors but to a limited extent. It is with this
background that the interest in contra-rotation
concept has emerged with a view to achieve more
pressure rise per unit axial length, besides its
Figure 1: Square wave non-uniformity
suitability (in increasing the operating range) for
rotating stall/surge suppression2. A simple form of
circumferential non-uniformity is the square-wave
distribution, in which two distinct but equal
circumferential extents of high and low total
pressure regions exist at the compressor face as
shown in Figure 1.
A basic understanding of the circumferential
variation of inlet flow was given by Pearson and
Mackenzie3 using the “parallel compressor model”.
In this model the compressor is viewed as two
identical compressors operating in parallel with
different inlet total pressure to a common static
pressure. This idea, along with the assumption that
each of the two compressors (in parallel) will
operate as per the uniform flow compressor
characteristic at the local mass flows, allows
description of the compressor behavior in the
distorted flow.
Quantification of Distortion, Swirl and Performance
In order to quantify the distortion, the concept of
θcrit and distortion index, DC(θ) is used. θcrit is that
angle of circumferential distortion which gives
maximum loss in surge delivery static pressure. The
general trends of compressor performance with
different inlet distortions are illustrated in a series of
experiments undertaken by Reid4, which are shown
in Figure 2a and Figure 2b. Figure 2a shows the
compressor delivery pressure at the surge line, for
different types of distortion. Figure 2b shows the
effect of sub-dividing the total angular extent of the
distortion (which is fixed) into different numbers of
equal sections. It can be seen that the greatest effect
on the loss of surge delivery pressure is observed
when there is only one region. Also, as the angular
width of the spoiled sector (low inlet total pressure)
is increased there is a width above which there is a
little change in the exit static pressure. This width is
often referred to as the critical sector angle (θcrit).
Using this, the distortion index is defined as:
DC( θcrit ) = ( Pt |3600 − Pt |worstθcrit )/(1/2)ρ ca
2
DC(θ) can be used to judge both the quality of
intake flow and the tolerance of an engine. The
distortion index has been found successful in
correlating inlet distortion index with compressor
performance. The loss of surge margin has been
found to be approximately proportional to the
distortion index. One of the simplest ways of
defining surge margin has been defined by
Cumpsty5.
For a quantitative measure of swirl, a swirl
coefficient SC(θ) analogous to the Distortion
coefficient DC(θ) has been defined by Guo6. It is the
maximum average circumferential component of the
cross-flow velocity in a sector of the measuring
station, non-dimensionalized by dividing by the
mean duct velocity at the throat section.
Figure 2: (a) Effect of Circumferential Distortion Angle, (b) Effect of number of sectors on surge pressure ratio4
Experimental and Analytical Studies
The effect of inlet flow distortion on compressors
can be broken down into two major areas:
• The attenuation of the distortion pattern as it
passes through the compressor.
• The resulting change in compressor
performance.
One of the early studies related to attenuation was
done by Ehrich7 using the actuator disk approach. It
was concluded that an attenuation of 0.7 to 0.8 in
velocity distortion is attainable and can be improved
with lower reaction staging. In another study by
Yocum8, it was shown that the attenuation of
distortion as it passes through the rotor is a function
of the blade stagger angle and the ratio of rotor
blade spacing to the distortion wave length. Plourde9
concluded from his studies in a multistage
compressor that the overall attenuation of both total
pressure distortion and axial velocity distortion is
dependent on the slope of compressor pressure flow
rate characteristics. The attenuation increases when
the slope is made more negative.
Stenning10 has done an analysis by the compressor
model to predict the effect of circumferential
distortion on the performance map. This method has
proved useful for analyzing distortions greater than
60o as unsteady effects are neglected in the simple
parallel compressor model. An analytical and
experimental investigation of asymmetric annulus
swirling flows in turbo-machines annuli has been
done by Greitzer11. It is found that in a swirling flow
the different type of flow disturbances (pressure and
vorticity) are strongly coupled. The magnitude of
the flow angle and static pressure distortion
increases with increasing mean swirl angle and/or
decreasing hub-tip ratio. Another study done by
Viswanath12 reports on the combined effect of inlet
flow distortion and swirl on an axial fan stage. It
was found that at the design flow coefficient, swirl
causes a deterioration in performance in addition to
that caused by distortion. In addition, the attenuation
of distortion was high in the presence of swirl. In a
recent work, Sharma13 studied the effect of inlet
distortion on the performance of the contra-rotating
stage using a 360o inlet distortion screen. Other
benefits of contra-rotating fan have also been
investigated by Roy14,15,16 in past years.
Experimental Set-up
The experimental facility consists of the contra-
rotating fan unit, distortion mechanism, four
traverse mechanisms and the instrumentation for
measuring the various flow parameters. The Mach
number at inlet during these tests was of the order of
0.12, so that effects of compressibility were
negligible. The upstream turbulence introduced by
the distribution mechanism is approximately 8%.
Contra-Fan Test Unit
A Schematic layout of the contra-fan test rig used
for the present investigation is shown in Figure 3.
The first fan comprises of 11 blades followed by
ten-bladed contra-fan. The design data of the contra-
fan stage is given below. The contra-rotating rotors
are mounted on two separate solid co-axial shafts.
The two rotor shafts independently driven by two
separate DC motors are capable of rotating in
opposite direction in a speed range of 0-2400 rpm.
Mass flow rate can be varied by moving the throttle
cone at the rear. Provision is made for the
measurement of the flow field at the inlet and at the
exit of the contra-fan. The detailed design of the test
rig and the contra-fan unit have been provided
earlier by the author14.
Distortion mechanism
Pressure Distortion Generator (Distortion Screen)
The basic screen design method involves laying of
screens of different porosity over a low blockage
base screen. The experimental set up used for the
distortion study, consists of an isolated rotor and a
twin-rotor contra-rotating fan unit. In the present
study only a single screen is used. It is fabricated
using a wire mesh of 90o circumferential extent and
having a porosity of 0.7. Two MS strips of 2 mm
thickness and width 2 cm are cut and bent in a
quarter arcs of radii equal to that of hub and outer
casing respectively. The wire mesh is cut to a
circumferential extent of 90o and soldered between
the strips. The distortion screen can be push-fitted
between the hub and the casing inner walls. The
distortion mesh can be rotated around the annulus
and if required, finer meshes can be attached to this
base screen to charge the distortion intensity.
 Figure 3: Contra Fan Test Rig

1. Metal strip with slots

(for movement of
lever)
2. Nut for fixing the
lever
3. Pivot pin (outer
casing)
4. Inlet vanes
5. Lever to move the
inlet vanes
6. Strip fixed on hub
for pivoting inlet
vanes
7. Outer casing
8. Split pin
9. Pivot pin (hub)
10. Pointer

Figure 4: Isometric View of the Swirl Mechanism

Swirl Generator (Inlet Vanes)
The inlet vane mechanism to produce localized
swirl is shown in Figure 4. It is located just
downstream of the distortion screen. The
mechanism consists of a series of five plates of 10
cm X 10 cm size arranged in a 90o quadrant of the
fan annulus. The inlet vanes are equally spaced in a
90o quadrant and are pivoted at the hub and casing
wall. They are rotated by levers which have a slotted
pin (5 mm length) soldered on one end of the lever,
while the other end is moved in slots cut in a
semicircular strip held on the outside casing. The
inlet vanes are held in the slotted pin (inserted from
outside casing wall) with split pins. This
arrangement is used for easy installation and
removal of the inlet vane mechanism. The inlet
vanes can be rotated from an angle of +15o to –15o.
Measuring Stations
The details of the measuring stations are given in
Figure 5(a) and 5(b). The flow angle measurements
by the three hole probe was done at the mean radius
at an axial location of 295 mm from the center of
the inlet swirl vanes. The total pressure
measurements were taken at two axial locations i.e.
inlet and exit of the contra-fan stage and five radial
locations corresponding to each location. The
measurements were taken in the clean and distorted
regions. In the distorted region downstream of the
distortion mechanism, the pressure measurements
were done using the total pressure rake. The
traversing mechanism allowed probe rotation and
radial movement. The angle of the total pressure
rake is set equal to the flow angle as measured by
the three-hole probe to avoid directional errors. On-
line averaging of pressure is done for the total
pressure rake. In the clean flow region, shielded
total pressure probes have been used. Two shielded
pressure probes were used at the exit of the contra-
fan stage in both the clean and distorted regions.
These were positioned at an axial distance of 185
mm from the second rotor.

Figure 5: Measuring Stations (a) axial; (b) radial
Experimental Study, Results and Analysis
The experimental data was analyzed to obtain the
various fan performance parameters like the
pressure rise coefficient ψ, mean flow coefficient φ,
Distortion Indices, DC(θ) etc. The different aspects
of inlet distortion and its effects on the axial fan
performance are summarized below.
Inlet Distortion Studies on Single Axial Fan
Distortion Indices DC(θ)
The distortion indices for the combined distortion
for both positive and negative swirl are given in
Table 1 at two flow coefficients. It can be seen from
the table that distortion index for the case of co-
swirl is much less than that for the counter-swirl.
Since the Distortion Index is a measure of the
severity of the distortion, it seems that counter-swirl
results in more distortion.
Loss of Peak Pressure Rise Coefficient
Figure 6 shows the characteristic plot of the axial
fan in terms of the pressure rise coefficient, ψ versus
the mean flow coefficient, φ for different
Table 1: Distortion Coefficients for the Combined Distortion
Table 2: Pressure Rise Coefficient (ψ) for various Distortion Configurations
1. Pitot’s static
tube
2. Distortion
screen
3. Inlet vane swirl
4. Pitot’s rake/
shielded total
pressure probe
5. First rotor
6. Contra-rotor
7. Shielded total
pressure probe
configurations. The absolute values of ψ and the
percentage reduction in ψ compared to the uniform
inlet conditions are given in Table 2. The
observations are summarized below:
• There is deterioration in peak pressure rise
coefficient as the distortion configuration is
changed from total pressure distortion to the
combined distortion of total pressure and swirl.
• It seems that although DC(θ) is higher for
counter-swirl, the surge pressure rise achieved
is higher compared to the co-swirl which has a
lower distortion index. This suggests that there
is better attenuation of combined distortion with
counter swirl in the axial fan.
• It can be seen from the characteristic plot that
the curves move downwards and to the left, as
the distortion configuration is changed from
total pressure distortion to the combined
distortion with counter-swirl and with co-swirl,
in that order. It is therefore evident that for any
meaningful pressure rise under distortion
condition, the machine has to operate with
lower mass flow rates.
 Figure 6: Axial fan characteristics under clean and various distortion conditions

Inlet Distortion Studies on Contra-Fan Table 4.

The experimental investigations on the two contra-
rotating rotors were carried out with a view to assess
its performance under the same distortion
configurations. The experiments were conducted at
three speeds of 2400, 2200 and 2000 rpm. The
speed ratio between the two rotors at all the above
speeds was kept 1.0.
Distortion Indices DC(υ)
The distortion indices for the various configurations
at the first rotor inlet are given in Table 3.
Comparing the values of DC(θ), it can be seen the
maximum severity of distortion is that caused by a
combination of distortion and counter-rotating swirl.
Variation of flow angle, α with inlet vane swirl
angle,α,
The variation of flow angle, α at mean radius with
change of inlet-vane swirl angle α is shown in
Two aspects that can be identified are as follows:
• The influence of rotor blade suction on
incoming flow angle can be seen from Table 4.
It can be seen that when counter-swirl is
imparted, there is a decrease in the incidence of
flow angles at the rotor face. When co-swirl is
imparted there is a slight increase in the flow
angle at the rotor face. This suggests that the
flow angles are more affected by the rotation of
rotor in case of counter-swirl as compared to
that in case of co- swirl.
• The second aspect relates to the throttling effect
of both the co- swirl and the counter-swirl.
Table 4 shows the velocity change at various
incidences of inlet vane angle. It seems that the
effect of co-rotating swirl is to decrease the
mass flow rate. However, in case of counter-
swirl, this effect of vane blockage is absent.

Table 3: Distortion Indices for various configurations

Table 4: Variation of flow angle with change in inlet vane swirl angle
 Table 5: Pressure Rise Coefficient ψ, values at stall onset points

Table 6: Percentage Loss of ψ for different inlet configurations

Figure 7(a), (b) and (c) Contra-Rotating Fan Unit Performance at various speeds and various distortions

rise coefficient ψ, and mean flow coefficient φ. The

Loss of Peak Pressure Rise Coefficient change in pressure rise at instability is expressed as
Figures 7(a), 7(b) and 7(c) show the contra-fan stage a fraction of the uniform flow pressure rise for the
performance characteristics in terms of the pressure contra-fan stage operating at constant speed. The
stage pressure rise coefficient values at stall onset
points for different speed ranges are given in Table
5. From Table 6, it can be seen that, as in the case of
single fan, in contra-fan the maximum deterioration
in pressure rise coefficient,ψ is in the case of inlet
distortion with the co-swirl. This is a very
significant observation. The experimental results
suggests that in spite of a higher distortion index,
DC(υ) in the case of the counter-swirl, the
performance degradation is lower as compared to
the co-swirl which has a lower distortion index.
Comparative Analysis
Distortion Index DC (θ)
The Distortion Indices for various inlet distortion
configurations indicate an increase from total
pressure distortion to combined total pressure and
swirl. The severity of the combined distortion is
much more for counter-swirl as compared to co-
swirl, both for the axial fan and contra-rotating unit.
The deterioration in performance can be observed
from the characteristic plots of the axial fan (Figure
6) and of the contra-rotating units (Figures 7a, 7b
and 7c). It can be seen that the curves shift
downwards and to the left as the distortion
configuration is changed from the uniform flow,
total pressure distortion and combined distortion, in
that order. The maximum deterioration is for the
case of distortion with co-swirl. This shift in the
characteristic curves implies the following two
points:
• Under distortion conditions owing to the lower
mass flow rates for stable operation of the axial
machine, there is a penalty in terms of the
pressure rise achieved. The percentage
deterioration in pressure rise coefficient is much
larger for contra-rotating unit compared to the
axial fan.
• The distortion attenuation seems to be better for
the case of total pressure distortion with counter
swirl, as compared to the co-swirl.
So, in this study we see that the Distortion Index,
which represents the severity of distortion, is higher
for a total pressure distortion with counter-swirl
compared to co-swirl. One would normally expect a
corresponding reduction in the performance.
However it is now observed that the pressure rise
across the rotors behind the distorted zone is
significantly higher in the case of counter swirl as
compared to the co-swirl.
Conclusion
This study presents the effect of 90o Circumferential
Extent Steady Total Pressure Distortion and a
combination of 90o Total Pressure Distortion and
swirl (both co-rotating and counter-rotating swirl),
on the performance of an axial fan and a set of twin-
rotor contra-rotating fans. It is observed from the
experimental results that Distortion Index is highest
for the case of combination of 90o Total Pressure
Distortion and 90o Localized Counter-Swirl. It is
observed that in spite of the higher distortion;
counter-swirl produces a lower degradation in
performance (in terms of peak pressure rise)
compared to the co-swirl. Similar observations have
been reported by Fottner17 and Wadia18. The
performance penalty (as measured in percentage
loss of ψ) for contra-rotating unit is less compared
to that of a single axial fan for the co-swirl case.
Distortions with counter-swirl produce nearly
similar loss of ψ (in %) in both, single and contra-
rotating fans. In both, single fan and contra fan,
distortion with counter-swirl gives lower loss of
performance compared to distortion with co-swirl.
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