LM 6000
HPC HIGH PRESSURE
COMPRESSOR
Ray Truesdale
To efficiently compress a gas over a range of
operating conditions is not an easy task. About
50% to 70% of the output of the turbine component
in a gas turbine is used to drive its compressor.
Contrast that to a steam plant where only about
1% of the turbine output is used to power
feedwater pumps to resupply incompressible water
to the boiler.
Axial compressors get their name because gas-
path air flows in more or less a straight line in an
axial direction, parallel to the gas turbine’s axis of
rotation. The compressor is assembled in stages,
each stage comprised of a ring of moving rotor
blades (or blades), mounted on a rotating disc or
drum, and a downstream ring of case-mounted
stationary stator blades (or stators).
Blades do work on the gas-path air flow, increasing
its static and total pressure, and kinetic energy.
Stators remove blade-induced swirl velocity,
thereby decreasing kinetic energy, serving to also
increase static pressure and align flow for blades in
the next stage.
Compressor blades and stators then operate on
gas-path flow to produce what aerodynamicists
term an adverse pressure gradient in the flow
direction—that is, from low to high static pressure.
This is analogous to pushing water up an inclined
channel, with many small, rapid brush strokes. If
the incline (akin to the compressor pressure ratio)
is too steep, the water runs backward, down the
slope.
By contrast, gas-path flow in a turbine operates in
a decreasing static pressure field in the axial
direction. This is termed a favorable pressure
gradient: think of water being brush-stroked down
a declined channel.
HPC HIGH
PRESSURE CO
MPRESSOR
• ENGINE CORE MODULE
• The core module consists of a high pressure
compressor (HPC), compressor rear frame (CRF)
assembly,
• combustor, and stage 1 high pressure turbine
(HPT)
• nozzle. The core module is a high pressure, high
speed, gas generator that produces the power to
drive the engine. Low pressure compressor (LPC)
air iscompressed in the HPC, heated and expanded
in the combustor, and then directed by the HPT
nozzles onto the HPT rotor. Energy not extracted
by the HPT rotor is used to drive the low pressure
turbine (LPT).
HPC
High Pressure Compressor
• 14-stage axial flow compressor
• Simple six piece construction
- Disk/rotor design of fewer parts
and greater rigidity
- Inertial welded disk/shaft for
increased strength and optimum
materials selection
• Corrosion resistant materials eliminates
need for coatings
• Individually replaceable blades
- Stages 1 & 2 axial dovetails
- Stages 3 to 14 radial dovetails
• Mid span damper on 1st stage
provides vibration damping
HPC
High Pressure Compressor
• The stage 1 disk/shaft design combines the
• rotor forward shaft and stage 1 disk into a one piece
• unit. Torque is transmitted to the compress or
• rotor through an internal spline at the
• forward end of the disk/shaft. The stage 1
• blades fit into axial dovetail slots in the disk.
• The stage 2 disk incorporates a flange on the
• forward side for transmitting torque to the
• stage 1 disk. An aft flange supports the aft air
• seal and the integral coupling nut and pressure
• tube. Stage 2 blades fit into axial dovetail slots
• in the disk.
• Internally cooled turbine blades are used in
• both stages. Both stages of blades are cooled
• by compressor discharge air flowing through
• the blade shank into the airfoil.
High Pressure • First six stages
- Enhanced part - Hydraulically
Compressor have variable
load efficiency actuated
Stator stator vanes
• “Trenched”
- Individually
• Horizontally inner case
- Field removable replaceable
split casing improves tip
vanes
clearances
• Inter-stage
and balancing at • Customer bleed
and sustains bleed air
stages 7, 8 and air provisions at
efficiency provisions for
11 stages
cooling
• Boro scope • High strength
• Stg 11 vanes
8 & 14 (CDP) inspection ports M152 steel
common to –80E
at each stage casing
The HPC stator consists of a forged stator case that contains the
and machined compressor stator vanes.
Vane airfoils in the remaining stages
are stationary. All fixed and variable The inlet guide vanes and the stage
vanes are non-interchangeable with 1 through 5 vanes can be rotated
other stages to prevent incorrect about the axis of their mounting
assembly. The casing is split along trunnions to vary the pitch of the
the horizontal split-line for ease of airfoils in the compressor flow path.
assembly and maintenance.
First six stages have variable stator vanes
- Enhanced part load efficiency
- Hydraulically actuated
• Horizontally split casing
- Field removable
- Individually replaceable vanes
• “Trenched” inner case improves tip
clearances
and sustains efficiency
• Inter-stage bleed air provisions for
cooling
and balancing at stages 7, 8 and 11
• Customer bleed air provisions at stages
8 & 14 (CDP)
• Boroscope inspection ports at each
stage
• High strength M152 steel casing
