On steady solutions of a PDE model of compressor stall

We analyze stability properties of steady state solutions of a simplified reaction-diffusion model and the Moore-Greitzer model of axial compressor stall. Steady state solutions are expressed as critical points of an energy function and are computed by continuation and bifurcation methods. For both the reaction-diffusion and Moore-Greitzer models, it is shown that the solutions asymptotically approach these critical points. We obtain multiple unstable solutions and discuss their relevance to nonlinear stall inception and control.