Patent ID: 8185291

Claim:
A stall prediction apparatus of an axial compressor provided with a rotor having a plurality of rotor blades and a cylindrical casing facing the rotor blades and provided so as to cover the outer circumference of the rotor, the stall prediction apparatus comprising: two or more pressure sensors provided at each of a plurality of locations in a circumferential direction of an inner wall surface of the casing; an index calculator configured to calculate a stall risk index for evaluating a stall risk based on time-series data detected by each of the pressure sensors; and a signal processor configured to predict a stall occurrence based on the stall risk indexes obtained corresponding to each of the pressure sensors, wherein the signal processor determines if failure occurs in the pressure sensors provided at any of the plurality of locations based on the stall risk indexes obtained corresponding to the pressure sensors provided at said any of the plurality of locations, when a difference among the stall risk indexes obtained corresponding to the pressure sensors provided at said any of the plurality of locations exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the signal processor determines pressure sensors provided at said any of the plurality of locations which obtain substantially the same values compared with an estimated value from the stall risk indexes obtained from pressure sensors provided in other locations are normal, while the signal processor determines pressure sensors provided at said any of the plurality of locations which obtain values which are different from said estimated value are in the state of failure, and the signal processor predicts the stall occurrence based on an average value of the stall risk indexes obtained from the pressure sensors determined to be normal at said any of the plurality of locations and the pressure sensors provided in other locations.