Detailed Flow Measurements in a Centrifugal Compressor Vaneless Diffuser

1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pinarbasi ◽  
M. W. Johnson

Hot-wire anemometer measurements have been made in the vaneless diffuser of a 1-m-dia low-speed backswept centrifugal compressor using a phase lock loop technique. Radial, tangential, and axial velocity measurements have been made on eight measurement planes through the diffuser. The flow field at the diffuser entry clearly shows the impeller jet-wake flow pattern and the blade wakes. The passage wake is located on the shroud side of the diffuser and mixes out slowly as the flow moves through the diffuser. The blade wakes, on the other hand, distort and mix out rapidly in the diffuser. Contours of turbulent kinetic energy are also presented on each of the measurement stations, from which the regions of turbulent mixing can be deduced.

Author(s):  
Ali Pinarbasi ◽  
Mark W. Johnson

Hot wire anemometer measurements have been made in the vaneless diffuser of a 1 metre diameter low speed backswept centrifugal compressor using a phase lock loop technique. Radial, tangential and axial velocity measurements have been made on eight measurement planes through the diffuser. The flow field at the diffuser entry clearly shows the impeller jet-wake flow pattern and the blade wakes. The passage wake is located on the shroud side of the diffuser and mixes out slowly as the flow moves through the diffuser. The blade wakes, on the other hand, distort and mix out rapidly in the diffuser. Contours of turbulent kinetic energy are also presented on each of the measurement stations, from which the regions of turbulent mixing can be deduced.


Author(s):  
Ali Pinarbasi ◽  
Mark W. Johnson

Three component hot wire measurements in the vaneless space and vane region of a low speed centrifugal compressor vaned diffuser are presented. These comprise mean velocity and turbulence level distributions for a below and above design flow rate for three vane-to-vane locations at each of five radial measurement stations. The flow entering the diffuser closely resembles the classic jet-wake flow characteristic of centrifugal impeller discharges. A strong upstream influence of the diffuser vanes is observed which results in significant variations in flow quantities between the vane-to-vane locations. The circumferential variations due to the passage and blade wakes rapidly mix out in the vaneless space, although some variations are still discernible in the vaned region. Comparison with results in a vaneless diffuser suggest that the presence of the vanes accelerates this mixing out process.


Author(s):  
T M A Maksoud ◽  
M W Johnson

Distributions of normal and shear (Reynolds) stresses inside the vaneless diffuser of a low-speed centrifugal compressor are presented. The measurements were made using a triple hot-wire system and a phase lock loop sampling technique. Results were obtained on cross-sectional planes at eight radial stations between the impeller outlet and the diffuser exit at three different flowrates. The turbulence was highly anisotropic and became more so as the flowrate was increased. The tangential component of turbulent intensity was found to be significantly smaller than either the radial or axial component. The blade wake observed at the diffuser inlet decays very rapidly due to the strong tangential Reynolds stresses generated by the opposed secondary flows on either side of the wake. The passage wake decays very much more slowly and is still identifiable at the diffuser discharge.


1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pinarbasi ◽  
M. W. Johnson

Detailed measurements have been taken of the three-dimensional velocity field within the vaneless diffuser of a backswept low speed centrifugal compressor using hot-wire anemometry. A 16 percent below and an 11 percent above design flow rate were used in the present study. Results at both flow rates show how the blade wake mixes out more rapidly than the passage wake. Strong secondary flows inherited from the impeller at the higher flow rate delay the mixing out of the circumferential velocity variations, but at both flow rates these circumferential variations are negligible at the last measurement station. The measured tangential/radial flow angle is used to recommend optimum values for the vaneless space and vane angle for design of a vaned diffuser.


1968 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Senoo ◽  
M. Yamaguchi ◽  
M. Nishi

In order to visualize the three-dimensional flow in the impeller and the vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor, water is used as the working fluid and streak lines of colored water are photographed and examined. The test is made at an extremely low speed so that streak lines do not diffuse due to turbulent mixing. The streak lines clearly demonstrate several types of secondary flow, some of which agree with what have been speculated to exist in actual compressors. Most of observed secondary flow patterns are qualitatively understandable with existing theories.


Author(s):  
Chenxing Hu ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Siyu Zheng

The increasing demand for compression systems with high pressure ratio and wide safety margin has set new prerequisites for designers to meet the industrial needs without increasing the manufacturing costs excessively. In this work, the turbulent stability of the vaneless diffuser of the centrifugal compressor was analyzed. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged numerical simulations of the isolated diffuser and full annular diffuser with or without circumferential asymmetric boundary conditions downstream were performed. And a continuous adjoint approach was adopted, which is rarely applied in the stability analysis of compressor flow. Then, the origin of instability under different inflow and outflow conditions was sought with a sensitivity analysis. The prediction of the growth rate reveals that the flow near the shroud dominates the global stability of the diffuser. When connected with an impeller in the upstream direction, the most unstable region is localized at the backflow regions near the outlet. The wave number, however, is altered under the impact of the jet-wake flow. When connected to a circumferential asymmetric condition, the structural sensitivity of the vaneless diffuser with a radius ratio of 1.53 indicates that the interaction between the inlet reverse flow and outlet backflow is responsible for the occurrence of stall. The most unstable regions are localized at the region 90°–135° away from the volute tongue. The present work mainly contributes to the instabilities identification with novel sensitivity methods under asymmetric boundary conditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey P. Bardakhanov ◽  
Sang W. Joo

A new technique for velocity-field measurements in fine granular systems is introduced. The hot-wire anemometry, mainly used for gaseous flows, is applied to nanopowders and is found to be a viable experimental method for flow measurements. A generic chute flow of aluminum oxide C and Aerosil A-90 and A-380 powders through a vertical channel is chosen as a test platform, and the results suggest that the hot-wire anemometry is a favorable option for nanopowder measurements.


Author(s):  
T Sato ◽  
J M Oh ◽  
A Engeda

As user demands grew for improved performance and more reliable equipment and as compressor vendors sought improved analytical and design methodologies, the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the industrial world became a necessity. Fortunately, large increases in available, economic computing power together with development of improved computational methods now provide the industrial designer with much improved analytic capability. As CFD algorithms and software have continued to be developed and refined, it remains essential that validation studies be conducted in order to ensure that the results are both sufficiently accurate and can be obtained in a robust and predictable manner. Part I of this paper presented detailed flow measurements in a vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor stage with a very high flow coefficient radial impeller, where measurements were carried out in the vaneless diffuser at seven radial positions downstream of the radial impeller designed for a very high flow coefficient of ϕ = 0.2. This paper, Part II, attempts to verify and validate the results numerically.


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