scholarly journals Considerations for Using Additive Manufacturing Technology in Centrifugal Compressor Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Meier ◽  
William J. Gooding ◽  
John Fabian ◽  
Nicole Key

Abstract An additive manufactured (AM) vaned diffuser for use in a centrifugal compressor research facility was designed and implemented. Utilizing an AM process to manufacture the diffuser reduces the long lead time that is associated with conventionally manufactured diffusers, and it increases the instrumentation capabilities within the flow path. Several AM techniques and a variety of plastic and metal materials were evaluated for this application. A high-temperature, stereolithography (SL) resin was chosen because of the tight dimensional tolerances maintained by the SL process. Utilizing a high-temperature plastic also results in manufacturing costs that are significantly less than using a metal material. Samples of the chosen material were subjected to mechanical testing to investigate the effects of build direction and to verify its properties in the high-temperature compressor environment. To fit within the manufacturing space of an SL machine, the AM diffuser consists of seven radially symmetric sections that are assembled to form a complete flow path. Considerations for modifying the research facility to allow for this unique installation are presented. Precision measurements of the AM components were obtained to compare printed and modeled geometry, and they demonstrate close alignment of flow path dimensions.

Author(s):  
Matthew A. Meier ◽  
William J. Gooding ◽  
John Fabian ◽  
Nicole Key

Abstract An additive manufactured (AM) vaned diffuser for use in a centrifugal compressor research facility was designed and implemented. Utilizing an AM process to manufacture the diffuser reduces the long lead time that is associated with conventionally manufactured diffusers, and it increases the instrumentation capabilities within the flow path. Several AM techniques and a variety of plastic and metal materials were evaluated for this application. A high-temperature, stereolithography (SL) resin was chosen because of the tight dimensional tolerances maintained by the SL process. Utilizing a high-temperature plastic also results in manufacturing costs that are significantly less than using a metal material. Samples of the chosen material were subjected to mechanical testing to investigate the effects of build direction (BD) and to verify its properties in the high-temperature compressor environment. To fit within the manufacturing space of an SL machine, the AM diffuser consists of seven radially symmetric sections that are assembled to form a complete flow path. Considerations for modifying the research facility to allow for this unique installation are presented. Precision measurements of the AM components were obtained to compare printed and modeled geometry, and they demonstrate close alignment of flow path dimensions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 01078
Author(s):  
Yuri Kozhukhov ◽  
Aleksey Danilishin ◽  
Sergey Kartashov ◽  
Lyubov Gileva ◽  
Aleksey Yablokov ◽  
...  

This paper presents the results of the study of the spatial flow in the turbocompressors elements of computational fluid dynamics methods using the Ansys CFX software package on a multiprocessor computer system. Five objects of research are considered: 1) flow path of an intermediate stage of an average-flow centrifugal compressor; 2) flow path of the low-flow centrifugal compressor stage; 3) a natural gas centrifugal compressor stage; 4) vaned diffuser of the first stage of an industrial multistage centrifugal compressor; 5) adjustable inlet stator of the first stage of an industrial turbocompressors. Generally at manufacturing new centrifugal compressors, it is impossible to make a control measurement of the parameters of the working process inside the flow path elements. Computational fluid dynamics methods are widely used to overcome this difficulties. However verification and validation of CFD methods are necessary for accurate modeling of the workflow. All calculations were performed on one of the SPbPU clusters. Parameters of one cluster: AMD Opteron 280 4 cores. The calculations were carried out with parallel running of the processors: HP MPI Distributed Parallel and HP MPI Local Parallel for different objects.


2014 ◽  
Vol 663 ◽  
pp. 347-353
Author(s):  
Layth H. Jawad ◽  
Shahrir Abdullah ◽  
Zulkifli R. ◽  
Wan Mohd Faizal Wan Mahmood

A numerical study that was made in a three-dimensional flow, carried out in a modified centrifugal compressor, having vaned diffuser stage, used as an automotive turbo charger. In order to study the influence of vaned diffuser meridional outlet section with a different width ratio of the modified centrifugal compressor. Moreover, the performance of the centrifugal compressor was dependent on the proper matching between the compressor impeller along the vaned diffuser. The aerodynamic characteristics were compared under different meridional width ratio. In addition, the velocity vectors in diffuser flow passages, and the secondary flow in cross-section near the outlet of diffuser were analysed in detail under different meridional width ratio. Another aim of this research was to study and simulate the effect of vaned diffuser on the performance of a centrifugal compressor. The simulation was undertaken using commercial software so-called ANSYS CFX, to predict numerically the performance charachteristics. The results were generated from CFD and were analysed for better understanding of the fluid flow through centrifugal compressor stage and as a result of the minimum width ratio the flow in diffuser passage tends to be uniformity. Moreover, the backflow and vortex near the pressure surface disappear, and the vortex and detachment near the suction surface decrease. Conclusively, it was observed that the efficiency was increased and both the total pressure ratio and static pressure for minimum width ratio are increased.


Author(s):  
Yohei Morita ◽  
Nobumichi Fujisawa ◽  
Takashi Goto ◽  
Yutaka Ohta

The effects of the diffuser vane geometries on the compressor performance and noise characteristics of a centrifugal compressor equipped with vaned diffusers were investigated by experiments and numerical techniques. Because we were focusing attention on the geometries of the diffuser vane’s leading edge, diffuser vanes with various leading edge geometries were installed in a vaned diffuser. A tapered diffuser vane with the tapered portion near the leading edge of the diffuser’s hub-side could remarkably reduce both the discrete frequency noise level and broadband noise level. In particular, a hub-side tapered diffuser vane with a taper on only the hub-side could suppress the development of the leading edge vortex (LEV) near the shroud side of the diffuser vane and effectively enhanced the compressor performance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Galloway ◽  
Stephen Spence ◽  
Sung In Kim ◽  
Daniel Rusch ◽  
Klemens Vogel ◽  
...  

The stable operating range of a centrifugal compressor stage of an engine turbocharger is limited at low mass flow rates by aerodynamic instabilities which can lead to the onset of rotating stall or surge. There have been many techniques employed to increase the stable operating range of centrifugal compressor stages. The literature demonstrates that there are various possibilities for adding special treatments to the nominal diffuser vane geometry, or including injection or bleed flows to modify the diffuser flow field in order to influence diffuser stability. One such treatment is the porous throat diffuser (PTD). Although the benefits of this technique have been proven in the existing literature, a comprehensive understanding of how this technique operates is not yet available. This paper uses experimental measurements from a high pressure ratio (PR) compressor stage to acquire a sound understanding of the flow features within the vaned diffuser which affect the stability of the overall compression system and investigate the stabilizing mechanism of the porous throat diffuser. The nonuniform circumferential pressure imposed by the asymmetric volute is experimentally and numerically examined to understand if this provides a preferential location for stall inception in the diffuser. The following hypothesis is confirmed: linking of the diffuser throats via the side cavity equalizes the diffuser throat pressure, thus creating a more homogeneous circumferential pressure distribution, which delays stall inception to lower flow rates. The results of the porous throat diffuser configuration are compared to a standard vaned diffuser compressor stage in terms of overall compressor performance parameters, circumferential pressure nonuniformity at various locations through the compressor stage and diffuser subcomponent analysis. The diffuser inlet region was found to be the element most influenced by the porous throat diffuser, and the stability limit is mainly governed by this element.


Computation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senthil Raman ◽  
Heuy Kim

A centrifugal compressor working with supercritical CO 2 (S-CO 2 ) has several advantages over other supercritical and conventional compressors. S-CO 2 is as dense as the liquid CO 2 and becomes difficult to compress. Thus, during the operation, the S-CO 2 centrifugal compressor requires lesser compression work than the gaseous CO 2 . The performance of S-CO 2 compressors is highly varying with tip clearance and vanes in the diffuser. To improve the performance of the S-CO 2 centrifugal compressor, knowledge about the influence of individual components on the performance characteristics is necessary. This present study considers an S-CO 2 compressor designed with traditional engineering design tools based on ideal gas behaviour and tested by SANDIA national laboratory. Three-dimensional, steady, viscous flow through the S-CO 2 compressor was analysed with computational fluid dynamics solver based on the finite volume method. Navier-Stokes equations are solved with K- ω (SST) turbulence model at operating conditions in the supercritical regime. Performance of the impeller, the main component of the centrifugal compressor is compared with the impeller with vaneless diffuser and vaned diffuser configurations. The flow characteristics of the shrouded impeller are also studied to analyse the tip-leakage effect.


2020 ◽  
pp. 86-114
Author(s):  
Jennifer Loy ◽  
Samuel Canning

In 2012, a Belgian company called Materialise hosted a fashion show featuring designs from a worldwide millinery competition. The featured pieces were paraded down a catwalk by professional models, and an overall winner chosen. What made this fashion show unusual was that the attendees were predominantly clinical and industrial engineers, and the host was a specialist engineering and software development company that emerged in 1990 from a research facility based at Leuven University. Engineers and product designers rather than fashion designers created the millinery and the works were all realized through additive manufacturing technology. This chapter provides an example of how fashion design has become a creative stimulus for the development of the technology. It illustrates how disruptive creativity has the potential to advance scientific research, with the two worlds of engineering and fashion coming together through a collaboration with industrial design. The chapter highlights the challenges and possible implications for preparing trans-disciplinary research teams.


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