Impeller-Diffuser Interaction in Centrifugal Compressors

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Robinson ◽  
Michael Casey ◽  
Brad Hutchinson ◽  
Robin Steed
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Peak Efficiency ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Steady Stage ◽  
Rotor Stator Interaction ◽  
Design Speed ◽  
Steady Simulation ◽  
Cfd Analyses

This paper reports several CFD analyses of a centrifugal compressor stage with a vaned diffuser at high pressure ratio using different techniques to model the rotor-stator interaction. A conventional steady stage calculation with a mixing-plane type interface between the rotor and stator was used as a baseline. This simulation gave excellent agreement with the measured performance characteristics at design speed, demonstrating the ability of the particular steady simulation used to capture the essential features of the blockage interaction between the components. A full annulus simulation using a transient rotor-stator interaction (TRS) method was then used at the peak efficiency point to obtain a fully unsteady reference solution, and this predicted a small increase in peak efficiency. Finally, a computationally less expensive unsteady calculation using a Time Transformation (TT) method was carried out. This gave similar results to the fully transient calculation suggesting that this is an acceptable approach to estimate unsteady blade loading from the interaction. The impeller diffuser spacing was then reduced from 15 to 7% of the impeller tip radius using the more affordable TT approach. This identified an increase in efficiency of 1% and predicted unsteady pressure fluctuations in the impeller which were 116% higher with the closely spaced diffuser.

The Performance Evaluation of Variations of Diffuser Geometry of the Centrifugal Compressor in a Marine Engine (70MW) Turbocharger

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-Won Kim ◽  
Jong-Il Park ◽  
Seung-Hyup Ryu ◽  
Seong-Wook Choi ◽  
Sang-Hak Ghal
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Pressure Recovery ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Work Input ◽  
Interior Flow ◽  
Cfd Analyses

An examination of the condition of the flow leaving the impeller exit kinetic energy often accounts for 30–50% of the shaft work input to the compressor stage, and for energy efficiency it is important to recover as much of this as possible. This is the function of the diffuser which follows the impeller. Effective pressure recovery downstream of an impeller is very important to realize a centrifugal compressor with high efficiency and high pressure ratio, and an appropriate selection of a diffuser for a specific impeller is a critical step to develop the compressor accordingly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of how compressor performances changes as vaned diffuser geometry is varied. Three kinds of vaned diffusers were studied and its results were compared. First vaned diffuser type is based on modified NACA airfoil and second is channel diffuser and third is conformal transformation of NACA 65 airfoil. A mean-line prediction method was applied to investigate the performance and stability for three kinds of diffusers. And CFD analyses have been done for comparison and detailed interior flow pattern study. In this study, the off-design behavior of three different types of diffusers, given by mean-line prediction, was investigated using CFD results and selected the NACA 65 diffuser geometry which satisfy wider operating range and higher pressure recovery than the others. The numerical results were compared with experimental data for validation.

Improved High Pressure Ratio Centrifugal Compressor

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Krain ◽  
B. Hoffmann ◽  
K.-H. Rohne ◽  
G. Eisenlohr ◽  
F.-A. Richter
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Optical Measurements ◽  
Performance Measurements ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Laser Measurements ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Compressor Rotor ◽  
Design Speed ◽  
Internal Rotor

The paper describes the development and the experimental as well as theoretical investigation of a new transonic, high specific speed centrifugal compressor rotor of 6.2:1 pressure ratio. Performance measurement results, laser measurements and calculated 3D results are shown for the new rotor and are compared with the corresponding data of a same type predecessor rotor. A 2% gain in stage efficiency and a 0.2 bar increase in stage pressure ratio are found at design speed by performance measurements. With the help of optical measurements and 3D stage calculations it is shown that the flow at the exit of the new rotor is more uniform/homogeneous. The degree of uniformity increases with decreasing pressure ratio, i.e. in the compressor part load region. Deeper insight into the internal rotor and the vaned diffuser flow is obtained from the 3D stage calculations showing less flow separation in the new rotor but significant secondary flow in the small span diffuser. The investigations are indicating that a further improvement of stage performance seems to be possible by an additional optimization of the vaned diffuser.

The Performance Evaluation With Diffuser Geometry Variations of the Centrifugal Compressor in a Marine Engine (70MW) Turbocharger

2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-Won Kim ◽  
Jong-II Park ◽  
Seung-Hyup Ryu ◽  
Seong-Wook Choi ◽  
Sang-Hak Ghal
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Pressure Recovery ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Work Input ◽  
Cfd Analyses

An examination of the condition of the flow leaving the impeller exit kinetic energy often accounts for 30–50% of the shaft work input to the compressor stage; for energy efficiency, it is important to recover as much of this as possible. This is the function of the diffuser, which follows the impeller. Effective pressure recovery downstream of an impeller is very important in order to realize a centrifugal compressor with a high efficiency and a high pressure ratio, and an appropriate selection of a diffuser for a specific impeller is a critical step in order to develop the compressor accordingly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of how compressor performances change as the vaned diffuser geometry is varied. Three kinds of vaned diffusers were studied and compared with its results. The first vaned diffuser type is based on a modified NACA airfoil, the second is a channel diffuser, and the third is a conformal transformation of NACA 65-(4A10)06 airfoil. A mean-line prediction method was applied to investigate the performance and stability for three kinds of diffusers. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses and a detailed interior flow pattern study have been done. In this study, the off-design behavior of three different types of diffusers, given by the mean-line prediction, was investigated using CFD results and the NACA 65 diffuser geometry, which satisfies a wider operating range and has a higher pressure recovery than the others, was selected. The numerical results were compared with experimental data for validation and showed good agreement.

Unsteady Hydrodynamic Forces due to Rotor-Stator Interaction on a Diffuser Pump With Identical Number of Vanes on the Impeller and Diffuser

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Zhang ◽  
H. Tsukamoto
Keyword(s):  
Computational Study ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Vortex Method ◽  
Hydrodynamic Forces ◽  
Pump Impeller ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Fluid Forces ◽  
Rotor Stator Interaction ◽  
Identical Number ◽  
Good Agreement

Experimental and computational study was developed for unsteady hydrodynamic forces on a diffuser pump impeller excited by the interaction between the impeller and the vaned diffuser with the same number of vanes as impeller. Unsteady flow calculations are made using commercially available CFD software, CFX-TASCflow, as well as the two-dimensional vortex method. Calculated pressure and fluid forces on the impeller show good agreement with measured ones. It has been demonstrated that the fluid forces on the impeller with the same number of vanes as the vaned diffuser are smaller compared with other combinations of vane numbers. However, the pressure fluctuations are found to be greater than other cases.

scholarly journals Numerical Investigations of Unsteady Flow in a Centrifugal Pump with a Vaned Diffuser

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Petit ◽  
Håkan Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Pump ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Turbulence Models ◽  
Centrifugal Impeller ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Pump Test ◽  
Steady Simulation ◽  
Turbulent Models ◽  
Cfd Analyses

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses were made to study the unsteady three-dimensional turbulence in the ERCOFTAC centrifugal pump test case. The simulations were carried out using the OpenFOAM Open Source CFD software. The test case consists of an unshrouded centrifugal impeller with seven blades and a radial vaned diffuser with 12 vanes. A large number of measurements are available in the radial gap between the impeller and the diffuse, making this case ideal for validating numerical methods. Results of steady and unsteady calculations of the flow in the pump are compared with the experimental ones, and four different turbulent models are analyzed. The steady simulation uses the frozen rotor concept, while the unsteady simulation uses a fully resolved sliding grid approach. The comparisons show that the unsteady numerical results accurately predict the unsteadiness of the flow, demonstrating the validity and applicability of that methodology for unsteady incompressible turbomachinery flow computations. The steady approach is less accurate, with an unphysical advection of the impeller wakes, but accurate enough for a crude approximation. The different turbulence models predict the flow at the same level of accuracy, with slightly different results.

Experiments With a Model Free Rotating Vaneless Diffuser

1975 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rodgers ◽  
H. Mnew
Keyword(s):  
Static Pressure ◽  
Experimental Testing ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Velocity Ratio ◽  
Tangential Velocity ◽  
Vaneless Diffuser ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Model Free ◽  
Inner Diameter

Experimental testing of a model free-rotating vaneless diffuser, for application to high pressure ratio single-stage centrifugal compressors, was conducted to determine diffuser performance under braked and free rotating conditions at entry Mach numbers up to unity. The experimental test rig comprised a swirl generating nozzle upstream of the model vaneless diffuser rotor with an outer-to-inner diameter ratio of 1.3. Additional downstream diffusion was completed with stationary vaneless and vaned diffuser inserts. A significant improvement in diffuser performance was achieved under free-rotating conditions even though large wakes generated by upstream stationary swirl nozzles were present. Overall static pressure recovery for the complete diffusion system increased approximately 20 percent at free-rotating conditions corresponding to a tangential velocity ratio (diffuser rotor/incident stream) of 0.43.

A Theoretical Investigation of Transonic Flows in Radial Compressor Diffusers

1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 452-456
Author(s):  
H. O. Jeske ◽  
I. Teipel
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Boundary Layer Flow ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Numerical Procedure ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Integral Methods ◽  
Boundary Layer Interaction ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Layer Flow

The transonic flow in a diffuser of a centrifugal compressor with high pressure ratio has been analyzed by a numerical procedure. The method consists of an inviscid calculation of the pressure field in the vaned diffuser and of a determination of the boundary layer flow along the blades. The diffuser has been equipped with curved vanes, and only the flow through one channel is considered. The two-dimensional pressure distribution has been calculated by a time-dependent finite difference scheme. The boundary layer flow has been determined by different integral methods with special attention concerning the shock-boundary-layer interaction. Finally, the numerical results are compared with experiments, and the agreement is satisfactory.

Numerical Investigation of Low Solidity Vaned Diffuser Performance in a High-Pressure Centrifugal Compressor: Part I — Influence of Vane Solidity

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
JongSik Oh ◽  
Giri L. Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Design Flow ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Moderate Pressure ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
High Pressure Ratio ◽  
Wide Operating

The LSD (Low Solidity Diffuser) is becoming popular in most industrial centrifugal compressor designs because it is found to offer a wide operating flow range while maintaining a similar level of efficiency as in case of conventional vaned diffusers. Most related studies have been for low or moderate pressure ratio machines providing a limited range of design information for high-pressure ratio compressors. As a first step forward information of design parameters, a numerical CFD investigation was applied to a high-pressure industrial centrifugal compressor of design total-to-static pressure ratio of 4.0 with LSDs of NACA65-series profiles whose solidity varies from 0.452 to 0.968 in 5 cases with all the other design parameters fixed. Near design flow, the case of 0.839 solidity has the highest isentropic total-to-static efficiency. Other performance changes are accordingly investigated.

scholarly journals Investigation on the Optimal Design and Flow Mechanism of High Pressure Ratio Impeller with Machine Learning Method

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Weilin Yi ◽  
Hongliang Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
High Pressure ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Peak Efficiency ◽  
High Pressure Ratio

The optimization of high-pressure ratio impeller with splitter blades is difficult because of large-scale design parameters, high time cost, and complex flow field. So few relative works are published. In this paper, an engineering-applied centrifugal impeller with ultrahigh pressure ratio 9 was selected as datum geometry. One kind of advanced optimization strategy including the parameterization of impeller with 41 parameters, high-quality CFD simulation, deep machine learning model based on SVR (Support Vector Machine), random forest, and multipoint genetic algorithm (MPGA) were set up based on the combination of commercial software and in-house python code. The optimization objective is to maximize the peak efficiency with the constraints of pressure-ratio at near stall point and choked mass flow. Results show that the peak efficiency increases by 1.24% and the overall performance is improved simultaneously. By comparing the details of the flow field, it is found that the weakening of the strength of shock wave, reduction of tip leakage flow rate near the leading edge, separation region near the root of leading edge, and more homogenous outlet flow distributions are the main reasons for performance improvement. It verified the reliability of the SVR-MPGA model for multiparameter optimization of high aerodynamic loading impeller and revealed the probable performance improvement pattern.

Numerical Evaluation of the Unsteady Flow in a Centrifugal Compressor With Vaned Diffuser via URANS Approach

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Zamiri ◽  
Byung Ju Lee ◽  
Jin Taek Chung
Keyword(s):  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Pressure Ratio ◽  
Pressure Fluctuations ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
Computational Domain ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Noise Characteristics ◽  
Time Space

The three dimensional, compressible, unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved to investigate the flow field of a centrifugal compressor with high compression ratio. Computational domain is consisted of an inlet bell and impeller with splitter blades followed by a two dimensional wedge vaned diffuser. The numerical method is validated by comparing the computational results with the experiments in terms of pressure ratio and compressor efficiency. The present study focuses on the unsteady pressure fluctuations and entropy production within the impeller and diffuser passages at the compressor design point. It is shown that the interaction between the impeller and diffuser blades leads to unsteadiness at the interface region and a pulsating behavior within the diffuser passages. Pressure waves with different convective velocities, generated by the impeller-diffuser interaction and pseudo-periodic unsteady separation bubbles, are captured in time/space domain along the diffuser blade surfaces. The pressure fluctuation spectra captured at the impeller-diffuser interface is evaluated to analyze the noise characteristics of the centrifugal compressor as a main source of blade passing frequency noise.

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