Low Fidelity Design and Analysis Parametric Tool for General Centrifugal Compressors
Abstract Performance prediction and blade generation in a preliminary design stage of centrifugal compressors is critical to have a successful design. In this paper, a one-dimensional meanline design and analysis tool has been developed for single-rotor and novel multi-rotor centrifugal impellers. Loss models used for performance prediction of single stage compressors have been extended to single hub multi-rotor compressors to evaluate isentropic efficiency and pressure ratio. Stage conditions like work ratio and stator turning angle are given as input parameters and the tool computes flow properties along the meanline and also, generates velocity triangles, streamlines, smooth definition of blade angles at different spanwise sections. The tool acts a preprocessor for Tblade3 which is an in-house 3D parametric blade geometry generator to create blades. A 0D tool has been developed for multi-rotor impellers to provide an estimate of work ratio. 0D coupled with 1D tool can provide a good preliminary design point. The process of 0D to blade generation has been automated enabling it to connect with high-fidelity analysis. The motivation to create this tool is to calculate flow angles, metal angles, velocity triangles, ease of parametric modification and reduce aero-design cycle time. This tool is modular which adds the flexibility of capability extension. The code is validated with DLR centrifugal compressor experimental data. The 1D tool is also used to calculate performance and blade angles for the novel single hub multi-rotor centrifugal compressor demonstrating the versatility of the low fidelity tool. The tool suite is written in Python and is open source https://github.com/msaisiddhartha/CIMdes.