scholarly journals Jet-Wake Analysis for Centrifugal Compressor Static Pressure Rise and Deviation Angle

1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Pampreen

This paper discusses the static pressure recovery characteristics of four different centrifugal compressor impellers. Comparison is made to effectiveness values obtained with rectangular and conical diffuser data. Effectiveness levels comparable to the diffuser data occur up to the point of maximum flow path curvature. In the radial portion of the impellers, rotation affects static pressure recovery. Also presented are values of rotor exit deviation angle deduced from the jet-wake analysis of these four impellers. It was found that deviation angle is only a function of blade exit angle. The sensitivity of the value of calculated deviation angle to the magnitude of assumed aerodynamic blockage is discussed. For the jet-wake model, the deviation angle is zero for blade exit angles of thirty degrees.

Author(s):  
N Sitaram ◽  
J M Issac

The present investigation reports results of experimental studies on a centrifugal compressor equipped with hub vane diffusers. The diffuser vane height ( h/b) is varied as follows: 0 (vaneless), 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 1 (vane). The experiments were carried out on a low specific speed centrifugal compressor with a radial tipped impeller with an inducer at the inlet. The measurements consist of determining performance characteristics, measuring static pressures on the hub and shroud and flow traverses with a precalibrated cobra probe at the diffuser exit over one passage at five flow coefficients, viz. φ = 0.23 (near surge), 0.34 (near peak pressure rise), 0.45, 0.60 and 0.75 (near maximum flow). The peak energy coefficient is maximum for the hub vane diffuser with an h/b ratio of 0.2. The hub vane diffusers have a wider operating range than the vane diffuser. At high flow coefficients, the static pressure rise is substantially low at the throat region of the vane diffuser as the incidence on to the vane leading edge is very high. The mass averaged static pressure coefficient is high in the low-volume range for the hub vane diffuser of h/b = 0.3, but in the high-volume range it is high for the vaneless diffuser.


Author(s):  
T. Ch. Siva Reddy ◽  
G. V. Ramana Murty ◽  
Prasad Mukkavilli ◽  
D. N. Reddy

Numerical simulation of impeller and low solidity vaned diffuser (LSD) of a centrifugal compressor stage is performed individually using CFX- BladeGen and BladeGenPlus codes. The tip mach number for the chosen study was 0.35. The same configuration was used for experimental investigation for a comparative study. The LSD vane is formed using standard NACA profile with marginal modification at trailing edge. The performance parameters obtained form numerical studies at the exit of impeller and the diffuser have been compared with the corresponding experimental data. These parameters are pressure ratio, polytropic efficiency and flow angle at the impeller exit where as the parameters those have been compared at the exit of diffuser are the static pressure recovery coefficient and the exit flow angle. In addition, the numerical prediction of the blade loading in terms of blade surface pressure distribution on LSD vane has been compared with the corresponding experimental results. Static pressure recovery coefficient and flow angle at diffuser exit is seen to match closely at higher flows. The difference at lower flows could be due to the effect of interaction between impeller and diffuser combinations, as the numerical analysis was done separately for impeller and diffuser and the effect of impeller diffuser interaction was not considered.


Author(s):  
S. Anish ◽  
N. Sitaram

A computational study has been conducted to analyze the performance of a centrifugal compressor under various levels of impeller-diffuser interactions. The study has been conducted using a low solidity vaned diffuser (LSVD), a conventional vaned diffuser (VD) and a vaneless diffuser (VLD). The study is carried out using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. A commercial software ANSYS CFX is used for this purpose. The intensity of interaction is varied by keeping the diffuser vane leading edge at three different radial locations. Frozen rotor and transient simulations are carried out at four different flow coefficients. At design flow coefficient maximum efficiency occurs when the leading edge is at R3 (ratio of radius of the diffuser leading edge to the impeller tip radius) = 1.10. At lower flow coefficient higher stage efficiency occurs when the diffuser vanes are kept at R3 = 1.15 and at higher flow coefficient R3 = 1.05 gives better efficiency. It is observed that at lower flow coefficients positive incidence causes separation of flow at the suction side of the diffuser vane. When the flow rate is above design point there is a negative incidence at the leading edge of the diffuser vane which causes separation of flow from the pressure side of the diffuser vane. Compressor stage performance as well as performance of individual components is calculated at different time steps. Large variations in the stage performances at off-design flow coefficients are observed. The static pressure recovery coefficient (Cp) value is found to be varying with the relative position of impeller and diffuser. It is observed that maximum Cp value occurred at time step where Ψloss value is lowest. From the transient simulations it has been found that the strength and location of impeller exit wake affect the diffuser vane loading which in turn influences the diffuser static pressure recovery.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 550-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingkang Zhu ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

The paper presents measurements of the steady aerodynamic characteristics of a series of five radial vaneless diffusers with walls varying from mildly divergent to strongly convergent. The static pressure recovery was determined and the flow was traversed at the inlet and the outlet of the diffuser for a broad range of flow rates in each case. It was found that wall convergence results in a negative (stabilizing) slope in the pressure rise curve for the diffuser. Furthermore, at high flow rates convergence was found to reduce the pressure recovery far less than one would expect and at intermediate flow rates convergence actually improved the pressure recovery. The better-than-expected performance is thought to be closely related to the observed improvement in the flow uniformity at the diffuser outlet when convergent walls are used.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 978-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. Muggli ◽  
K. Eisele ◽  
M. V. Casey ◽  
J. Gu¨lich ◽  
A. Schachenmann

This paper describes an investigation into the use of CFD for highly loaded pump diffuser flows. A reliable commercial Navier-Stokes code with the standard k-ε turbulence model was used for this work. Calculations of a simple planar two-dimensional diffuser demonstrate the ability of the k-ε model to predict the measured effects of blockage and area ratio on the diffuser static pressure recovery at low loading levels. At high loading levels with flow separation the k-ε model underestimates the blockage caused by the recirculation in the flow separation region and overestimates the pressure recovery in the diffuser. Three steady-state calculations of a highly loaded vaned diffuser of a medium specific speed pump have been carried out using different inlet boundary conditions to represent the pump outlet flow. These are compared to LDA measurement data of the flow field and demonstrate that although the Navier-Stokes code with the standard k-ε turbulence model is able to predict the presence of separation in the flow, it is not yet able to accurately predict the static pressure rise of this highly loaded pump diffuser beyond the flow separation point.


Author(s):  
Hideomi Harada ◽  
Masanori Goto

In order to experimentally determine the performance characteristics of low-solidity cascade diffusers, three kinds of diffusers, a vaneless diffuser, a single and a tandem low-solidity cascade diffuser were attached to a medium specific speed centrifugal compressor stage and tested on a closed-loop test stand. The three-dimensional incompressible viscous flow analysis method, which had recently been established in our laboratory, was used to calculate the internal flow conditions inside of these diffusers. Both the single and tandem low-solidity cascade diffusers performed better than the vaneless diffuser. In particular, the tandem low-solidity cascade diffuser showed an increase in static pressure recovery coefficient of greater than 15% at the design point, and an increase greater than 40% at the lower flow rate, as compared with the pressure recovery of a vaneless diffuser. The total-to-static overall compressor stage efficiency was improved by 4% to 10% from 100% to 70% flow rate by using the tandem diffuser. The measured blade to blade static pressure distribution inside the low-solidity cascade diffusers was compared with the numerical results obtained via 3D viscous incompressible flow analysis, and the authors found that the static pressure recovery was qualitatively well predicted by this flow analysis method.


Author(s):  
Hideaki Tamaki

A centrifugal compressor requires a wide operating range as well as a high efficiency. At high pressure ratios, the impeller discharge velocity becomes transonic and effective pressure recovery in a vaned or vaneless diffuser is necessary. At high pressure ratios, a vaned diffuser is used as it has high pressure recovery, but may have a narrow operating range. At low flow, diffuser stall may trigger surge. At high flow, choking in the throat of the vanes may limit the maximum flow rate. A low solidity diffuser allows a good pressure recovery because it has vanes to guide the flow and a wide operating range as there is no geometrical throat to limit the maximum flow. In experimental studies at a pressure ratio around 4:1, the author has replaced vaned diffusers with a range of low solidity diffusers to try to broaden the operating range. The test results showed that the low solidity diffuser also chokes. In this paper, a virtual throat is defined and its existence is confirmed by flow visualization and pressure measurements. A method to select low solidity diffusers is proposed based on test data and the fundamental nature of the flow. The extension of the proposed method to the selection of a vaneless diffuser is examined and a design approach for a vaneless diffuser system to minimize surge flow rate without limiting the attainable maximum flow rate is proposed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 110 (1106) ◽  
pp. 215-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Cohen ◽  
F. Motallebi

Abstract The results of an investigation into the effects that sub-boundary layer vortex generators (SBVGs) have on reducing normal shock-induced turbulent boundary-layer separation are presented. The freestream Mach number and Reynolds number were M = 1·45 and 15·9 × 106/m, respectively. Total pressure profiles, static pressure distributions, surface total pressure distributions, oil flow visualisation and Schlieren photographs were used in the results analysis. The effects of SBVG height, lateral spacing and location upstream of the shock were investigated. A novel curved shape SBVG was also evaluated and comparisons against the conventional flat vane type were made. The results show that in all but two cases, separation was completely eliminated. As expected, the largest SBVGs with height, h = 55%δ, provided the greatest pressure recovery and maximum mixing. However, the shock pressure rise was highest for this case. The experiments showed that the mid height SBVG array with the largest spacing provided similar results to the SBVG array with the largest height. Reducing the distance to shock to 10δ upstream also showed some improvement over the SBVG position of 18δ upstream. It was suggested that total elimination of the separated region may not be required to achieve a balance of improved static pressure recovery whilst minimising the pressure rise through the shock. The effect of curving the SBVGs provided an improved near wall mixing with an improved static and surface total pressure recovery downstream of the separation line. The optimum SBVG for the current flow conditions was found to be the curved vanes of h = 40%δ, with the largest spacing, located at 18δ upstream of the shock. Overall, it was apparent from the results that in comparison to larger vortex generators with a height comparable to δ, for SBVGs the parameters involved become more important in order to obtain the highest degree of mixing from a given SBVG configuration.


Author(s):  
A. López ◽  
B. Monje ◽  
D. Sánchez ◽  
R. Chacartegui ◽  
T. Sánchez

A rapidly growing interest in the supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle has been observed in the last years due to the superb performance of this system in concentrated solar and nuclear applications; a sample of this interest is the number of technical publications submitted to Turbo Expo in the last couple of years. As active members of the supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) community, the authors of this work have lately studied the fundamentals of SCO2 flows. The approach followed has nevertheless been different to that of most researchers since it has concentrated on simple devices rather than on an entire turbomachinery. Thus, recent contributions by the authors have shown that major differences are to be expected when air and SCO2 diffuse through simple conical divergent ducts at subsonic speeds, most of which derive from the very different characteristics and performance of the boundary layer when adverse pressure gradients are faced. In particular, the effects of geometry (i.e. divergence angle) and aerodynamic blockage on the static pressure rise coefficient of such a conical diffuser have been reported by the authors in recent technical works. This work presents the effects of other aerodynamic features of the inlet flow to a conical diffuser on the capacity to convert kinetic energy into static pressure. Two flow features are studied: (i) the distortion of the inlet velocity distribution and (ii) the turbulence intensity of the inlet flow. A parallel analysis is developed for air and SCO2 showing that the effects of both distortion and turbulence on diffuser performance are sensitive to the working fluid of choice.


Author(s):  
C. Rodgers

The function of the centrifugal compressor inducer is to provide wide flow margins from the design flow to the stall and choke flow limits, together with high static pressure recovery. At transonic conditions the inducer becomes the critical to impeller performance in that shock losses and blockage growth diminish stable flow range and may trigger near vertical stage characteristics. The paper covers the various types of inlet configurations upstream of the inducer, followed by a review of the state-of-art inducer design for centrifugal compressors, culminating with some research developments in transonic inducer blading characteristics.


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