Numerical Investigation of a High Speed Centrifugal Compressor Impeller

Author(s):  
Shun Kang

This paper presents the CFD simulations of a high speed centrifugal compressor impeller using the NUMECA Fine/Turbo software with the one equation turbulence model of Spalart-Allmaras. The simulations are validated via comparison with the experimental data. The computational grid densities are changed with the impeller tip size and a grid independent study is carried out. The flow physics of the compressor impeller is numerically studied in details, in particular, the formation of shocks and their effects on the 3D flow and the secondary flow structure are analyzed at different operation conditions, with comparison to low speed machines. It is found that the energy loss production is greatly affected by the shock waves and their interaction with the boundary layers in the inducer portion, while in the other portion, the secondary flow structure is globally the same as those in low speed machines.

Author(s):  
A. Hildebrandt ◽  
H. Franz ◽  
C. Jakiel

The present paper deals with two different subjects in the field of centrifugal compressors, namely impeller design and its aerodynamic analysis. The paper provides results of aerodynamic design of low specific speed centrifugal compressor impellers. The design objective is the improvement of the efficiency of a 2D-impeller by means of a 3D-impeller design. The design volume flow and isentropic pressure coefficient of the 3D-impeller should be similar to the one of the 2D-impeller. The numerical CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis comprises non-dimensional results of overall impeller and stage performance as well as flow details (circumferentially averaged fluid properties in the impeller exit plane). Furthermore, the paper presents the analysis of secondary flow development of different impellers in comparison with a 2D-impeller of prismatic blade profile. The numerical analysis focuses on understanding of different development of the impeller secondary zone. Results show a direct correlation between the overall performance and secondary flow of the different impellers providing more insight into the aerodynamic philosophy of design of centrifugal compressor impellers.


Author(s):  
Ce Yang ◽  
Ben Zhao ◽  
C. C. Ma ◽  
Dazhong Lao ◽  
Mi Zhou

Two different inlet configurations, including a straight pipe and a bent pipe, were experimentally tested and numerically simulated using a high-speed, low-mass flow centrifugal compressor. The pressure ratios of the compressor with the two inlet configurations were tested and then compared to illustrate the effect of the bent inlet pipe on the compressor. Furthermore, different circumferential positions of the bent inlet pipe relative to the volute are discussed for two purposes. One purpose is to describe the changes in the compressor performance that result from altering the circumferential position of the bent inlet pipe relative to the volute. This change in performance may be the so-called clocking effect, and its mechanism is different from the one in multistage turbomachinery. The other purpose is to investigate the unsteady flow for different matching states of the bent inlet pipe and volute. Thus, the frequency spectrum of unsteady pressure fluctuation was applied to analyze the aerodynamic response. Compared with the straight inlet pipe, the experimental results show that the pressure ratio is modulated and that the choke point is shifted in the bent inlet pipe. Similarly, the pressure ratio can be influenced by altering the circumferential position of the bent inlet pipe relative to the volute, which may have an effect on the unsteady pressure in the rotor section. Therefore, the magnitude of interest spectral frequency is significantly changed by clocking the bent inlet pipe.


1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Japikse ◽  
David M. Karon

A detailed experimental investigation of a small centrifugal compressor stage has been completed using laser transit anemometry. Measurements at the inlet and discharge of an impeller have been made while recording data relative to a blade passage. Classical primary and secondary flow regimes within the rotor have been shown plus several compact “cell-like” regions. Various components of velocity and turbulence intensity are presented. This study has demonstrated the capability of using the laser transit anemometer for investigating the kinematics of small, high speed turbomachinery components.


Author(s):  
Sasuga Ito ◽  
Shin Okada ◽  
Yuki Kawakami ◽  
Kaito Manabe ◽  
Masato Furukawa ◽  
...  

Abstract Secondary flows in transonic centrifugal compressor impellers affect their aerodynamic performance. In open-type impellers, low energy fluids can accumulate on the suction surfaces near the trailing edge tip side since the secondary flows and tip leakage flows interfere each other and complex flow phenomena can be generated around the impellers. Therefore, designers must consider the effect of secondary flows to avoid the aerodynamic performance degradation while designing compressor impellers. In this paper, a novel design concept about suppression of secondary flows in centrifugal compressor impellers to improve their aerodynamic performance. A transonic centrifugal compressor impeller was redesigned with the present design concept by a two-dimensional inverse method based on a meridional viscous flow calculation in this study. A design concept was introduced in above calculation process. As the design concept, by bending vortex filaments with controlling peak positions of the blade loading distributions, induced velocity due to bound vortices at the blades was generated in radial opposite direction of the secondary flows on the suction surface. Due to investigate the effect of the design concept in this paper, three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations were carried out, and the vortex cores were visualized by a critical point theory and colored by non-dimensional helicity. In the conventional transonic centrifugal compressor impeller, the secondary flow vortices were confirmed and one of the vortices was broken down. In the redesigned impeller, the breakdown of the secondary flow vortices was not observed and the accumulation of the low energy fluids was suppressed compared with the conventional impeller. The total pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency of the redesign impeller were higher than that of the conventional impeller, and the secondary flows were successfully suppressed in this research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 3416 ◽  
Author(s):  
T R Jebieshia ◽  
Senthil Kumar Raman ◽  
Heuy Dong Kim

The present study focuses on the aerodynamic performance and structural analysis of the centrifugal compressor impeller. The performance characteristics of the impeller are analyzed with and without splitter blades by varying the total number of main and splitter blades. The operating conditions of the compressor under centrifugal force and pressure load from the aerodynamic analysis are applied to the impeller blade and hub to perform the one-way Fluid–Structure Interaction (FSI). For the stress assessment, maximum equivalent von Mises stresses in the impeller blades are compared with the maximum allowable stress of the impeller material. The effects of varying the pressure field on the deformation and stress of the impeller are also calculated. The aerodynamic and structural performance of the centrifugal compressor at 73,000 rpm are investigated in terms of the efficiency, pressure ratio, equivalent von Mises stress, and total deformation of the impeller.


Author(s):  
Karsten Kusterer ◽  
Nurettin Tekin ◽  
Tobias Wüllner ◽  
Dieter Bohn ◽  
Takao Sugimoto ◽  
...  

In modern gas turbines, the film cooling technology is essential for the protection of the hot parts, in particular of the first stage vanes and blades of the turbine, against the hot gases from the combustion process in order to reach an acceptable life span of the components. As the cooling air is usually extracted from the compressor, the reduction of the cooling effort would directly result in increased thermal efficiency of the gas turbine. Understanding of the fundamental physics of film cooling is necessary for the improvement of the state-of-the-art. Thus, huge research efforts by industry as well as research organizations have been undertaken to establish high efficient film cooling technologies. Today it is common knowledge that film cooling effectiveness degradation is caused by secondary flows inside the cooling jets, i.e. the Counter-Rotating Vortices (CRV) or sometimes also called kidney-vortices, which induce a lift-off of the jet. Further understanding of the secondary flow development inside the jet and how this could be influenced, has led to hole configurations, which can induce Anti-Counter-Rotating Vortices (ACRV) in the cooling jets. As a result, the cooling air remains close to the wall and is additionally distributed flatly along the surface. Beside different other technologies, the NEKOMIMI cooling technology is a promising approach to establish the desired ACRVs. It consists of a combination of two holes in just one configuration so that the air is distributed mainly on two cooling air streaks following the special shape of the generated geometry. The NEKOMIMI configuration and two conventional cooling hole configurations (cylindrical and shaped holes) has been investigated numerically under adiabatic and conjugate heat transfer conditions. The influence of the conjugate heat transfer on the secondary flow structure has been analysed. In conjugate heat transfer calculations, it cannot directly derived from the surface temperature distribution if the reached cooling effectiveness values are due to the improved hole configuration with improved secondary flow structure or due to the heat conduction in the material. Therefore, a methodology has been developed, to distinguish between cooling effectiveness due to heat conduction in the material and film cooling flow over the surface. The numerical results shows that for the NEKOMIMI configuration, 77% of the reached overall cooling effectiveness is due to film cooling with improved flow structure in the secondary flow (ACRV) and 23% due to heat conduction in the material. For the cylindrical hole configuration, 10% of the reached overall cooling effectiveness is due to the film cooling flow structure and 90% due to heat conduction in the material.


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