Investigation of Stator Induced Unsteadiness on a Centrifugal Impeller Using a Mach-Independent Non-Linear Harmonic Method
The objective of this paper is to numerically investigate the unsteadiness generated by a bladed diffuser on an upstream centrifugal impeller. The Non-Linear Harmonic (NLH for short) time-spectral method has been retained here. The major advantage of such a method is that it requires much less computational effort than a standard unsteady simulation. In order to further reduce the computing time, the NLH method has been extended to low speed flows by using a preconditioning technic. Therefore, the NLH method can be accurately applied to any Mach number flow and even to purely incompressible fluids. This extension of the flow solver has been validated on a wide range of simple test cases at various reduce frequencies. Solutions have been compared to purely unsteady approach and also to experimental data. In a second step, the NLH method has been applied to a centrifugal impeller and its downstream diffuser. Numerical results have been analyzed and compared to the available experimental data showing the significant influence of the downstream diffuser on the impeller pressure load.