Investigation of Stall Process in a Centrifugal Compressor With a Volute Under Transonic Conditions

Author(s):  
Ce Yang ◽  
Wenli Wang ◽  
Hanzhi Zhang ◽  
Yanzhao Li ◽  
Ding Tong ◽  
...  

Abstract In a centrifugal compressor with a volute, the internal flow field is circumferentially nonuniform owing to the asymmetric structure of the volute. Currently, the mechanisms by which the volute influences the stall inception circumferential position and the stall process in a transonic centrifugal compressor are not clear. In this study, the stall process in the centrifugal compressor with a volute is investigated under transonic inlet conditions. Obtained by experimental and simulation results, the static pressure distributions around the casing wall are compared with each other. Thereafter, an unsteady simulation is conducted on the stall process under transonic inlet conditions. By analyzing the stall cell evolution pattern at the impeller inlet, the stall process can be divided into three stages: stall onset, stall development, and stall maturation. The spike-type stall inceptions occur twice at the tip in the circumferential 135° position of the impeller inlet. This circumferential position is also the affected position of the high static pressure region induced by the volute tongue. Because of the circumferentially nonuniform flow field, there is a stall cell decay zone and a stall cell formation/growth zone at the impeller inlet. For the compressor under study, the approximate circumferential range of 135° to 270° is the decay zone, and the circumferential range of 270° to 360° is the formation/growth zone. The stall inception cannot occur in the decay zone. However, the stall cells can pass through the decay zone when the stall cell size is large enough. The first stall inception cannot propagate circumferentially, while the second one can. The propagation speed of stall cells in the circumferential direction is at approximately 70% of the rotational speed of impeller.

Author(s):  
Ce Yang ◽  
Yixiong Liu ◽  
Wangxia Wu ◽  
Lei Jing ◽  
Benjiang Wang ◽  
...  

A double-sided centrifugal compressor consists of two impellers whose inlets are non-balanced, with one side of the impeller connected to the straight duct, and the other connected to the bending duct. This leads to the differences in the inlet conditions of the double-sided impeller, resulting in the differences in the flow structures of the rear impeller along the circumferential direction. In this work, aiming at analyzing the flow structures of the rear impeller, diffuser and volute internal in three flow rate conditions, the internal flow field of the double-sided centrifugal compressor was calculated in a numerical method. It is found that the inlet bending duct results in significant inlet axial velocity difference of the rear impeller along circumferential direction. The axial velocity differences at high span positions become more obvious with the increase of the flow rate. Moreover, the jet-wake structures among the blade passage outlets are also various. At the high static pressure zones of the volute, corresponding blade passage wake regions increase and their sizes are also influenced by the inlet distortion. The circumferential distributions of the static pressure in the diffuser agree well with that in the volute. In the diffuser, the non-uniform degrees of the static pressure distributions are roughly the same at different radius positions and are weakening with the decrease of the flow rate.


Author(s):  
Hanzhi Zhang ◽  
Ce Yang ◽  
Dengfeng Yang ◽  
Wenli Wang ◽  
Changmao Yang ◽  
...  

The present paper numerically and experimentally investigates the stall inception mechanisms in a centrifugal compressor with volute. Current studies about stall inception pay more attention on the axial compressors than the centrifugal compressors; especially, the circumferential position of stall inception onset and the stall process in the centrifugal compressor with asymmetric volute structure have not been studied sufficiently yet. In this work, the compressor performance experiment was conducted and the casing wall static pressure distributions were obtained by 72 static pressure sensors first. Then, the full annular unsteady simulations were carried out at different stable operating points, and the time-averaged static pressure distributions were compared with the experimental results. Finally, the stall process of the compressor was investigated by unsteady simulations in detail. Results show that the stall inception onset is determined by the impeller leading edge (LE) spillage flow, and the occurrence time of trailing edge (TE) backflow is prior to the LE spillage. The nonuniform static pressure circumferential distribution at impeller outlet induced by volute tongue causes the two stall inception regions locating at certain circumferential positions, which are 120 deg and 300 deg circumferential positions at impeller LE, corresponding to the circumferential static pressure peak (PP) and bulge regions at impeller outlet, respectively. In detail, at rotor revolution 2.86, a small disturbance that the incoming/tip clearance flow interface is perpendicular to axial direction occurs at 120 deg position, but this disturbance did not cause the compressor stall. Then at revolution 7, the first stall inception zone (spillage region) occurs at 120 deg position, causing the compressor stall with positive pressure ratio performance. At approximately revolution 23, the second stall inception zone occurs at about 300 deg position; however, both the intensity and size of this stall inception zone are smaller than those of the first stall inception zone. These two stall inception zones are not moving along circumferential direction because the stall inception circumferential position is dominated by the impeller outlet static pressure distribution. Even then, the obvious low frequency signals appear after the spillage crossing two blade LEs, because at this moment, the spillage vortex caused by the tip leakage flow begins to shed. However, due to the asymmetric structure limitation, this vortex cannot move across full annular. Furthermore, the spillage vortexes cause the local low static pressure zone ahead of blade LE in the centrifugal compressor with volute, suggesting that the spillage can be predicted by the steady casing wall static pressure measuring. The development of blockage zones at impeller LE is also investigated quantitatively by analyzing the stall blockage effect.


Author(s):  
Li Fu ◽  
Ce Yang ◽  
Hang Zhang ◽  
Wenrui Bao ◽  
Hanzhi Zhang

In the automotive turbochargers centrifugal compressor, the volute has a strong potential effect, leading to circumferential nonuniformity of the impeller flow field and compressor stall. In this study, full-annulus unsteady simulations for centrifugal compressors with vaned/vaneless diffusers are carried out. The influence of the diffuser vane on the potential effect of the volute and stall behavior of a centrifugal compressor is studied in detail. Based on the distribution of the casing static pressure, the formation mechanism of the circumferential distribution of static pressure and the reverse propagation process of pressure waves caused by pressure distortion are revealed. The results of this study show that the diffuser vanes can weaken the potential effect of the volute on the impeller flow field by reducing the degree of static pressure distortion. The number of static pressure peaks in the circumferential direction is related to the number of vanes/blades. The diffuser vanes can change the circumferential position of the stall inception, but cannot eliminate the “locking effect” of the volute tongue on the circumferential position of the stall. In other words, the circumferential position of the stall inception is still determined by the volute tongue for a centrifugal compressor with a vaned diffuser. Although the degree of circumferential static pressure distortion inside the impeller is reduced, the stable operating range of the compressor cannot be significantly widened by adjusting the stagger angle of the diffuser vane when the stall first occurs at the impeller inlet.


Author(s):  
Hao Chang ◽  
Weidong Shi ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Jianrui Liu ◽  
Ling Zhou ◽  
...  

In order to study the influence rule of wrap angle of blade on the internal flow field and hydraulic performance of double suction pump, 5 kinds of wrap angles of blade with 100°, 110°, 120°, 130° and 140° are designed in this paper. The turbulence model and the grid type are analyzed, the performance of ES350-575 double suction pump is obtained by employ the software CFX. The static pressure and velocity distributions in the cross-section are analyzed. Therefore, the optimal model is obtained, and the relevant external characteristic test is conducted. The result shows that the reasonable increase of the wrap angle of blade can enhance the performance of the pump effectively, which can improve the static pressure and velocity distributions of the internal flow field.


Author(s):  
Wenrui Bao ◽  
Ce Yang ◽  
Li Fu ◽  
Changmao Yang ◽  
Lucheng Ji

Abstract An asymmetric structure of volute in a supercritical carbon dioxide centrifugal compressor induces a non-uniform circumferential distribution of the upstream flow field, which inevitably affects the formation of a two-phase region of carbon dioxide in an impeller. In this work, unsteady simulations for centrifugal compressors were conducted. First, the influence of low static strip induced by low static pressure near volute tongue on the impeller flow field was presented. Then, the non-uniform flow field distribution in the impeller passages and flow characteristics of the passages at the impeller inlet were obtained. Finally, the two-phase regions in the impeller were presented. The results demonstrate that for a centrifugal compressor with volute, the two-phase region appears not only on the suction surface of the leading edge of the blade, but also in some impeller passages, on the pressure surface of the blade near the leading edge, and in the leading edge and mid-chord of tip clearance, under the design conditions. The low static pressure strip induced by the volute leads to a high-speed region in the impeller passages where the temperature and pressure of supercritical carbon dioxide fall below the critical point and carbon dioxide enters the two-phase region. Meanwhile, the static pressure on the blade surface is distorted under the influence of a high-speed region in the passages, resulting in the formation of a two-phase region at the tip clearance. The flow distortion of passages at the impeller inlet results in the appearance of two-phase regions on the both sides of leading edge of the blade. The dryness on the suction side of the blade leading edge and the leading edge of the tip clearance is lower, which indicated that the proportion of liquid-phase carbon dioxide is higher in these two-phase regions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Fangyuan Lou ◽  
John Charles Fabian ◽  
Nicole Leanne Key

This paper investigates the aerodynamics of a transonic impeller using static pressure measurements. The impeller is a high-speed, high-pressure-ratio wheel used in small gas turbine engines. The experiment was conducted on the single stage centrifugal compressor facility in the compressor research laboratory at Purdue University. Data were acquired from choke to near-surge at four different corrected speeds (Nc) from 80% to 100% design speed, which covers both subsonic and supersonic inlet conditions. Details of the impeller flow field are discussed using data acquired from both steady and time-resolved static pressure measurements along the impeller shroud. The flow field is compared at different loading conditions, from subsonic to supersonic inlet conditions. The impeller performance was strongly dependent on the inducer, where the majority of relative diffusion occurs. The inducer diffuses flow more efficiently for inlet tip relative Mach numbers close to unity, and the performance diminishes at other Mach numbers. Shock waves emerging upstream of the impeller leading edge were observed from 90% to 100% corrected speed, and they move towards the impeller trailing edge as the inlet tip relative Mach number increases. There is no shock wave present in the inducer at 80% corrected speed. However, a high-loss region near the inducer throat was observed at 80% corrected speed resulting in a lower impeller efficiency at subsonic inlet conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jingze Li ◽  
Dongrong Meng ◽  
Xun Qiao

Centrifugal pumps as turbine (PAT) are widely used in petrochemical and water conservancy industries. The research on the internal flow field and energy loss of PAT is of great significance to improve the performance and efficiency of PAT. In this paper, experimental and numerical simulation methods are used to study the energy loss and flow field. The results show that the numerical simulation method can accurately simulate the internal flow field of PAT. And the entropy generation theory is applied to visualize the internal energy loss of PAT through the comparison of total pressure loss and entropy generation. The highest energy loss among PAT components is the guide vane. The loss in the guide vane is mainly caused by the flow separation caused by the wake of the guide vane and the asymmetric structure of the volute. The losses in the impeller are mainly due to flow separation and wake. Besides, the unsteady simulation results show that rotor-stator interaction has a great influence on the gap between the impeller and the guide vane. The research results provide a reference for the design of the PAT. This study is beneficial to studying the dynamic and static interference and PAT vibration to improve the stability of the PAT.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Bright ◽  
Helen K. Qammar ◽  
Leizhen Wang

Five high-speed compressor configurations are used to identify pre-stall pressure signal activity under clean and distorted inlet conditions, and under steady injection and controlled injection conditions. Through the use of a nonlinear statistic called correlation integral, variations in the compressor dynamics are identified from the pre-stall pressure activity far before variations (modal or pip) are observed visually in the wall static pressure measurements. The correlation integral not only discerns changing dynamics of these compressors prior to stall, but is now used to measure the strength of the tip flow field for these five high-speed compressors. Results show that correlation integral value changes dramatically when the stall inception is modal; and it changes less severely when the stall inception is through pip disturbances. This algorithm can therefore distinguish from the pre-stall pressure traces when a machine is more likely to stall due to pips versus modes. When used in this manner, the correlation integral thus provides a measure of tip flow strength. The algorithm requires no predisposition about the expected behavior of the data in order to detect changing dynamics in the compressor; thus, no pre-filtering is necessary. However, by band-pass filtering the data, one can monitor changing dynamics in the tip flow field for various frequency regimes. An outcome of this is to associate changes in correlation integral value directly with frequency specific events occurring in the compressor, i.e., blade length scale events versus long length scale acoustic events. The correlation integral provides a potential advantage over linear spectral techniques because a single sensor is used for detection and analysis of the instabilities.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Zangeneh

A three-dimensional inverse design method in which the blade (or vane) geometry is designed for specified distributions of circulation and blade thickness is applied to the design of centrifugal compressor vaned diffusers. Two generic diffusers are designed, one with uniform inlet flow (equivalent to a conventional design) and the other with a sheared inlet flow. The inlet shear flow effects are modeled in the design method by using the so-called “Secondary Flow Approximation” in which the Bernoulli surfaces are convected by the tangentially mean inviscid flow field. The difference between the vane geometry of the uniform inlet flow and nonuniform inlet flow diffusers is found to be most significant from 50 percent chord to the trailing edge region. The flows through both diffusers are computed by using Denton’s three-dimensional inviscid Euler solver and Dawes’ three-dimensional Navier–Stokes solver under sheared in-flow conditions. The predictions indicate improved pressure recovery and internal flow field for the diffuser designed for shear inlet flow conditions.


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