Unsteady Effects of Blade Row Interaction on Flow Field and Aerodynamic Performance of a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazutoyo Yamada ◽  
Kosuke Kubo ◽  
Kenichiro Iwakiri ◽  
Yoshihiro Ishikawa ◽  
Hirotaka Higashimori
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Aerodynamic Performance ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Compressor Performance ◽  
Unsteady Effects ◽  
Rans Analysis

Abstract This paper discusses the unsteady effects associated with the impeller/diffuser interaction on the internal flow field and aerodynamic performance of a centrifugal compressor. In centrifugal compressors with a vaned diffuser, the flow field is inherently unsteady due to the influence of interaction between the impeller and the diffuser, and the unsteadiness of the flow field can often have a great influence on the aerodynamic performance of the compressor. Especially in high-load compressors, it is considered that large unsteady effects are produced on the compressor performance with a strong flow unsteadiness. The unsteady effect on aerodynamic performance of the compressor has not been fully revealed yet, and sometimes the steady-state RANS simulation finds it difficult to predict the compressor performance. In this study, numerical simulations have been conducted for a transonic centrifugal compressor with a vaned diffuser. The unsteady effects were clarified by comparing the numerical results between a single-passage steady-state RANS analysis and a full-annulus unsteady RANS analysis. The comparison of simulation results showed the difference in entropy generation in the impeller. The impingement of diffuser shock wave with the impeller pressure surface brought about a cyclic increase in the blade loading near the impeller trailing edge. Accordingly, with increasing tip leakage flow rate, a second tip leakage vortex was newly generated in the aft part of the impeller, which resulted in additional unsteady loss generation inside the impeller.

Influences of Tip Leakage Flows Discharged From Main and Splitter Blades on Flow Field in Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Stage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masanao Kaneko ◽  
Hoshio Tsujita
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Tip Clearance ◽  
Blade Loading ◽  
Tip Leakage Vortex ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Leakage Flows ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Tip Leakage Flows

A transonic centrifugal compressor impeller is generally composed of the main and the splitter blades which are different in chord length. As a result, the tip leakage flows from the main and the splitter blades interact with each other and then complicate the flow field in the compressor. In this study, in order to clarify the individual influences of these leakage flows on the flow field in the transonic centrifugal compressor stage at near-choke to near-stall condition, the flows in the compressor at four conditions prescribed by the presence and the absence of the tip clearances were analyzed numerically. The computed results clarified the following noticeable phenomena. The tip clearance of the main blade induces the tip leakage vortex from the leading edge of the main blade. This vortex decreases the blade loading of the main blade to the negative value by the increase of the flow acceleration along the suction surface of the splitter blade, and consequently induces the tip leakage vortex caused by the negative blade loading of the main blade at any operating points. These phenomena decline the impeller efficiency. On the other hand, the tip clearance of the splitter blade decreases the afore mentioned acceleration by the formation of the tip leakage vortex from the leading edge of the splitter blade and the decrease of the incidence angle for the splitter blade caused by the suction of the flow into the tip clearance. These phenomena reduce the loss generated by the negative blade loading of the main blade and consequently reduce the decline of the impeller efficiency. Moreover, the tip clearances enlarge the flow separation around the diffuser inlet and then decline the diffuser performance independently of the operating points.

Design and Off-Design Flow Fields of a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiichi Ibaraki ◽  
Kunio Sumida ◽  
Toru Suita
Keyword(s):  
Shock Wave ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Flow Structure ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Flow Fields ◽  
Design Flow ◽  
Centrifugal Impeller ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Operating Range ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor

For reasons of their small dimensions, relatively higher efficiency and wider operating range transonic centrifugal compressors are usually applied to turbochargers and turboshaft engines. The flow field of a transonic centrifugal impeller is completely three dimensional and accompanied by shock waves, tip leakage vortices, secondary flows and interactions of them. Especially the operating range of a transonic centrifugal compressor decreases rapidly with increased pressure ratio. The expansion of the compressor operating range is one of the important issues. Also the higher off-design performance is strongly required for the applications like as turbochargers which have to operate from near surge limit to choke limit. The authors carried out the detailed flow measurement of a transonic centrifugal impeller with an inlet Mach number of 1.3 at design and off-design conditions by using Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) and high frequency pressure transducers. The flow fields of design and off-design conditions were compared and discussed in this paper. As a result authors found out the difference and the similarity of the flow structure between design and off-design conditions. The location of the shock wave differs with the flow rate and influences the flow field of the inducer. The interaction of the shock wave and tip leakage vortex shows the same manner. Also detailed Navier-Stokes computations were conducted to elucidate the complicated vortical flow structure with the experimental results.

scholarly journals Comparative Study of Unsteady Flows in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor With Vaneless and Vaned Diffusers

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M. Cui
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Unsteady Flow ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Power Laws ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Local Flow ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Compressor Performance ◽  
Overall Performance

To reduce vibration and noise level, the impeller and diffuser blade numbers inside an industrial compressor are typically chosen without common divisors. The shapes of volutes or collectors in these compressors are also not axis-symmetric. When impeller blades pass these asymmetric structures, the flow field in the compressor is time-dependent and three-dimensional. To obtain a fundamental physical understanding of these three-dimensional unsteady flow fields and assess their impact on the compressor performance, the flow field inside the compressors needs to be studied as a whole to include asymmetric and unsteady interaction between the compressor components. In current study, a unified three-dimensional numerical model was built for a transonic centrifugal compressor including impeller, diffusers, and volute. HFC 134a was used as the working fluid. The thermodynamic and transport properties of the refrigerant gas were modeled by the Martin-Hou equation of state and power laws, respectively. The three-dimensional unsteady flow field was simulated with a Navier-Stokes solver using the k-ε turbulent model. The overall performance parameters are obtained by integrating the field quantities. Both unsteady flow field and overall performance are analyzed comparatively for each component. The compressor was tested in a water chiller system instrumented to obtain both overall performance data and local flow field quantities. The experimental and numerical results agree well. The correlation between the overall compressor performance and local flow field quantities is defined. The methodology developed and data obtained in these studies can be applied to centrifugal compressor design and optimization.

CFD Analysis of Unsteady Flow Interactions in a Centrifugal Compressor Stage

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Koumoutsos ◽  
A. Tourlidakis ◽  
R. L. Elder
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Unsteady Flow ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Fourier Transforms ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Design Flow ◽  
Compressor Stage ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor Stage

This paper describes the unsteady flow analysis in a centrifugal compressor stage using a three dimensional CFD algorithm. The flow unsteadiness arising from the interaction between the impeller and the diffuser has been analysed using an algorithm suitable for equal or multiple number of rotor and diffuser blades. The multi-block, structured grid CFD code TASCflow was used as a basis and algorithm development was undertaken to provide the required capability of modelling the unsteady interactions of the impeller and the diffuser. The centrifugal compressor stage studied consists of an impeller with splitters and a vaned diffuser. The results presented are for off-design flow conditions where some experimental results were available for comparison. The results obtained for the steady-state model show a good agreement with the measurements. In general the unsteady flow field obtained show a reasonable agreement with experimental data and demonstrates significant differences when compared to the steady state results especially in terms of the velocity field. A detailed analysis of the unsteady flow field is carried out using Fourier transforms of velocity and pressure at various locations of the flow field and the level of unsteadiness is determined as distributed to various frequencies. The unsteadiness in the impeller passage is much less than in the diffuser where a strong coupling is predicted in the vaneless space.

Influence of Unsteadiness on the Control of a Hub-Corner Separation Within a Radial Vaned Diffuser

2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélien Marsan ◽  
Isabelle Trébinjac ◽  
Sylvain Coste ◽  
Gilles Leroy
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Numerical Model ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Boundary Layer Separation ◽  
Pressure Waves ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Corner Separation

The present work aims at evaluating the effect of the impeller–diffuser interaction on the control of a hub corner separation, which develops in the radial vaned diffuser of a centrifugal compressor designed and built by Turbomeca, Safran group. Unsteady numerical simulations of the flow in the aspirated centrifugal compressor are then performed. Numerical results are validated by comparison with the available experimental results. The analysis of the numerical flow field shows that the hub-corner separation is not completely removed by the suction, on the contrary to the steady-state results that were obtained in previous work. The boundary layer separation is only translated downstream. Its location is explained by the scrolling of the pressure waves generated by the impeller–diffuser interaction, which strengthen when crossing the diffuser throat. This result highlights the major role played by the impeller–diffuser interaction, which should be taken into account for developing control strategies in radial vaned diffusers, and stresses the shortcoming of the steady-state numerical model when suction is applied.

Vortical Flow Structure and Loss Generation Process in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiichi Ibaraki ◽  
Masato Furukawa ◽  
Kenichiro Iwakiri ◽  
Kazuya Takahashi
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Flow Structure ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Vortical Flow ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Tip Leakage ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Compressor Impeller ◽  
Flow Phenomena

Transonic centrifugal compressors are used in turbochargers and turboshaft engines because of their small dimensions, relatively high efficiency and wide operating range. The flow field of the transonic centrifugal compressor impeller is highly three dimensional, and is complicated by shock waves, tip leakage vortices, secondary flows and the interactions among them. In order to improve the performance, it is indispensable to understand these complicated flow phenomena in the impeller. Although experimental and numerical research on transonic impeller flow has been reported, thus providing important flow physics, some undetected flow phenomena remain. The authors of the present report carried out detailed Navier-Stokes computations of a transonic impeller flow measured by Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) in previous work. The highly complicated vortical flow structure and the mechanism of loss generation were revealed by a visual data mining technique, namely vortex identification based on the critical point theory and limiting streamline mapping by means of line integral convolution. As a result, it was found that the tip leakage vortices have a significant impact on the flow field and vortex breakdowns that increase the blockage of the flow passage, and that these were caused by shock wave interaction.

PIV Investigation of a High Speed Centrifugal Compressor Diffuser: Spanwise and Loading Variations

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beni Cukurel ◽  
Patrick B. Lawless ◽  
Sanford Fleeter
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Operation Conditions ◽  
Diffuser Flow ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Flow Features

An efficient diffuser is essential to a modern compressor stage, due to its significance in stage performance, durability and operability. To address the need for data that describe the complex, unsteady flow field in a vaned diffuser, Particle Image Velocity is utilized to characterize the spanwise and circumferential variations of the flow features in the vaned diffuser passage of a transonic centrifugal compressor. The spanwise variation in the diffuser flow field is further investigated by comparison of 3 different operating conditions representative of low, nominal and high loading. These data demonstrate that not only the diffuser flow field is highly dependent on the operation conditions, e.g. hub-to-shroud variation increases with loading, but also the circumferential periodicity, created by the highly three dimensional impeller discharge flow, generates a larger unsteadiness towards the hub region of the vaned diffuser.

Influence of Unsteadiness on the Control of a Hub-Corner Separation Within a Radial Vaned Diffuser

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélien Marsan ◽  
Isabelle Trébinjac ◽  
Sylvain Coste ◽  
Gilles Leroy
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Numerical Model ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Boundary Layer Separation ◽  
Pressure Waves ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Corner Separation

The present work aims at evaluating the effect of the impeller-diffuser interaction on the control of a hub corner separation, which develops in the radial vaned diffuser of a centrifugal compressor designed and built by Turbomeca, Safran group. Unsteady numerical simulations of the flow in the aspirated centrifugal compressor are then performed. Numerical results are validated by comparison with the available experimental results. The analysis of the numerical flow field shows that the hub-corner separation is not completely removed by the suction, on the contrary to the steady-state results that were obtained in previous work. The boundary layer separation is only translated downstream. Its location is explained by the scrolling of the pressure waves generated by the impeller-diffuser interaction, which strengthen when crossing the diffuser throat. This result highlights the major role played by the impeller-diffuser interaction, which should be taken into account for developing control strategies in radial vaned diffusers, and stresses the shortcoming of the steady-state numerical model when suction is applied.

Scale Adaptive Simulation of Transient Behavior in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor With a Vaned Diffuser

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Zamiri ◽  
Jin Taek Chung
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Centrifugal Compressor ◽  
Transient Flow ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Flow Behavior ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Vaned Diffuser ◽  
Adaptive Simulation ◽  
Transonic Centrifugal Compressor

Three-dimensional, compressible, unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved to investigate the unsteady flow behavior in a transonic centrifugal compressor. The computational model is a high compression ratio centrifugal compressor (4:1) consisted of an inlet duct, an impeller (15 main blades and 15 splitters) and a diffuser vane with 24 two-dimensional wedge vanes. The aim of this study is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the ability of a hybrid scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulent model to characterize the transient flow structures within the compressor passages. The main idea of SAS approach, an improved URANS (unsteady Reynold-averaged Navier-Stokes) model, is based on the introduction of von Karman length scale into the turbulent scale equation which results in LES-like behavior in unsteady regions of the flow field. A numerical sensitivity test is performed to validate the computational results in terms of pressure ratio and compressor efficiency. Instantaneous and mean flow field analyses are presented in the impeller and the vaned diffuser. Applying transient simulations, it is shown that the interaction between the pressure waves and the surface pressure of the diffuser blades leads to a pulsating behavior within the diffuser. Moreover, spectral analysis is evaluated to analyze the BPF tonal noise as the main noise source of centrifugal compressors. In addition, the current SAS results are compared with those of the URANS-SST (shear stress transport) approach to show the ability of SAS approach in the prediction of the turbulent structures where the SAS model leads to a much better resolution of the unsteady fluctuations. This study shows that the current SAS approach, as an alternative to the existing hybrid RANS/LES methods, is promising in terms of prediction of transient phenomena like LES, but with a substantially reduced turn-around time.

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