Study of the Flow in Centrifugal Compressor

An unshrouded centrifugal compressor would give up clearance very large in relation to the span of the blades, because centrifugal compressors produce a sufficiently large pressure rise in fewer stages. This problem is more acute for a low flow high-pressure ratio impeller. The large tip clearance would cause flow separations, and as a result it would drop both the efficiency and surge margin. Thus a design of a high efficiency and wide operation range for a centrifugal compressor is a great challenge. This paper describes a new development of high efficiency and a large surge margin flow coefficient of 0.145 centrifugal compressor. A viscous turbomachinery optimal design method developed by the authors for axial flow machine was further extended and used in this centrifugal compressor design. The new compressor has three main parts: impeller, a low solidity diffuser and volute. The tip clearance is under a special consideration in this design to allow impeller insensitiveness to the clearance. A three-dimensional low solidity diffuser design method is proposed and applied to this design. This design demonstrated to be successful to extend the low solidarity diffusers to high-pressure ratio compressor. The design performance range showed the total to static efficiency of the compressor being about 85% and stability range over 35%. The experimental results showed that the test results are in good agreement with the design.