Calculation of Complete Three-Dimensional Flow in a Centrifugal Rotor With Splitter Blades

The flow within a centrifugal rotor has strong characteristics of three-dimensional effect. A procedure called “stream-surface coordinates iteration” for the calculation of complete three dimensional flow in turbo-machinery is first described. Splitter blade techniques have been used in many rotors, especially in centrifugal compressors and pumps with high flow capacity. The difficulty of the calculation of the flow field for this type of rotor lies on that the mass flow ratio between the two sub-channels is unknown for the given total flow capacity. In the second part of this paper, an assumption about how to determine this mass flow ratio and a procedure to calculate the complete three-dimensional flow are presented. Finally, some design criteria about the splitter blades are put forward. Experimental data from two centrifugal pump impellers equipped with different splitter blades are also given to demonstrate the availability of the present calculation method.