The Practical Application of CFD in the Design of Industrial Centrifugal Compressors

In the development of industrial turbomachinery, the aerodynamic designer is faced with many complex fluid flow problems. In the mid to late 1980’s, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software was developed to assist in the solution of these flow fields. Initially applied only by high end gas turbine or jet engine designers, these sophisticated tools eventually found their way to engineers at industrial turbomachinery manufacturers. However, it has only been in the last five to ten years that industrial users have begun to make more widespread use of CFD. There are a variety of reasons for this slow adoption.