Experimental and Computational Study of a Radial Compressor Inlet

Koch, Jay M.; Chow, Peter N.; Hutchinson, Brad; Elias, Steve R.

doi:10.1115/95-gt-082

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…It serves the purpose of guiding the incoming radial flow into the axial direction. As has been shown and discussed in previous works, such as [14][15][16][17][18], a radial inlet can result in flow distortion in both the radial and circumferential directions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

The effects of radial inlet with splitters on the performance of variable inlet guide vanes in a centrifugal compressor stage

Tan

X²,

et al. 2011

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:

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Variable inlet guide vanes (VIGVs) can regulate pressure ratio and mass flow at constant rotational speed in centrifugal compressors as a result of inducing a controlled prewhirl in front of impellers. Radial inlets and VIGVs are typical upstream components in front of the first-stage impellers in many industrial centrifugal compressors. However, previous investigations on VIGVs in centrifugal compressors were mostly conducted under the condition of axial inlets, and this study aims to focus on the effects of radial inlet on the VIGVs performance of a centrifugal compressor stage. The axial inlet stage model is compared with the radial inlet stage model with splitters using numerical flow simulation. The flow from the radial inlet was nonuniform in both circumferential and radial directions; thus, the VIGVs, the impeller, the vaneless diffuser, and the return vane channel are modelled with fully 360 passages. The three-dimensional (3D) flow field is numerically simulated at VIGVs setting angles ranging from À20 to 60 . The overall stage performance parameters are obtained by integrating the field quantities. Though the splitters are equipped in the radial inlet, the overall stage polytropic efficiency decreases by an average of 4 per cent and total pressure ratio decreases by an average of 3.3 per cent in comparison with the axial stage model. This can be attributed to the effect of both flow non-uniformity induced by radial inlet and flow loss in the radial inlet at different VIGV setting angles. The flow loss in the radial inlet with splitters is the main reason of the stage performance decrease compared with the flow non-uniformity. The simulation results show that the performance of VIGVs is degraded by its inlet flow distortions resulting from a radial inlet. The results in this study can be applied to centrifugal compressor design and optimization.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

The effects of radial inlet with splitters on the performance of variable inlet guide vanes in a centrifugal compressor stage

Tan

X²,

et al. 2011

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:

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“…The flow angles, static pressures and total pressures at 50 sampling points were measured, and the distribution of total pressure loss coefficients was given. Koch et al 14 conducted an experimental study on an IC with different inlet pipes, and found that guide vanes arranged in the IC increased flow losses but benefited to overcoming flow distortions at the outlet section. Giachi and Taddei, 15 Michelassi and Giachi, 16 Michelassi et al, 17 and Pazzi and Michelassi 18 used a combination of experimental and numerical methods to study an inlet chamber of a centrifugal compressor with the model structure scaled at 1:2.5.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and numerical studies on the influence of inlet guide vanes of centrifugal compressor on the flow field characteristics of inlet chamber

Han

Wang

Mao

et al. 2020

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

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Inlet chambers (IC) are the typical upstream component of centrifugal compressors, and inlet guide vanes in the IC have a great impact on its internal flow and aerodynamic loss, which will significantly influence the performance of the downstream compressor stages. In this paper, an experimental study was carried out on the flow characteristics inside a radial IC of an industrial centrifugal compressor, including five testing sections and 968 measuring points for two schemes with and without guide vanes. Detailed distributions of flow parameters on each section were obtained as well as the overall performance of the radial IC, and the causes of the flow loss inside the IC and the non-uniformity of flow parameters at the outlet section were investigated. Besides, numerical simulations were performed to further analyze the flow characteristics inside the radial IC. The experimental and numerical results indicate that, in the scheme without guide vanes, sudden expansions in the spiral channel and flow separations in the annular convergence channel are the major sources of flow loss and distortions generated in the radial IC; while in the scheme with guide vanes, the flow impacts, separations and wakes caused by the inappropriate design of guide vanes are the main reasons for the flow loss of the IC itself and the uneven flow distributions at the IC outlet.

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“…Historically, researchers have either analyzed the components separately [3,4], or patched the components together, achieving a one-way coupling [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%