Centrifugal Compressor
Rotating Stall in a Centrifugal Comrepssor with Diffuser
Impeller and Vaned Diffuser
Turbo machinery is widely used in industrial infrastructure, from transportation equipment such as automobiles and aircraft to social infrastructure such as gas and oil transportation, and has become an essential part of modern society.
The centrifugal compressor, one of the components of a turbocharger for ships, is required to be highly efficient and to have a high pressure ratio from the perspective of energy-efficient use.
However, installing a centrifugal compressor for a turbocharger not only limits the operating range, but also increases noise and causes unstable phenomena such as surge during low flow rate operation, which can lead to vibration and damage to the equipment.
Tested Centrifugal Compressor
Our team is conducting experimental investigations and numerical analyses on centrifugal compressors used in superchargers, with the aim of understanding non-steady phenomena such as surge.
Previous research has successfully reduced noise levels while maintaining compressor performance by modifying the leading edge shape of the diffuser vanes and developing hub-side tapered guide vanes to suppress vortex formation and stabilize the flow field.
Additionally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used to investigate the internal flow field of the centrifugal compressor, revealing that vortices generated near the guide vane leading edge contribute to performance degradation and increased noise levels.
Furthermore, the expansion of these vortices may lead to unstable phenomena such as surge.
Unsteady Behavior of Leading-edge Vortex near Vaned Diffuser