Improvement of the Performance of a Centrifugal Compressor by Modifying the Volute Inlet
SCIE
SCOPUS
- Title
- Improvement of the Performance of a Centrifugal Compressor by Modifying the Volute Inlet
- Authors
- Kim, S; Park, J; Ahn, K; Baek, J
- Date Issued
- 2010-09
- Publisher
- ASME-AMER SOC MECHANICAL ENG
- Abstract
- In centrifugal compressors, the diffuser and the volute have strong influences on the flow discharged from the impeller and thus also on the performance. In particular, a key parameter is the radial velocity at the volute inlet; it determines the swirl velocity, which is dissipated as a loss, i.e., it results in performance degradation. With the aim of reducing the swirl loss, a new type of volute with a modified inlet height was tested in this study. The volute inlet height was modified to 6 mm and 7 mm from the original height of 5 mm. The reliability of our computations was tested by comparison of the results of a model with this original height with experimental data. Flow analyses were conducted not only at the design mass flow rate but also at lower and higher mass flow rates. A higher total-to-total efficiency was obtained as a result of the linear increases of the volute inlet height from the diffuser outlet to 6 mm and 7 mm. Our detailed investigation of the simulated flow fields shows that the flow characteristics for a volute inlet height of 6 mm are better than those for a volute inlet height of 5 mm. These results clearly show that a greater volute inlet height assists in pressure recovery and reduces swirl loss in the volute. However, the volute inlet height of 7 mm results in larger hub separation and more energy loss, and thus in inferior performance. Therefore, the hub separation and the radial velocity at the volute inlet strongly influence the performance. [DOI: 10.1115/ 1.4001972]
- Keywords
- centrifugal compressor; volute inlet height; total-to-total efficiency; off-design analysis
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/17610
- DOI
- 10.1115/1.4001972
- ISSN
- 0098-2202
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME, vol. 132, no. 9, 2010-09
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