• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.22-29
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• 2008

This study is performed to understand the effect of the variation in the passage area of a two-dimensional impeller on its performance characteristics. We observe the results with changing the area ratio of inlet to outlet about $1{\sim}2.8$. A comparison between the experimental and numerical results was performed for the same configuration in order to verify the reliability of the CFD code. Overall characteristics in the passages of impeller were analyzed in detail including streamline, Mach number, pressure and polytropic efficiency distribution. When the passage area ratio exceeds 2, the pressure ratio is high. An area ratio of 2.3 showed the highest efficiency. The results will be used as useful reference data to establish the design concept of two-dimensional impeller and to improve its performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.330-337
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• 2004

Analysis of flow phenomena in a centrifugal compressor impeller has been carried out with numerical simulation to understand the physics of flow near stall. Near stall point, tip leakage flow spills ahead of the leading edge of adjacent blade and other leakage flow passes over the clearance of the adjacent blade instead of rolling up into vortex within the passage. The tip leakage flow at the mid chord of impeller blade impinges against the pressure surface of the adjacent blade and then rolls up into vortex within the passage, which blocks the flow passage and generates viscous loss. The spillage of leakage flow ahead of the adjacent blade generates the recirculation of flow entering the impeller, which causes the power transferred into the flow by the impeller to decrease and blocks the flow passage. Near diffuser hub wall, flow recirculation occurs. As operating point goes to stall point, the core of recirculation approaches the impeller exit The length rises to peak point and then drops with mass flow reduction, while the height steadily rises.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2013

A numerical study was conducted to improve the performance of an impeller of centrifugal compressor. Nine design variables were chosen with constraints. Only meridional contours and blade profile were adjusted. ANN (Artificial Neural Net) was adopted as a main optimization algorithm with PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) in order to reduce the optimization time. At first, ANN was learned and trained with the design variable sets which were obtained using DOE (Design of Experiment). This ANN was continuously improved its accuracy for each generation of which population was one hundred. New design variable set in each generation was selected using a non-gradient based method of PSO in order to obtain the global optimized result. After $7^{th}$ generation, the prediction difference of efficiency and pressure ratio between ANN and CFD was less than 0.6%. From more than 1,200 design variable sets, a pareto of efficiency versus pressure ratio was obtained and an optimized result was selected based on the multi-objective function. On this optimized impeller, the efficiency and pressure ratio were improved by 1% and 9.3%, respectively.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.2 s.23
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• pp.27-34
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• 2004

The performance of a centrifugal compressor composed of an impeller, tandem diffuser rows and axial guide vanes has been predicted numerically and compared with available experimental results on its design rotational speed. The pitchwise-averaged mixing plane method was employed for the boundaries between rotor and stator to obtain steady state solutions. The overall characteristics showed difference according to the relative positions of tandem diffuser rows while the characteristics of impeller showed almost identical result. The numerical results agree with the measured data in respect of their tendency. It turned out that $0\%$ of relative positions is the worst case in terms of static pressure recovery and efficiency. According to the experimental results, some pressure fluctuations and malfunction of the compressor were observed for $75\%$ case. However, this numerical calculation using mixing plane method did not capture any of those phenomena. Thus, unsteady flow calculation should be performed to investigate the stability of the compressor caused by different diffuser configuration.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.12a
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• pp.217-222
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• 1998

CSCM upwind flux difference splitting compressible Navier-Stokes method has been used to predict the transonic flows in centrifugal compressor diffuser. The modified cyclic TDMA and the mass flux boundary conditions were used as boundary conditions of the diffuser analysis. With the mass flux boundary condition and the $130{\times}80{\times}40$ grid, the compressible upwind Navier-Stokes method predicted the transonic diffuser flowfield successfully. Plow changes in the impeller exit region due to the strong interaction between impeller exit and vaned diffuser, broad flow separation on the suction surface near hub and shroud was observed from the results of the mass flow rates 6.0 and 6.2kg/s at 27000 rpm. The static pressure increased and the total pressure decreased through the flow passage of the channel diffuser, which were predicted better from the three-dimensional analysis than from the two-dimensional analysis due to the strong effect of the three-dimensional flow. The mass averaged loss coefficients and pressure coefficients were also studied.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.3287-3296
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• 1994

For the numerical computation of three-dimensional compressible flow field within a blade row in a centrifugal compressor, a quasi 3-dimensional solver which combines a reversible B-B flow and an irreversible H-S flow using finite element methods was developed. In a reversible B-B flow, the governing coordinates are modified in order to be applied to any type of turbomachinery, and two kinds of stream functions are introduced in order to make the Kutta condition exactly satisfied. In an irreversible H-S flow, the changes of entropy in the irreversible governing equations are determined not by empirical source but by the theoretical treatment of dissipation forces. The dissipation forces are obtained from the distribution of shear stresses in the flow passage which are given from the wall shear stresses using the exponential functions. A more accurate quasi-3-dimensional solver is established where the effect of body forces is involved in the non-axisymmetric H-S flow. Some numerical results obtained from authors' previous studies for axial flow machines assure that the present method is able to predict well as long as the flow is subsonic and not under strong viscous effect.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.284-291
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• 2008

This study presents an aerodynamic design and numerical analysis of a centrifugal compressor in gas turbines for SOFC-gas turbine hybrid system application. Total-to-total pressure ratio of the compressor is 3.6:1 that could be used widely for small and large SOFC-gas turbine systems. The compressor consists of a centrifugal impeller and a wedge diffuser. Conceptual design and aerodynamic design with mean line analysis and quasi-3D analysis are performed, and aerodynamic parameters as well as design variables are discussed from the design results. A numerical analysis based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation was performed for the flow analysis of the compressor. The results show that the centrifugal compressor designed meets the design target, and the aerodynamic parameters and results of the compressor can be used for the aerodynamic design of centrifugal compressors and the feasibility study of SOFC-gas turbine system design.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.5-11
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to design the transonic centrifugal compressor impeller with splitter blades and analyze the flow fields with respect to various splitter blades. Seven impellers with different splitter chord length or pitchwise location were tested by using CFD method. To investigate aerodynamic performance, Mach number distribution and entropy distribution were confirmed. As a result, it is found that the size of transonic region and shock wave location are related to the splitter chord length and pitchwise location. Also the impeller with long chord length of splitter shows higher total pressure ratio but lower efficiency than those of the impeller with short chord length of splitter. In terms of pitchwise location, the impeller with the splitter located in mid-pitch of main blades shows the best performance with respect to pressure ratio and efficiency.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.3573-3588
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• 1996

The flow through a centrifugal compressor impeller was calculated using the 3-dimensional Navier-Stokes solution method. A control volume method based on a rotating curvilinear coordinate system was used to solve the time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and a standard k-.epsilon. model was used to obtain eddy viscosity. Numerical results and experimental data were compared for the overall performance of the impeller, the pressure distributions along the shroud wall and the detailed flowfields at the design and off-design conditions, which showed good coincidence. The flow through the impeller is complex with the curvature of the streamlines and rotation. The development of secondary flows and the jet-wake flow characteristics, which is the main source of flow loss, was discussed. Calculation results show quite different patterns as the flow rate changes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.389-397
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• 2003

Effect of tip leakage flow on through flow and performance of a centrifugal compressor impeller was numerically studied using CFX-TASC flow. Seven different tip clearances were used to consider the influence of tip clearance on performance. Secondary flow and loss factor were evaluated to understand the loss mechanism inside the impeller due to tip leakage flow. The calculated results were circumferentially averaged along the passage and at the impeller exit for quantitative discussion. Tip clearance effect on Performance could be decomposed into inviscid and viscous components using one dimensional equation. The inviscid component is related with the specific work reduction and the viscous component is related with the additional entropy generation. Two components affected Performance equally. while efficiency drop was mainly influenced by viscous loss. Performance and efficiency drop due to tip clearance were proportional to the ratio of tip clearance to exit blade height. A simple model suggested in the present study predict performance and efficiency drop quite successfully.