• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2017

Numerical simulation is carried out for flow characteristics in a plenum fan and the influence of the diameter ratio of the rotating vaneless diffuser on the performance of plenum fan is analyzed. The diameter ratio of the rotating vaneless diffuser employed is from 1.03 to 1.3. The research results show that the rotating vaneless diffuser is able to enhance the performance of plenum fan. It is found that there is significant improvement in static pressure and efficiency at the diameter ratio of 1.05 at high flow coefficients, while the optimal diameter ratio is 1.2 at rated and low flow coefficient.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1293-1302
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• 2001

It is generally known that radial vane blowers with vaneless diffuser may generate mostly only a rotating stall but backward curved vane blowers may do both an impeller and a diffuser rotating stalls. In this study, it was found from the numerical and experimental results that the diffuser rotating stall does not appear in a radial vane because of the suppression for the diffuser stall appearance by occurring of impeller rotating stall in a large flow rate coefficient. The diffuser rotating stalls occurring when the width of diffuser is broaden fur a backward curved vane blower are classified definitely by the diffuser flow rate coefficient defined by adopting the varying diffuser width.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.92-100
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• 2008

The main objective of this study was to clarify the origin of the unsteady flows arising in a mixed-flow vaneless diffuser system and also the effects of physical components of the system. The testing equipment consists of a straight tube, a swirl generator, and a mixed-flow vaneless diffuser. Pressure fluctuations of the flow through the tube and diffuser were measured by using a semiconductor-type pressure transducer and analyzed by an FFT analyzer. In the experiment, the velocity ratio (axial velocity/peripheral velocity) of the internal flow, and the geometric parameters of the diffuser were varied. Two kinds of unsteady flows were measured according to the combination of the components, and the origin of each unsteady flow was clarified. The fundamental frequencies of unsteady flows arose were examined by two-dimensional small perturbation analysis.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.611-614
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• 2002

Rotating stall in vaneless diffusers of centrifugal compressor occurs in the diffuser wall due to flow separation at large inlet flow angle. For this reason, the critical inlet flow angles are suggested by several researchers. Beyond this critical angle, flow separates in the diffuser, and develops into rotating stall. This paper studied this critical flow angle. Rotating stall is measured through eight fast-response pressure transducers which are equally spaced around the circumference at the inlet and exit of a vaneless diffuser. Experiments are done from 20000rpm to 60000rpm for the diffuser stall. Two-cell structure which rotates at $6{\~}l0{\%}$ of impeller speed is fully developed at $20000{\~}40000rpm$, and three-cell structure which rotates at $7{\~}9{\%}$ of impeller speed is fully developed at $50000{\~}60000rpm$. This paper shows that the critical inlet flow angle is not constant but related with tip speed of impeller. As tip speed increases, so does the critical inlet flow angle.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.3722-3730
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• 2015

The performance improvement of a small centrifugal compressor for waste water treatment has been conducted by the design change of vaneless diffuser and volute casing. Existing two compressors use a common impeller, but the width and length of the vaneless diffuser and the cross-sectional shape of the volute casing are different, respectively. Based on the experiment of the existing two compressors and their CFD results, the design of the vaneless diffuser and the volute casing has been changed. It was found that the strength of the interaction among the volute tongues, the vaneless diffusers and the impellers of two existing/one improved compressors, was affected by the cross-sectional area and inlet radial length of the volute casing including system losses' change. The efficiency of the impeller with one existing design was increased as the decrease of the width of the vaneless diffuser, but losses at the diffuser were accumulated. In conclusion, approximately 2.88%p efficiency increase at the design point of the new compressor with the improved design has been confirmed by CFD analysis results.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1144-1153
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• 2002

A hybrid performance prediction method is proposed in the present study. A channel diffuser is divided into four subregions: vaneless space, semi-vaneless space, channel, and channel exit region. One-dimensional compressible core flow and boundary layer calculation of each region with an incidence loss model and empirical correlation of residuary pressure recovery coefficient of a channel predict the performance of diffusers. Three channel diffusers are designed and tested for validating the developed prediction method. The pressure distributions from an impeller exit to the channel diffuser exit are measured and discussed for various operating conditions from choke to nearly surge conditions. The strong non-uniform pressure distribution which is caused by impeller-diffuser interaction is obtained over the vaneless and semi-vaneless spaces. The predicted performance shows good agreement with the measured performance of diffusers at a design condition as well as at off-design conditions.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

The flow characteristics in a vaneless diffuser with a backswept radial impeller have been experimentally investigated according to the variation of discharge flow rate. Particle image velocimetry(PIV) system was applied to measure velocity fields with several operating conditions and on some diffuser horizontal planes. Pressure transducers were installed on hub wall of the diffuser in order to analyze the pressure fluctuations and their corresponding velocity fields. The results show that the location of the main flow center moves from the hub to the shroud side as the flow rate decreases, and the reverse flow is locally generated on the hub side.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2011

This study investigated on details of flow characteristics in a vaneless diffuser of a compressor with 2-dimensional impeller at various flow rates. Experiment for a low speed compressor model in a water reservoir was performed to analyze the flow field in the vaneless diffuser and volute casing, which was done by PIV measurement. It was also focused on the periodic flow patterns occurring at low flow rate near unstable operating region of the compressor. At low flow rate condition, the flow visualization clearly shows that the flow energy from impeller is highly accumulated at the compressor exit by the blockage effect of a flow damper and consequently the reverse flow occurs in the diffuser.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1247-1254
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• 1998

The vaneless diffusers are widely used in industrial centrifugal compressors which are required to operate within a wide flow range. When very high pressure gases are handled by centrifugal compressor. rotating stall is a serious problem because of the occurance of large aerodynamic exciting forces. Rotating stall mostly often occurs in the impellers but it can occur in vaneless diffusers as well. In this experimental study, the rotating stall in vaneless diffuser with radial type centrifugal impeller was measured by changing the flow rate with I-type, X-type hotwire. As the result, it was cleared which type of rotating stall of the impeller stall would occur and how many stall cells would appear relating with the flow rate. As the flow rate reduced, the propagation speed of rotating stall was reduced. But the stall cell number unchanged with respect to the flow rate.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.409-417
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• 2009

An investigation of surge inception in a centrifugal compressor was done with measurements of steady and unsteady static pressure. Vaneless diffuser and vaned diffuser were tested. Analyses of the static pressure and the pressure fluctuation showed that stall at the impeller leading edge occurred at first, and then it extended to downstream. In case of the vaneless diffuser, deterioration of the pressure rise in the impeller triggered instability. For the vande diffuser, instability that was generated in the impeller propagated into the vaned diffuser, however the pressure recovery by the vaned diffuser made the operation of the compressor stable at low flow rate.