08/08/2020 Diffuser Selection in Centrifugal Compressors – Turbomachinery Aerodynamic Design

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Multistage Axial
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 November 1, 2018  admin  Leave a
comment Aerodynamic Design
– Part 1

As well known in industry, there is a clear BLADE3DR ver.5.1

di erence in selecting a di user type between
Multistage Axial
the vaneless and the vaned di user in
Compressor
centrifugal compressors. The vaneless di user
Aerodynamic Design
is dominant when a wider range of operation
– Part 3
demand comes rst in low and moderate
Axial Length of
pressure-ratio compressors despite relatively
Centrifugal Impeller
lower e ciency, and vice versa for the vaned
di user. However, in modern higher-pressure-
ratio compressors the story will change, due to
quite higher level of kinetic energy at the
impeller discharge, depending on how the Recent
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08/08/2020 Diffuser Selection in Centrifugal Compressors – Turbomachinery Aerodynamic Design

rotating stall inception will be managed in admin on

aerodynamic design. Centrifugal
Compressor
In a broad sense, there are two classes in the
Impeller-Di user
vaned di user with the boundary solidity
Matching
around 1.0 as,
Li Yue on Centrifugal
Compressor
1. High-solidity vaned di user
Impeller-Di user
Channel-wedge (or vane island)
Matching
Cambered airfoil
Pipe
2. Low-solidity vaned di user
Single row
Tandem row Archives
Rib (or part span)
August 2020

The channel-wedge di user will be one of the July 2020

most popular designs when shooting for a
June 2020
maximized e ciency despite a limited
operability. It can be easily found for example May 2020

in gas turbines which operability requirements April 2020

are not so severe as automobile turbochargers March 2020
(which prefers the vaneless di user). The
February 2020
cambered airfoil type would be nearly as
comparable as to the channel-wedge, but January 2020
could be used in more compact radial space December 2019
thanks to the curved owpath. If not well-
November 2019
designed, the cambered airfoil di user can
bring too high local di usion on the suction October 2019

surface, while the sudden expansion mixing- September 2019

loss at the discharge (if the channel-wedge will
August 2019
bring) will be reduced. The pipe di user has
July 2019
been exclusively used in a few manufacturers
until their patents become ine ective. May 2019
Theoretically, thanks to a simple-shape drilling April 2019
job, it should provide inexpensive
March 2019
manufacturing cost, but sometimes it turns
February 2019
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08/08/2020 Diffuser Selection in Centrifugal Compressors – Turbomachinery Aerodynamic Design

out to be more expensive to fabricate when January 2019

combined with the role of the axial deswirler.
November 2018
However, such an attractive advantage of
putting together di usion and axial turning (or October 2018

even turning > 90 degrees) has been taken September 2018

especially in small gas turbines. Judging from
compressor e ciency between the channel-
wedge and the pipe would not be simple
because of such di erent applications. There
Categories
was an interesting NASA paper (TN D-7237)
comparing both designs in terms of e ciency Post-AC
and operability, but it would be very hard to
Post-AT
say which one will be better. In a conventional
Post-CC
volute exit case, absolutely the channel-wedge
di user will be preferred. Post-Common

Post-CP
The LSD (Low Solidity Di user) has been more
Post-RT
popular in industrial centrifugal compressors
where both e ciency and operability are
sought through trade o . As easily presumed,
the LSD behaves between the channel-wedge
and the vaneless di user, but when it comes Meta
with tandem rows it could compete with the
Log in
channel-wedge di user, too. It should be
noted that a single-row LSD needs an Entries feed
additional vaneless di user downstream to Comments feed
get more di usion, otherwise overall e ciency
WordPress.org
will drop. If interested, you can look into my
published paper section for LSD studies.

On the last page of one of my technical

papers, there is a summary chart showing
pros and cons of performance parameters
among those di erent di users, as seen
below. Hope it could be of any help
understanding which direction you will need to
go to.

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08/08/2020 Diffuser Selection in Centrifugal Compressors – Turbomachinery Aerodynamic Design

Below are some pictures of my early-day

designs. In particular, the tandem LSD design
was my rst aero design after school, but
worked very well in a 3-stage integral-geared
air compressor.

One compact pipe di user can be found in,

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08/08/2020 Diffuser Selection in Centrifugal Compressors – Turbomachinery Aerodynamic Design

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