Numerical Analysis of Blade Geometry Generation Techniques for Centrifugal Compressors

It is a known fact that machined impellers result in improved compressor performance compared to cast impellers of the same design. The performance improvements can be attributed to better surface finish, more accurate geometric definition (tighter dimensional tolerances), well-defined edges, and the lack of blade tip fillet on shrouded impellers. In addition, it has been observed through experimental investigations that the construction method of the impellers has an impact on performance. This paper presents computational fluid dynamic investigations of two types of impellers, with blade surfaces generated using straight-line elements (SLEs) and CAD arbitrary definitions. Because there are many different mathematical definitions that CAD tools employ for curves, the resulting arbitrary blade surface is not unique. The numerical results will help understand the causes of the performance differences as well as the effects of SLE blades on the flow through the impeller. Input conditions for computational dynamic simulations are based on experimental results. All references to experimental data in the present paper are for cast impellers. Therefore, the differences in performance are attributed to blade definition (SLE versus other) and not to differences resulting from manufacturing methods.