Investigating on performance parameters and flow field of centrifugal compressor based on the splitter blade leading edge’s location effect

Impeller design in turbomachines is one of the most challenging issues in these machines’ systems, which still plays a significant role in their efficiency and performance. This article considers different designs for splitter blades. Therefore, the CFD methods modify the position of the splitter blades leading edge at the hub and shroud. This modification shall lead to a different splitter blade profile from the main blades. Then, the effects of splitter blades are discussed, and the performance parameters have also been studied to improve this method’s implementation. The results revealed that the compressor’s efficiency was improved by approximately 1.5 % in one specific case. This finding proves that the previous design methods were not the optimum ones for compressors and how to increase the compressor’s efficiency by CFD methods and by changing the splitter blades’ location.