Research on the simplified design of a centrifugal compressor impeller based on meridional plane modification

Abstract

This study mainly focuses on investigating the influence of meridional contour of a steam centrifugal compressor on aerodynamic performance. An optimal design method is put forwards, in which the hub-line on the meridional plane is modified and optimized. Based on the data from numerical simulation, aerodynamic characteristics are compared in detail among a prototype and three modified impellers. It is shown that stall margin of the optimized impeller can be enlarged by approximately 50%, though at design point efficiency and pressure ratio is decreased a little bit. Under the working conditions with low flow rate, the optimized impeller exhibits the best performance compared with the prototype and two other impellers. Furthermore, numerical result is validated by the experiment and is matched the measure data very well.