Lec 3. Centfg - Compressor Ex

Turbomachinery
(EMEng 3191)
AASTU
Centrifugal Compressor
Yared G.
Lecturer @Armament and
Aerospace Engineering
Department, DUCoE
M Tech. Aerospace Engineering/Propulsion
Engineering (IIT Kanpur, India)
B Tech. Mechanical Engineering
Out line
 Introduction
 Definition
 Advantages and disadvantages over axial compressor
 Principal Components
 Principle of Operation
 Applications
 Impeller design
 Types of impeller
 Velocity triangle
 Work done and pressure rise
Compressor characteristics
 Stall
 Surging
 choking
17-Aug-19 yadofirae@gmail.com 2
Introduction
 Compressors
power absorbing turbomachines,
handle compressible fluids.
can be axial flow, centrifugal flow, or a combination of the two,
produces the highly compressed air needed for efficient combustion.
In turbo-compressors or dynamic compressors, high pressure is achieved by
imparting kinetic energy to the air in the impeller, and then this kinetic energy
converts into pressure in the diffuser.
Velocities of airflow are quite high and the Mach number of the flow may
approach unity at many points in the air stream.(Chocking)
Compressibility effects may have to be taken into account at every stage of the
compressor.
17-Aug-19 3
yadofirae@gmail.com
CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSORS AND FANS
Compressors as well as pumps and fans are the devices used to increase the
pressure of the fluid.
A fan increases the pressure of a gas slightly and it is mainly used to move a
gas around.
Compressor is capable of compressing gas to very high pressures.
Pumps handle liquids instead of gases.
Centrifugal compressors and fans are turbo machines employing centrifugal effect
to increase the pressure of the fluid.
 single stage compressors have pressure ratio of 4:1 with Aluminum alloy blade
 8:1 ratio with Titanium alloy
 For higher pressure ratio requirement: two stage compressor can be used
Advantages and disadvantages over axial compressor
The advantages of centrifugal compressors over the axial flow compressor are:
Shorter length than the axial compressor
Operate over a wide range of mass flow rate of gases at a particular rotational speed
Less susceptible to loss performance by build up deposits on blade surfaces
Can handle small volume flow
Better resistance to foreign object damage (FOD)
The disadvantages are

Larger frontal area
lower maximum efficiency
Single stage centrifugal compressor
Principal components centrifugal compressor
 It consists of a stationary casing containing an impeller, which rotates and imparts
kinetic energy to the air
 a number of diverging passages : decelerates the air
 The diffuser containing the diverging passages : converts kinetic energy into static
pressure. (diffusion process),
 Centrifugal compressors can be built with a double entry or a single entry impeller.
The principal components are the

impeller and diffuser
Principle of operation
Air enters the impeller eye and is whirled around
at high speed by the vanes on the impeller disc.
The absolute velocity of the inflow air is axial
Energy is imparted to the air by the rotating
blades, thereby increasing the static pressure as
it moves from eye radius r1 to tip radius r2.
The remainder of the static pressure rise is
achieved in the diffuser.
The air leaving the diffuser is collected and
delivered to the outlet.
The impeller vanes at the eye are bent so as to
provide shock less entry.
The air then flow radially through the impeller
passages due centrifugal force.
The total mechanical energy driving the compressor
is transmitted to the fluid stream in the impeller
where it is converted into kinetic energy, pressure and
heat due to friction.
The very high velocity of the air leaving the impeller
tip is reduced by the diffuser.
It should be noted that friction in the diffuser will
cause some loss in stagnation pressure.
The normally compressors are designed so that about
half the pressure rise occurs in the impeller and half
in the diffuser.
Usually, there is a slightly higher static
pressure on the forward face of a vane than
on the trailing face.
The air will thus tend to flow round the
edges of the vanes in the clearance space
between the impeller and the casing.
The clearance must be kept as small as
possible to prevent loss in efficiency.
A shroud attached to the vanes, would
eliminate such a loss, but the manufacturing
difficulties are vastly increased and there
would be a disc friction or ‘windage’ loss
associated with the shroud.
Applications
Centrifugal compressors are widely used on
natural gas pipelines, driven by the free power
turbine of the prime mover.
These machines would normally operate at low pressure
ratios (1.2-1.4) and at very high inlet pressures.
Centrifugal compressors are also used in very
large-scale refrigeration plants, with the
compressors run at constant speed driven by large
single-shaft industrial gas turbines.
Many other applications, like, diesel engine
turbochargers, chemical plant processes, factory
workshop air supplies, large-scale air-conditioning
plant, etc.
Applications
Compressors have many everyday uses, such as
in :
Air conditioners, (car, home)
Home and industrial refrigeration
Hydraulic compressors for industrial machines
Air compressors for industrial manufacturing
The compressors may be driven by steam
turbines or electric motors via a speed-increasing
gearbox.
Centrifugal compressor widely used in gas
turbines. turbojet engine
For a given tip speed
and with the
increase in discharge
blade impeller
transfers energy
performance curve
VELOCITY DIAGRAMS
• The air enters the impeller in the axial direction.
• Absolute velocity at the inlet,
• C1 = Ca1.
• In the ideal case, air comes out from the impeller tip after
making an angle of 900
• Cw2 = U2.
• But there is some slip between the impeller and the fluid,
and actual values of Cw2 are somewhat less than U2.
• Cw2 < U2.
• If Air enters through the inlet guide vanes.
• Angle θ is made by C1 and Ca1 and this angle is
known as the angle of pre-whirl.
• Then the absolute velocity C1 will have whirl
component Cw1.
The velocity triangle at the inlet to the for a radial impeller eye
VELOCITY DIAGRAMS • It should be noted that the blades are radial. i.e. the
blade angle β2 = 900 while the relative velocity vector
V2 is at angle 𝛽𝛽2′ because of slip.
For slip condition

• The gas enters the compressor at the eye, in an axial
direction with an absolute velocity and moves into
the inducer section, which can be in a separate form
or of the blades.
• The inducer section transfers the gas onto the blades
and enables it to move smoothly in a radial direction.
Velocity triangles for a radial impeller  When β2 = 𝛽𝛽2′ , there is no fluid slip at the exit
 For slip condition : 𝛽𝛽2′ < β2
VELOCITY DIAGRAMS
Inlet Pre-whirl
 Pre-whirl can be achieved by fixing inlet
guide vanes (IGV) to the compressor casing.
 This changes the inlet velocity triangle.
Reduces the inlet Ma (advantage)
 The work capacity of the compressor
decreases. (disadvantage)
Wsc = U2Cw2 - U1Cw1
 It is required to properly design the inlet
guide vanes in order to minimize pressure
loss.
SLIP FACTOR
Slip is how far the whirl velocity at the impeller tip
falls, Cw2 , short of the tip speed, U2.
The slip factor (σ) is nearly constant for any machine and
is related to the number of vanes on the impeller.
For radial vaned impellers, the formula for slip is given by
Stanitz :
The velocity diagram indicates that Cw2 approaches U2 as

the slip factor is increased.
Increasing the number of vanes may increase the slip
factor but this will decrease the flow area at the inlet.
 A slip factor of about 0.9 is typical for a compressor with 19–21 vanes.
Slip cont..
The air trapped between the impeller vanes is
reluctant to move round with the impeller, this
results in a higher static pressure on the
leading face of a vane than on the trailing face.
It also prevents the air from acquiring a whirl
velocity equal to the impeller speed; which is
called slip.
Since no work is done on the air in the
diffuser, the energy absorbed by the
compressor will be determined by the
conditions of the air at the inlet and outlet of
the impeller.
• For radial blade velocity triangle
Work done • The work done is per second per
unit mass of the air bases.
The theoretical torque will be equal to the rate of change of
angular momentum experienced by the air.
 since slip will be present even for the fluid is friction-less (ideal fluid).
Considering the slip factor ,

Theoretical work done = 2 (treating work done on the air as
positive) 𝜎𝜎𝑈𝑈2
For real fluid the power supplied is used in overcoming losses that have
braking effects on the air carried round by the vanes, such as disc friction
or ‘windage’,
Introducing a power input factor ψ ,
Thus the applied torque and therefore the actual work input is greater the actual work done on the air
than the theoretical value. becomes
ψ = 'stage loading coefficient'.
ψ = 1.035-1.04
Work done and pressure rise
Work done for work absorbing machines:
̇ 02 − ℎ01 )
𝑊𝑊 = 𝑚𝑚(ℎ
Temperature equivalent of work done on the air is

given by:
where T01 is stagnation temperature at the impeller entrance; T02

is stagnation temperature at the impeller exit;
 No work is done on the air in the diffuser, T03 = T02,

where T03 is the stagnation temperature at the
diffuser outlet.
Mollier chart for a centrifugal compressor
Work done and pressure rise
Temperature equivalent of work done on the air is given by:
The compressor isentropic efficiency (ηc) may be defined as:
The overall stagnation pressure ratio follows as
Work done and Pressure rise
The compressor isentropic efficiency (ηc)
T03 = T02
The stagnation pressure ratio depends on the inlet temperature T01 and impeller tip speed U2.
Work done and Pressure rise
Any lowering of the inlet temperature T01 will clearly increase the
pressure ratio of the compressor for a given work input.
The centrifugal stresses in a rotating disc are proportional to the
square of the rim. For single sided impellers of light alloy, U2 is
limited to about 460 m/s by the maximum allowable centrifugal
stresses in the impeller.
Such speeds produce pressure ratios of about 4:1. To avoid disc
loading, lower speeds must be used for double-sided impellers.
Compressibility effects
For compressible flows having Ma=1 or Ma > 1; flow breakdown or flow
separation leading to excessive pressure loss can be incurred relative to the
surface over which it is moving.
Diffusion process is common phenomena that :
 the flow break away from the boundary even at low speeds.
Eddy formation
Reduction in pressure rise to occur.
 It is of the utmost importance that the Mach numbers at certain points in the
flow do not exceed the value beyond which the losses increase rapidly owing to
the formation of shock waves.
MACH NUMBER at the inlet
The relative Mach number at the inlet will be given by:
The Mach number can reduced by introducing the pre-whirl.

One obvious disadvantage of pre-whirl is that the work
capacity of the compressor is reduced by an amount U1Cw1.
The absolute velocity C2 of the fluid becomes a maximum at
the tip of the impeller and so the Mach number may well be in
excess of unity.
Assuming a perfect gas, the Mach number at the impeller exit
M2 can be written as:
Centrifugal Compressor Performance Characteristics
Two sets of curves are used to describe the performance of a compressor
completely.
1. The stagnation pressure versus ‘non-dimensional’ mass flow in the form of a
family of curves,
2. temperature ratios non-dimensional’ mass flow
 drawn for a fixed value of the ‘non-dimensional’ rotational speed.
From these two sets of curves it is possible to construct constant speed
curves of isentropic efficiency plotted versus ‘non-dimensional’ mass flow
To study the performance of a compressor completely, we will consider

the plot of P03/P01 against the mass flow parameter 𝑚𝑚 T01 /P01 for fixed
speed intervals of N/ T01.
SURGING
The phenomenon of a momentary increase
in the delivery pressure resulting in
unsteady, periodic and reversal flow
through the compressor.
Chocking
When the velocity of fluid in a passage
reaches the speed of sound at any cross
section, the flow becomes choked (air ceases
to flow).
In the case of inlet flow passages, mass flow
can not further be increased.
Rotating stall
The phenomenon of a reduction in mass
flow rate through the blade passage at
higher angles of incidence is known as
rotating stall.
It is a separate flow phenomenon which
may lead to surging but can exist on its own
in a stable operating condition.
 It can be aerodynamically induced
vibration which eventually leads to fatigue
failure of compressor components.
Questions
Thank you!

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Turbomachinery

The disadvantages are

The principal components are the

For slip condition

The velocity diagram indicates that Cw2 approaches U2 as

Considering the slip factor ,

Temperature equivalent of work done on the air is

where T01 is stagnation temperature at the impeller entrance; T02

 No work is done on the air in the diffuser, T03 = T02,

The compressor isentropic efficiency (ηc) may be defined as:

The overall stagnation pressure ratio follows as

The Mach number can reduced by introducing the pre-whirl.

To study the performance of a compressor completely, we will consider

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