Control of secondary flow in a low solidity circular cascade diffuser

Abstract

Kyushu University (retired)According to the previous experimental works on the low solidity circular cascade diffuser (LSD), a pressure recovery of a centrifugal blower was improved by the LSD significantly in a wide range of flow rate, and the pressure recovery was improved further by the LSD with a tandem cascade in comparison with the LSD with a single-row cascade. In the present study, the flow behavior in the LSD with the tandem cascade has been analyzed numerically by using the commercial CFD code of ANSYS-CFX12. It was shown clearly that the higher pressure recovery was achieved by applying the LSD with the tandem cascade, and the high pressure recovery is based on the high pressure rise in the vaneless space upstream of the LSD and the high blade loading of the front blade of the LSD. The high pressure recovery in the LSD could be achieved by controlling the flow separation on the suction surface of the front blade and also on that of the rear blade due to formation of the favorable secondary flow and due to increase in mass flow passing through the slit section between the front and rear blades.

Performance Enhancement of a Centrifugal Compressor by Designing a Tandem Cascade Diffuser

“…Senoo et al tested a series of diffusers with backward curved centrifugal impellers, and demonstrated that a diffuser with a small-solidity cascade has a wide range of stable operations comparable to that of a vaneless diffuser, and the diffuser achieves considerably better pressure recovery [12]. Oh et al [13] and Sakaguchi et al did some research work on tandem cascade diffusers and obtained similar conclusions [14]. Saha and Roy [15,16] carried out a series of research on the new design method of low aspect ratio tandem cascade and the control ability of variable angle tandem cascade on non-design point flow.…”