Patent Application
20140255175
The present invention relates to a technical field of fluid machines including an impeller, and particularly relates to a centrifugal compressor including a vaneless diffuser.
Compressors including an impeller, such as a centrifugal compressor, have advantages such as having better efficiency, being smaller in dimensions and in weight and being more stable in operation than reciprocating compressors, but have a limited range of operating conditions relating to the flow rate. Under an operating condition at a low flow rate, a centrifugal compressor generates a phenomenon such as considerable fluid separation at the internal flow field, and causes a phenomenon of unstable operations. This causes stall and accordingly surge, thus rapidly decreasing the efficiency and the pressure-ratio of the compressor, shortening the life of the compressor and accordingly causing a damage of the compressor in a short time.
A vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor has a flow channel, on both sides of which an annular cap and an annular disk are provided in a fixed manner, where their shapes are determined depending on the operating condition at the design point. This enables the most excellent performance at the design point, whereby the kinetic energy of fluid at the outlet of the impeller can be converted effectively into static-pressure energy. Conventional vaneless diffusers are structured axisymmetrically. That is, such a vaneless diffuser has a width that is uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction. During the operation at a low flow rate, the vaneless diffuser generates considerable fluid separation inside it, and such a stall phenomenon increases flow loss and so decreases the efficiency of the diffuser. As the flow rate further decreases, the kinetic energy of the fluid in the radial direction is not sufficient, and so the fluid flows backward due to the action of adverse pressure gradient and a surge phenomenon occurs at the compressor.
Herein the term vaneless in a vaneless diffuser refers to a diffuser as a flow channel that is not provided with vanes (blades).
Conventionally known methods of suppressing the stall in a vaneless diffuser provide a diffuser having a decreased width so as to increase the kinetic energy of the fluid in the radial direction for a low flow rate and to decrease the adverse current.
However, since a centrifugal compressor has a non-axisymmetric volute casing, its vaneless diffuser also has internal flow parameters in the circumferential direction that are non-axisymmetric. That is, the internal flow field of the vaneless diffuser is non-axisymmetric. This means that the conventional method of using a diffuser having a decreased width, thus increasing the kinetic energy of the fluid in the radial direction and so decreasing the adverse current, has a limit and does not consider the non-axisymmetric properties at the internal flow field of the vaneless diffuser, and so fails in the maximum suppression of stall in the vaneless diffuser.
The present invention aims to at least solve one of the technical problems of the prior art.
To this end, it is an object of the present invention to provide a centrifugal compressor capable of reducing asymmetry of the flow field of the fluid inside a centrifugal compressor and expanding the stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing the centrifugal compressor.
In order to solve the above problems, a centrifugal compressor according to the present invention includes: a volute casing including a first casing and a second casing that are mutually coupled, the first casing including a volute chamber therein and the second casing including an impeller installation space therein; an impeller provided in the impeller installation space so as to be rotatable around a rotation axis; and a vaneless diffuser that has an inlet that communicates with an inside of the second casing and has an outlet that communicates with an inside of the first casing. The vaneless diffuser has a width having a non-axisymmetric distribution in a circumferential direction.
The centrifugal compressor of the present invention includes a vaneless diffuser having a width having a non-axisymmetric distribution in a circumferential direction, and thus the non-axisymmetry of the flow field of the fluid inside the centrifugal compressor can be reduced. This can then suppress stall of the vaneless diffuser of the centrifugal compressor, and so a stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor can be expanded.
According to a preferable embodiment of the present invention, the vaneless diffuser has a width at a circumferential position having an airflow angle α at an inlet of the vaneless diffuser that is smaller than a circumferential average value thereof, the width being smaller than a width at another circumferential position having an airflow angle α that is the circumferential average value or more, and the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser is defined as an angle between projection velocity V obtained by projecting air velocity at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis and a circumferential direction at a corresponding circumferential position.
Preferably, the width of the vaneless diffuser is uniform in a radial direction at a same circumferential position.
According to a preferable embodiment of the present invention, the centrifugal compressor further may include an annular cap and an annular disk between the first casing and the second casing, and the vaneless diffuser may be a flow channel defined between the annular cap and the annular disk.
Preferably, the first casing, the second casing and the annular cap are integrally formed.
In a centrifugal compressor according to a preferable embodiment of the present invention, such a configuration of the vaneless diffuser having an asymmetric width in the circumferential direction acts so as to weaken the original non-axisymmetry of the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction. This can effectively increase the minimum airflow angle α in the circumferential direction and so can suppress stall of the vaneless diffuser at a low flow rate, and further can expand the stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor.
According to a method for manufacturing the centrifugal compressor of the present invention, a prototype of a symmetric centrifugal compressor including a vaneless diffuser having a width that is uniform in the circumferential direction is modified so as to achieve the centrifugal compressor of the present invention.
That is, a method for manufacturing of the present invention is to manufacture the aforementioned centrifugal compressor, and includes the steps of:
(1) setting an initial position in the circumferential direction;
(2) acquiring distribution in the circumferential direction of an airflow angle αy at an inlet of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor by numerical simulation or experiment, then calculating a circumferential average value αyavg of the airflow angle αy at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser, and acquiring a width by of the vaneless diffuser;
(3) decreasing the width by of the vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position having an airflow angle αy at the inlet of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor that is smaller than the circumferential average value αyavg, thus acquiring a first width b1 at the circumferential position,
increasing the width by of the vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position having an airflow angle αy at the inlet of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor that is larger than the circumferential average value αyavg, thus acquiring a first width b1 at the circumferential position, and,
at the same time making a circumferential average value b1y of the first width b1 a same value of the width by of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor or to be a value close to the width by, thereby acquiring distribution of the first width b1 of a first vaneless diffuser of a first centrifugal compressor in the circumferential direction;
(4) based on a result of the first width b1 at Step (3), acquiring distribution of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser of the first centrifugal compressor in the circumferential direction by numerical simulation or experiment, and calculating a circumferential average value α1avg of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser;
(5) based on the distribution of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction at Step (4), decreasing the first width b1 of the first vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position having the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser that is smaller than the circumferential average value α1avg, thus acquiring a second width b2 at the circumferential position,
increasing the first width b1 of the first vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position having the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser that is larger than the circumferential average value α1avg, thus acquiring a second width b2 at the circumferential position, and,
at the same time making a circumferential average value b2y of the second width b2 a same value of the width by of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor or to be a value close to the width by, thereby acquiring distribution of the second width b2 of a vaneless diffuser of a second centrifugal compressor in the circumferential direction;
(6) repeating step (4) and step (5) until the circumferential distribution of the width b of the diffuser can be obtained so that a minimum value αmin of the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction becomes larger than a predetermined critical airflow angle; and
(7) based on the distribution of the width b of the diffuser in the circumferential direction obtained at step (6), acquiring the centrifugal compressor.
In the above method, the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser is defined as an angle between projection velocity V obtained by projecting air velocity at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis and a circumferential direction at a corresponding circumferential position.
The present invention includes a vaneless diffuser having a width having a non-axisymmetric distribution in a circumferential direction, and thus the non-axisymmetry of the flow field of the fluid inside the centrifugal compressor can be reduced. This can then suppress stall of the vaneless diffuser of the centrifugal compressor, and so a stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor can be expanded.
The following describes embodiments of the present invention, with reference to the drawings, thus clarifying additional aspects and advantages of the present invention.
The following describes embodiments of the present invention in detail. The drawings illustrate the embodiments, where the same or similar elements or the same or similar functions are designated by the same or similar reference numerals. The following embodiments described with reference to the drawings are for illustration purposes and for merely explanation of the present invention, and are not to be regarded as restrictive.
In the following descriptions of the present invention, the terms such as “inside”, “outside”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “above”, “below”, “top” and “bottom” represent directions or positional relationships based on the directions or positional relationships in the drawings, which are merely for explanatory convenience of the present invention and do not necessarily require the specific directional structure and operations of the present invention, and thus these terms are not to be regarded as restrictive in the present invention.
Referring now to
As shown in
During an operation, the impeller 2 rotates about the rotation axis 3, thus sucking fluid into the centrifugal compressor along the direction of the arrow of
The centrifugal compressor according to one embodiment of the present invention is designed so that the width of the vaneless diffuser 4 has a non-axisymmetric distribution in the circumferential direction, whereby non-axisymmetry in the flow field of the fluid inside the centrifugal compressor can be reduced. This can then suppress stall of the vaneless diffuser 4 of the centrifugal compressor, and so the stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor can be expanded.
As shown in
In one embodiment of the present invention, the vaneless diffuser 4 has a width b at a circumferential position having an airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser that is smaller than a circumferential average value thereof, and the width b is smaller than a width at another circumferential position having an airflow angle α that is the circumferential average value (i.e., the average value of the airflow angle α in the circumferential direction) or more. Herein, as shown in
This embodiment designs the vaneless diffuser based on the principle that the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position and the width b of the vaneless diffuser at the corresponding position have the relationship of tan α=c/b, where c is one constant corresponding to the circumferential direction.
The centrifugal compressor according to one embodiment of the present invention is provided with an annular cap 5 and an annular disk 6 between the first casing 11 and the second casing 12 in the radial direction. The vaneless diffuser 4 is defined as a flow channel provided between the annular cap 5 and the annular disk 6. The first casing 11, the second casing 12 and the annular cap 5 are integrally formed, and the annular disk 6 is detachably mounted on the first casing 11 and the second casing 12.
Specifically, as shown in
To solve the aforementioned problem, the centrifugal compressor according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a vaneless diffuser having a width b that is distributed asymmetrically in the circumferential direction and that is not changed in the radial direction at the same circumferential position. Specifically, the vaneless diffuser should be designed to have a smaller width b at a circumferential position having a small airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser. The relationship between the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser at the circumferential position and the width b of the vaneless diffuser at the corresponding position, i.e., tan α=c/b, decreases the value of the width b of the vaneless diffuser at a circumferential position originally having small airflow angle α and so increases the airflow angle α.
Such a configuration of the vaneless diffuser having an asymmetric width in the circumferential direction acts so as to weaken the original non-axisymmetry of the airflow angle α at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction. This can effectively increase the minimum airflow angle α in the circumferential direction and so can suppress stall of the vaneless diffuser at a low flow rate, and further can expand the stable operating range of the centrifugal compressor.
Referring next to
The method for manufacturing a centrifugal compressor according to one embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps.
(1) As shown in
(2) As shown in
Herein, the airflow angle αy at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser is defined as an angle between the projection velocity V (i.e., velocity that is obtained by vertical-projecting the three-dimensional air velocity on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis) obtained by projecting the air velocity (i.e., three-dimensional air velocity represented with three-dimensional vector) at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser on the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis and the direction of a tangent line (i.e., circumferential direction) at the corresponding circumferential position (the same applies to the airflow angles α, α1).
(3) Based on the design principle described in the above embodiment, i.e., based on tan α=c/b, the width by of the vaneless diffuser is appropriately decreased at each circumferential position having the airflow angle αy at the inlet of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor that is smaller than the circumferential average value αyavg, thus acquiring a first width b1 at the circumferential position.
Similarly, based on tan α=c/b, the width by of the vaneless diffuser is appropriately increased at each circumferential position having the airflow angle αy at the inlet of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor that is larger than the circumferential average value αyavg, thus acquiring a first width b1 at the circumferential position.
For such setting of the first width b1, the circumferential average value b1y of the first width b1 is set so as to be the same value of the width by of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor or to be a value close to the width by.
As a result, the distribution of the first width b1 in the circumferential direction of the vaneless diffuser of the first centrifugal compressor (hereinafter called a first vaneless diffuser) can be obtained. Then, the circumferential average value b1y of the first width b1 and the width by of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor are set to be substantially the same, whereby stable performance of the first centrifugal compressor is assured.
(4) Based on the result of the first width b1 (i.e., the circumferential distribution of the first width b1) at Step (3), the distribution of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser of the first centrifugal compressor in the circumferential direction is obtained by numerical simulation or experiment, the circumferential average value α1avg of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser is calculated, and the performance of the first centrifugal compressor is obtained by a performance test of the centrifugal compressor. Then, the obtained performance of the first centrifugal compressor is compared with the performance of the symmetric centrifugal compressor as the prototype acquired at Step (2).
(5) Based on the distribution of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction at Step (4), the first width b1 of the first vaneless diffuser is appropriately decreased at each circumferential position having the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser that is smaller than the circumferential average value α1avg, thus acquiring a second width b2 at the circumferential position.
Similarly, the width b1 of the first vaneless diffuser is appropriately increased at each circumferential position having the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser that is larger than the circumferential average value α1avg, thus acquiring a second width b2 at the circumferential position.
For such setting of the second width b2, the circumferential average value b2y of the second width b2 is set so as to be the same value of the width by of the vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor as the prototype or to be a value close to the width by.
In this way, the distribution of the second width b2 in the circumferential direction of the vaneless diffuser of the second centrifugal compressor can be obtained. Then, the circumferential average value b2y of the second width b2 and the width by of the prototypical vaneless diffuser of the symmetric centrifugal compressor are set to be substantially the same, whereby stable performance of the second centrifugal compressor is assured.
(6) Step (4) and Step (5) are repeated until the circumferential distribution of the width b of the diffuser can be obtained so that a minimum value αmin of the airflow angle α1 at the inlet of the first vaneless diffuser in the circumferential direction becomes larger than a predetermined critical airflow angle, thus repeating correction of the width of the vaneless diffuser, while acquiring performance of a corresponding centrifugal compressor newly corrected by the performance test of the centrifugal compressor. Then, the obtained performance is compared with the performance of the symmetric centrifugal compressor as the prototype acquired at Step (2), thus checking whether each correction brings an advantageous effect for the performance of the centrifugal compressor.
Herein, during the repeating of Step (4) and Step (5), Step (4) is repeated, based on the distribution of the second width b2 in the circumferential direction that is obtained at the immediately preceding Step (5), rather than based on the distribution of the first width b1 in the circumferential direction.
Herein, the predetermined critical airflow angle is specifically determined depending on the type of the centrifugal compressor.
(7) Based on the distribution of the width b of the vaneless diffuser 4 in the circumferential direction shown in
The aforementioned centrifugal compressor and method for manufacturing the same according to one embodiment are based on one type of a symmetric centrifugal compressor as the prototype, and the present invention is not limited to this. Those who skilled in the art can understand that based on different types of symmetric centrifugal compressors as the prototype, corresponding centrifugal compressors of different types including a vaneless diffuser having a non-axisymmetric width b can be obtained. Any centrifugal compressor and a method for manufacturing the same that are obtained by modifying a symmetric centrifugal compressor as the prototype by the same or a similar method as the above principle are included in the scope of the protection of the present invention.
Other configurations and operations of the centrifugal compressor according to one embodiment of the present invention are all known for those skilled in the art, and so their detailed descriptions are omitted. In the description of the present specification, “one embodiment”, “partial embodiment”, “conceptual embodiment”, “illustration”, “specific illustration” or “partial illustration” and the like as referential expressions represent specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in the embodiment or the illustration, meaning that they are at least included in one embodiment or illustration of the present invention. In the present specification, these expressions do not always represent the same embodiment or illustration. The specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described may be combined in an appropriate form in any one or a plurality of embodiments or illustrations.
That is the description of the present invention, and those skilled in the art may change, alter, replace and modify the above-stated embodiments variously in the range without departing from the principle and the technical idea of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and any and all equivalents thereof.
1: volute casing, 2: impeller, 3: rotation axis, 4: vaneless diffuser, 5: annular cap, 6: annular disk, 11: first casing, 12: second casing, 41: inlet of vaneless diffuser, 42: outlet of vaneless diffuser
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201110070488.1 | Mar 2011 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2012/057136 | 3/21/2012 | WO | 00 | 11/29/2013 |
