Numerical Investigation of a Centrifugal Compressor With Holed Casing Treatment

Abstract

The holed casing treatment is a new type of casing treatment that has self-adaptability for a centrifugal compressor with unshrouded impeller. It was demonstrated experimentally and numerically that both the stall margin and the choked margin of the compressor were able to be expanded by the treatment. Numerical results indicate that there is reinjected flow in the holes when the compressor works at low flow rate conditions, and bypass flow at high flow rate conditions. The key principles for choosing the diameter and the radial position of the hole are presented in this paper. The hole’s diameter is an important parameter for the holed casing treatment. Five numerical cases with different diameters (1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.0 mm, 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm) were carried out to compare the results. The reinjected flow enters into the impeller passage periodically and it tends to increase when the hole diameter gets larger. In the case of 2.5 mm, both the stall margin increment and the efficiency of the compressor were the highest among the five cases. Unsteady simulations suggest that the reinjected flow is not only periodic in time but also periodic in circumferential direction. This is the reason why only 2% of the flow amounts would get 20% of the working range expansion.