Design of High-Speed Centrifugal Compressor for High-Speed Turbomachinery

Abstract

One of the most valuable type of compressors is centrifugal compressor. This project aims at the design of centrifugal compressor for a high-speed turbomachinery to meet certain objectives and requirements. Apart from the turbomachinery, centrifugal compressor finds its application in many industries which include aerospace system, refrigeration systems, turbochargers, and automobile. This work includes the design, flow analysis and structural analysis of the centrifugal compressor. Many pioneers of turbomachinery have worked on the centrifugal compressor which include Baljie, Robinson, Schultz. The design of centrifugal compressor remains one of the complex objectives in turbomachinery due to the variability of the parameters whose relations are mostly based on the assumption values. Similarly, there are many approaches to design a centrifugal compressor. Our approach includes the design of compressor through preliminary calculations of parameters given the required output parameters. The preliminary calculations are used to create CAD model in software such as CFTURBO. The model is verified through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in ANSYS with the help of CFX, Bladegen, and Turbo Grid. After gaining satisfactory results, the compressor was tested for structural integrity by performing Finite Element Analysis again using the software ANSYS. After conformance of the results to the required parameters, the model is 3D printed and a fully working prototype is made. Our verified results meet the 250 m/s velocity at the volute exit with structural integrity enough to sustain 20000 rpm in the form of structural steel. A centrifugal compressor design is a complex one, yet our design approach has made it to be an uncomplicated procedure. The concerned application industry will handle the centrifugal compressor according to its use from us.