Design and Prototyping Micro Centrifugal Compressor for Ultra Micro Gas Turbine

Abstract

In order to investigate the design method for a micro centrifugal compressor, which is the most important component of an ultra micro gas turbine, an impeller having the outer diameter of 20mm was designed, manufactured and tested. The designed rotational speed is 500,000 rpm and the impeller has a fully 3-dimensional shape. The impeller was rotated at 250,000 rpm in the present study. The experimental results of the tested compressor with the vaned and the vaneless diffusers were compared. It was found that the vaned diffuser attained the higher flow rate than the vaneless diffuser at the maximum pressure ratio. In addition the maximum pressure ratio was higher for the diffuser having a larger diffuser divergence angle at the high flow rate. These results were compared with those obtained by the prediction method used at the design stage.