Suppression of Leading Edge Separation and Tip Leakage Flow in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller Using an Inverse Design Method Based on Meridional Viscous Flow Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a design concept for suppressing the leading edge separation and tip leakage flow is introduced in order to improve aerodynamic performance of a transonic centrifugal compressor. The aerodynamic design method used in the present study is an inverse design method based on a meridional viscous flow analysis. As the design concept, the blade loading distributions at the leading edge are reduced to decrease the incidence angles. In addition, the blade loading at the impeller tip side is suppressed to prevent the interaction between the leading edge separation and tip leakage vortex. The effectiveness of the design concept was evaluated by three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. The performance improvement was observed in the redesigned impeller compared with the conventional design impeller.