Investigation of Advanced CFD Methods and Their Application to Centrifugal Compressors

The past decade has seen considerable growth in the application of CFD to centrifugal compressors. As computational methods applicable to compressors have improved, and computing power has increased dramatically, so has the scope of application. Impellers, diffusers, return channels, inlets, volutes and other components are now routinely analyzed, sometimes simultaneously. With the expansion of CFD, the user is now faced with many choices in establishing the most effective and efficient way to perform a given analysis. Advice, guidance and reports as to the experiences of other practitioners are of considerable value. This paper aims to investigate and compare relevant computational factors such as mesh type and density, and CFD solver discretization scheme as applied to the impeller, vaneless diffuser and volute of a centrifugal compressor.Copyright © 2002 by ASME