Proceedings of ASME 2012 Gas Turbine India Conference December 1, 2012, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

GTIndia2012-9676
NON-AXISYMMETRIC FLOW STRUCTURE IN VANELESS DIFFUSER OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR FOR TURBOCHARGERS
LAN Chuanjie, ZHENG Xinqian* State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China Email: zhengxq@tsinghua.edu.cn TAMAKI Hideaki Turbo Machinery and Engine Technology Department, IHI Corporation, Yokohama 2358501, Japan

ABSTRACT Turbocharger technology is widely used in internal combustion engines. With the downsizing of internal combustion engines and the introduction of strict emission regulations, there is urgent demand for turbochargers featuring centrifugal compressors with a wide flow range. The flow in a centrifugal compressor of a turbocharger is non-axisymmetric due to the inherent asymmetry of the discharge volute. The asymmetric flow field inside the diffuser has great influence on the performance of centrifugal compressor. In order to develop a flow control method that facilitates a wider flow range of turbocharger compressors, further understanding of the asymmetric flow structure is very important. The main subject of this study is to reveal the asymmetrical characteristics of the flow field in the vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor followed by a volute. Oil flow visualizations and numerical simulations were used. The results of the numerical simulations are consistent with that of the oil flow visualizations near choke and at designed flow rate. The results show that a dual-zone mode asymmetric flow structure exists near the shroud of the vaneless diffuser at near choke condition. A bifurcation point at the volute tongue that divides the flow and creates two distinct flow patterns was found. The asymmetry of the flow structure near the hub was much less significant than that near the shroud. At the design flow rate, asymmetric flow patterns are found neither near shroud nor near hub. At near surge condition, the pattern of the oil flow traces near the shroud is very different from those near choke. INTRODUCTION Energy saving and environmental protection are two of the hottest topics nowadays. Internal combustion engines consume 25% of the global energy. Turbocharging can improve an engines power and efficiency. At the same time it can decrease the emission of CO2 and NOx. To achieve further downsizing and power improvement for diesel engines, the tendency is to 1

design turbochargers with ever higher pressure-ratio [1, 2]. The increase in the pressure ratio causes the flow to be transonic and decreases the stable flow range of centrifugal compressors. Extending stable flow range has thus been a key issue in research and development of turbochargers for diesel engines [3, 4]. Compared to diesel engines, gasoline engines do not demand as high a pressure ratio. Yet gasoline engines exhibit a wide speed range. Therefore they need a large stable operation range when the centrifugal compressor is operated in a low pressure-ratio area. Extending the centrifugal compressors stable flow range is hence also a key issue for the gasoline engines. The static pressure around the volute is assumed to be circumferentially constant at the design speed of the centrifugal compressor. However, the static pressure will not remain constant when the compressor is operated in off-design condition. When the flow rate is higher than the design flow rate, the pressure will decrease in direction of rotation beginning from the volute inlet. In that case the volute will act as a nozzle. In contrast, when the flow rate is lower than the design flow rate, the pressure will increase in direction of rotation and then the volute will act as a diffuser [5]. It has been reported that the asymmetric flow field inside the diffuser and the volute has great influence on the flow field in the impeller and the diffuser [6, 7]. In 1986, Sideris et al. [5] discovered the asymmetric distribution of the static pressure in the vaneless diffuser and the impeller. In their measurements, the flow field became more asymmetric upstream and the phase difference increased as the flow rate became larger. Sorokes et al. [6] carried out a detailed measurement of the asymmetric flow field. They found that there is asymmetry both at the inlet and the outlet of impeller. The asymmetric inlet conditions mean asymmetric inlet flow angles, thus stall occurs locally, at single passage inlets, before the impeller inlet flow stalls as a whole. Hillewaert et al. [8]

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used numerical methods to study the asymmetric flow phenomena. They found the static pressure distorted strongly near the volute tongue. That caused part of the fluid to flow directly into the suction side of the volute tongue. Gu et al., on the other hand, reported that there is no phase shift of the flow distortion in the vaneless diffuser and impeller [9]. Their findings differed because the instability factor caused by the volute-impeller interaction can be neglected when the Strouhal number is small enough. Zheng et al [10] measured the detailed static pressure distribution in the vaneless diffuser of a high pressure ratio centrifugal compressor in 2010. They found that the static pressure distribution exhibited a minimun 90 degree downstream of the tongue. In contrast, a maximum of the pressure distribution was found there near choke condition. Overall, the research done by Zheng et al [11, 12] shows that the asymmetric flow has an important impact on the flow stability of a turbocharger compressor. The relative restriction of the stable flow range due to the asymmetric flow can be up to 47 percent. In order to develop a flow control method that facilitates a wider flow range of turbocharger compressors, further understanding of the asymmetric flow structure is very important. To that end, this paper analyzes the flow field structure in a vaneless diffuser of a turbocharger compressor by using oil visualizations and numerical simulations. 2 RESEARCH METHODS 2.1 Experiment Methods. The outlet diameter of the analyzed impeller is 62 mm and the rated speed is 120000 rpm. More parameters can be seen in table 1; the compressor map is depicted in Fig. 1. The three small circles in Fig.1 show the conditions referred to in this paper as near choke condition, design condition and near surge condition. Table 1 Geometry parameters of compressor parameters Designed rotational speed Inlet diameter Exit diameter Inlet diameter of diffuser Outlet diameter of diffuser Blade number value 120,000 rpm 40.9 mm 62.15 mm 70 mm 100 mm 6+6

Fig. 1 Compressor performance by experiments This study used oil visualization to reveal the asymmetric flow field in the vaneless diffuser. A paint consisting of a mix of oil and powder was brushed on the diffuser surfaces. After the air flow blew off the oil, powder stayed on surface recording the flow movement [13]. Investigating the oil flow traces (oil map) visualized by the powder, flow field features can be recognized. These include flow direction, separation, vortices, and so on. Although oil visualization has been widely used in wind tunnel experiments, it is hard to conduct because of the high air flow speed and high temperature. The experimental procedure chosen in this research was the following: (a) Chose suitable oil, powder and other additives. Mixed them together to obtain a mixture with high viscosity, uniformity and low volatility. (b) Brushed the mixture on the surface of vaneless diffuser. (c) Accelerated the compressor to a predetermined condition, kept it there for some minutes and then stopped it quickly. (d) Disassembled the compressor, took a photo of the oil map and analyzed it. In this paper, silicone oil was chosen as the solvent, titanium dioxide as the powder, and oleic acid as the dispersant. Compared to other oils, silicone oil can keep a good viscosity in high temperature and high shear stress the environment inside compressor. Oil viscosity and mixture ratio,have significantly influence on the clarity of the oil map. To get a clear oil map, this study prepared several mixtures with different ratio and observed how each component affected the properties of the mixture in

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different temperature. Mixtures of the preliminary test can be seen in table 2. Table 2 Mixtures in preliminary test Oil viscosity (cps) 500 1000 2000 Oil: Powder (volume ratio) 1:1 1:1 1:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 1:0 1:0 1:0 Oleic acid (drop) 5~6 5~6 5~6 2~3 2~3 2~3 Temperature ( ) 100 100 100 20 20 20 (a) Volume ratio =1:1

The preliminary tests revealed that a high oil viscosity can improve the viscosity of the mixture, without having an influence on its uniformity. The viscosity of the mixture became higher as the share of titanium dioxide was increased, while its uniformity decreased at the same time. The properties of the mixture were sensitive to oleic acid: the mixtures viscosity intensively dropped and its uniformity intensively increased when only little of the oleic acid was added. The influence of each component on the volatility was opposite to the viscosity. Table 3 shows the detailed results. In addition, the temperature has no influence on the results. Table 3 Influence of each component on properties Component Viscosity of silicon oil Quantity of titanium dioxide Quantity of oleic acid uniformity No correlation Negative correlation Positive correlation viscosity Positive correlation Positive correlation Negative correlation volatility Negative correlation Negative correlation Positive correlation

(b) Volume ratio =2:1

It is very important to choose suitable mixtures for researched operation conditions. For high speed operation conditions, the mixture with high viscous oil and more titanium dioxide should be chosen. For the experiment with 120,000 rpm, this study prepared several mixtures, composed of silicon oil (1000 cps, 2000 cps), titanium dioxide (different quantities), oleic acid (different quantities), for the mixture selection test. Figure 2 shows the results of the mixture selection test with different mixture compositions when the silicon oils viscosity is kept at 2000 cps. The volume ratio given below the figures is the volume ratio of the silicon oil to the titanium dioxide. The final composition of the mixture used at 120,000 rpm was 2000 cps silicon oil, silicon oil: titanium dioxide = 2:1 (volume ratio), 2~3 drops oleic acid.

(c) Volume ratio =3:1 Fig. 2 Influence of component ratio on oil maps clarity (silicon oil: titanium dioxide) In order to get clear oil map, the holding time is also important. If the holding time is too long, air flow will sweep off the powder. If the holding time is too short, the experiment cannot get a clear oil map. The holding time selection test was conducted with the selected mixture as described above. Figure 3 shows the influence of the holding time on the clarity of the oil map. Accelerating the compressor only swept away the surface layer and had no interference on the clarity of the oil map. Three minutes was found to be a suitable holding time.

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(a) 0 minutes

(b) 3 minutes

forth-order Runge-Kutta scheme for the temporal discretization. The Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) 1-equation model was applied for turbulence closure [14]. The S-A model features numerational accuracy for the calculation of the turbulent flow in the viscous boundary layer, separated flows of small or medium scale and free shear turbulent flow except for jet [15]. All passages of the impeller, the vaneless diffuser and the volute were modeled in the simulation, as shown in Fig. 4 (a). The flow field in the impeller was calculated in a rotating coordinate system, while the vaneless diffuser and volutes flow field was in absolute coordinate system. The interface between impeller and volute was modeled as frozen rotor, thats because frozen rotor can simulate the asymmetry of flow structure but mixing plane approach cant. The size of the impeller/diffuser grid was 5,271,120. Research showed that grid independence could be insured if the gird number of impeller/diffuser was larger than 350,000 when S-A model was chosen. The grid satisfied a minimal grid quality defined by measures of orthogonality (especially at the block boundaries; minimum 26.5), relative grid spacing in boundary layers (expansion ratio3), and grid skewness (aspect ratio 1000). To mesh the overhung volute, a butterfly mesh was applied in order to augment orthogonality of the boundary layer cells. Total grid number of the volute was 1,025,025. The grid satisfied a minimal grid quality as defined by measures of orthogonality (especially at the block boundaries; minimum 13), relative grid spacing in boundary layers (expansion ratio 5), and grid skewness (aspect ratio 1000). In Fig. 4 (b), a mesh configuration at the volute exit is displayed in order to show the butterfly mesh approach. The first cell width near wall was set to be 0.003mm, thus y+ could be lower than 10 to S-A models requirement. Total temperature and total pressure together with the velocity direction were imposed as inlet boundary conditions; static pressure was set as outlet boundary condition. No-slip and impermeability conditions were imposed on the solid walls.

(c) 5 minutes Fig. 3 Influence of holding time on oil map clarity 2.2 Numerical Methods. Numerical simulation was employed to investigate the detailed flow field in the compressor. The solver applied a CFD code based on a 3-D steady compressible finite volume scheme to solve Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes equations in conservative formulation. The central scheme was used for the spatial discretization, the (a) Computational grid of all the passages of the impeller with diffuser and volute

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(a)Butterfly meshing approach in volute cross-section Fig. 4 Computational mesh in detail 3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 3.1 Near Choke. Figure 5 shows the results of the oil visualizations near choke on shroud and hub. On shroud, the flow near the shroud of the vaneless diffuser is divided in two, a state which will be called dual-zone mode flow in this paper. The position of the volute inlet is defined as 0 (360) of and the angle of in a circumferential direction increases towards the volute outlet. The positions from =0 to 360are shown in Fig. 5 at every 90. The flow is separated into two parts and forms a bifurcation near the tongue, at =45. The radial velocity at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser at from 45 to 180 is much smaller than the circumferential velocity, which results in a large flow angle. In these areas, the fluid travels along a long flow path in the diffuser and enters the volute at = 90 to 225. In contrast, the fluid at the range from 180 to 360 has a smaller flow angle at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser than the above region. The length of the flow path to the volute inlet here is much shorter. On hub, although the oil map shows an asymmetric flow pattern, the asymmetry is much weaker than. that on the shroud surface. (b) Oil map on diffuser hub near choke Fig. 5 Oil map near choke at 120,000 rpm Figure 6 shows the results of the numerical simulations. It reveals the evolution of the flow in the vaneless diffuser from the shroud to the hub. 100% span and 0% span correspond to the shroud and the hub of the vaneless diffuser, respectively. The color contours indicate the static pressure, while the black lines show the streamlines. The pressure reaches its highest value at =90. Therefore, the pressure rises at from 0 to 90 and falls in the range from 90 to 360. The most part of the volute acts as the nozzle except an area just downstream of the tongue. The asymmetric distribution of pressure results in asymmetric flow field near the shroud. The flow patterns obtained by the numerical simulations agree with the oil map qualitatively. The dual-zone mode and the bifurcation can be confirmed in the results of the numerical simulations. The effect of the asymmetric pressure distribution on the streamline decreases progressively from the shroud to the hub. It is hard to see obvious asymmetry in the streamlines from 0% span to 50% span. The difference in the streamlines between hub and shroud is due to the jet-wake flow pattern at the outlet of impeller [16]. The radial velocity in the jet is much larger than in the wake. On the other hand, the circumferential velocity in the wake is much larger than that in the jet. The wake and the jet mostly occupy the shroud and hub sides of the diffuser, respectively. The fluid near shroud at from 45 to 180 is turned inward to balance the adverse pressure gradient from the centrifugal force generated by the curvature of the streamline. The fluid follows a long path in the diffuser, and some fluid is even turned backwards. The adverse pressure gradient becomes weak at from 180 to 360 due to the nozzle effect caused by the volute, so the curvature of the streamline increases. Hence the fluid flows into volute rapidly. The fluid near hub is also turned to inward at from 45 to 180. However the fluid near the hub belongs to the jet and has a much larger radial velocity and the flow angle at the inlet of the vaneless diffuser is much smaller than near the shroud. The change of length of the flow

(a) Oil map on diffuser shroud near choke

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path near hub is thus much smaller than that at the shroud. This can be understood easily by differentiating the logarithmic spiral with respect to the flow angle at the diffuser inlet. The reason why there is not obvious asymmetry in the streamlines from 0% span to 50% span is the small impeller discharge flow angle.

(b) Oil map on hub of diffuser near on design condition (a) 90% span (b)75% span Fig. 7 Oil map on design condition at 120,000 rpm Figure 8 shows the results of the numerical simulations on design condition. The results of the numerical simulations agree well with the oil map. The static pressure is slightly asymmetric in the diffuser. But a high pressure region exists locally near the tongue. The incoming fluid from the diffuser inlet at = 270 to 360 passes through this area. When it passes through this high pressure region, the fluid is turned inwards and takes a longer flow path. The flow field near hub is almost symmetric, as in the oil map.

(c) 50% span

(d) 10% span

Fig. 6 Numerical results for the static pressure distribution and streamlines near choke at 120,000 rpm (from shroud to hub) 3.2 Design Condition. At the design condition, an axisymmetric flow structure in the diffuser is to be expected since the asymmetric pressure distribution largely disappears in volute. Yet it is very hard to find the design point of the volute where the asymmetric pressure distribution disappears, both in experiment and simulation because the impellers design condition deviates from the design point of the volute. Figure 7 shows the oil map at design condition. There is still some asymmetry near the shroud. Near the hub, the asymmetric flow pattern disappears.

(a)90%span

(b)75%span

(c)50%span

(d)10%span

Fig. 8 Numerical results of static pressure distribution and streamline on design condition at 120000 rpm (from shroud to hub) 3.3 Near Surge. When the operating condition approaches surge, the oil map on the shroud shows a very different asymmetric flow structure from that near choke. Figure 9 shows the oil map. Although the flow rate decreases, tangential angles of the oil flow traces at the diffuser exit near surge are smaller than those at the design condition. On shroud surface as

(a) Oil map on shroud of diffuser on design condition

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shown in Fig. 9 (a), a part of fluid at diffuser inlet in = 0 to 45 flows into volute in = 45 to 90. Another fluid at diffuser inlet in = 0 to 45 flows into the volute in = 90 to 180 together with the fluid at diffuser inlet in = 45 to 90. Because the mixture was not swept off between the inlet and the middle of the diffuser near the hub, it is hard to see the oil flow traces in this region, as shown in Fig. 9 (b). However a few oil traces which flow counterclockwise from inner to outer radius can be found beyond this region, as shown in Fig. 9 (c). The impeller rotational direction is clockwise in Fig. 9 (c). This implies the possibility of the reverse flow from the diffuser exit (volute inlet). As the reverse flow will accelerate on its way inwards with decreasing radius, the inward flow might be able to remove some of the mixture in the downstream part of the diffuser. This reverse flow might increase the flow passing through the shroud side and reduce the flow angle near shroud.

(c) Oil map on hub of diffuser near surge Fig. 9 Oil map near surge at 120000 rpm Figure 10 shows the corresponding results of the numerical simulations. The streamlines obtained by the numerical simulations are quite different from those revealed by the oil visualization. Although the impeller rotational direction is counterclockwise in Fig. 10, the streamlines of 90% span is clockwise. Hence the reverse flow occurs at 90% span. The streamline of 75% span shows the recirculation flow in the diffuser. The volute acts as a diffuser near surge. The static pressure at = 180 to 360 is much higher than that at = 0 to180. Some fluids at 90% span in = 180 to 360 are pushed back from the diffuser exit to diffuser inlet. The symptom of the reverse flow near hub cannot be seen in Fig. 10. The failure to simulate the reverse flow near hub might be a cause of the difference between the oil map and the numerical result. An unsteady numerical simulation is probably necessary at this condition.

(a) Oil map on shroud of diffuser near surge

(a)90% span

(b)75% span

(b) Oil map on hub of diffuser near surge

(c)50% span

(d)10% span

Fig. 10 Numerical results of static pressure distribution and streamlines near surge at 120000 rpm (from shroud to hub)

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4 CONCLUSIONS AND REMARKS This study used oil visualizations and numerical simulations to investigate the asymmetric flow structure in the vaneless diffuser of a centrifugal compressor with a volute. The following conclusions can be derived: (1) The method of oil flow visualization was carefully constructed. The results of the oil flow visualizations could be explained successfully by the numerical simulations, except at near surge condition. An unsteady numerical simulation is probably necessary at near surge condition. (2) At near choke condition, a dual-zone asymmetric flow structure exists near the shroud. A bifurcation occurs near the volutes tongue. The asymmetry of the streamline is weaker near the hub than near the shroud. This is caused by the difference of the flow angle at the diffuser inlet between shroud and hub. (3) At designed condition, the flow in the vaneless diffuser is almost symmetric because the static pressure distribution of the volute is more axisymmetric as the operating condition approaches the volutes design condition. (4) At near surge condition, the pattern of the oil map near the shroud is very different compared to that near choke. Although a clear oil map could not be obtained near the hub, a few oil traces were found that suggest reverse flow from the volute. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51176087). REFERENCES [1] Arnold, S. D., 2004, Turbocharging Technologies to Meet Critical Performance Demands of Ultra-low Emissions Diesel Engines, SAE Paper No.2004-011359. Rodgers, C., 2001, Turbocharging a High Altitude UAV C.I. Engine, AIAA paper No.2001-3970. Krain, H., Karpinski, G., and Beversdorff, M., 2001, Flow Analysis in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Rotor Using 3-Component Laser Velocimetry, ASME Paper No.2001-GT-0315. Zheng, X. Q., Zhang, Y. J., and Yang, M. Y., Research and Development on Transonic Compressor of High Pressure Ratio Turbocharger for Vehicle Internal Combustion Engines, Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci, 2010, 53 (7): 1817-1823. Sideris, M. T., and Van den Braembussche, R. A., 1987, Influence of a Circumferential Exit Pressure Distortion

on the Flow in an Impeller and Diffuser, Journal of Turbomachinery, 109 (1), pp. 4854. [6] Sorokes, J. M., Borer, C. J., and Koch, J. M., 1998, Investigation of the Circumferential Static Pressure NonUniformity Caused by a Centrifugal Compressor Discharge Volute, ASME Paper No. 98-GT-326. Hagelstein, D., Van den Braembussche, R. Keiper, R., and Rautenberg, M., 1997, Experimental Investigation of the Circumferential Pressure Distortion in Centrifugal Compressor Stages, ASME Paper No. 97-GT-50. Hillewaert, K., and Van den Braembussche, R. A., 1999, Numerical Simulation of Impeller-Volute Interaction in Centrifugal Compressor, Journal of Turbomachinery, 121, pp.603608. Gu, F. H., Engeda, A., Cave, M., and Liberti, J. L. D., 2001, A Numerical Investigation on the Volute/Diffuser Interaction Due to the Axial Distortion at the Impeller Exit, Journal of Fluids Engineering, 123 (3), pp. 475483.

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