Compressors

Centrifugal Compressors
• A centrifugal compressor is a radial flow rotodynamic fluid machine that uses mostly air as the working fluid and utilizes
the mechanical energy imparted to the machine from outside to increase the total internal energy of the fluid mainly in the
form of increased static pressure head.
• A centrifugal compressor essentially consists of three components. 1. inlet casing 2. impeller disc and impeller (a rotor having
a number of vanes or blades), 3. A diffuser (with and without vanes or both) 4. volute casing

Single entry and single outlet centrifugal compressor

Principle of operation:

• Air is sucked into the impeller eye and whirled outwards at high speed by the impeller disk.

• At any point in the flow of air through the impeller the centripetal acceleration is obtained by a pressure head so that the static

pressure of the air increases from the eye to the tip of the impeller.

• The remainder of the static pressure rise is obtained in the diffuser, where the very high velocity of air leaving the

impeller tip is reduced to almost the velocity with which the air enters the impeller eye.

• Usually, about half of the total pressure rise occurs in the impeller and the other half in the diffuser. Owing to the action

of the vanes in carrying the air around with the impeller, there is a slightly higher static pressure on the forward side of the

vane than on the trailing face.

• The air will thus tend to flow around the edge of the vanes in the clearing space between the impeller and the casing.

This results in a loss of efficiency and the clearance must be kept as small as possible
CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR WORKING AND EFFECT OF BLADE SHAPE ON PERFORMANCE

Here the compression of air with the centrifugal motion of the impeller
SURGING AND CHOCKING IN CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR
What is Surging?
✓ Surging is a dynamic instability that occurs in centrifugal compressors when the flow rate drops too low. This leads to
a sudden, often violent reversal of flow or oscillation in the airflow direction.

✓ When a compressor is forced to operate at a very low flow rate, it can’t generate enough forward pressure to overcome the
system’s back pressure (the pressure downstream that resists the flow). When this happens, air briefly reverses direction and
flows backward through the compressor.

✓ The result is a rapid cycle of the airflow repeatedly reversing and then trying to move forward again, which we call
surging. This oscillation continues until the compressor flow rate is stabilized at a level that can maintain forward flow.

Choking

• In compressors, choking happens at high flow rates. As the airflow speed reaches the speed of sound (also called sonic
velocity) in the narrowest passages of the compressor, it reaches a maximum flow rate.

• Once this sonic speed is reached, any further attempts to increase the airflow rate or compressor speed will not increase
the flow past this point. The flow is said to be “choked” because it can’t move any faster through these passages, like hitting
a maximum capacity limit.
SLIP AND SLIP FACTOR FOR COMPRESSOR AND PUMP
✓ Slip in centrifugal compressors refers to the
difference between the ideal (theoretical) flow
angle and the actual flow angle at the impeller
blades.

✓ This phenomenon occurs because the fluid

(usually air or gas) does not perfectly follow
the designed path dictated by the blade
geometry due to factors like viscosity,
turbulence, and inertial effects.

Mathematically, the Slip factor denoted by

'σ' is defined as the ratio of the actual &
ideal values of the whirl velocity
components at the exit of the impeller.
Pre-whirl
Prewhirl in a centrifugal compressor refers to the phenomenon where the
incoming airflow is given a tangential or rotational motion before it enters
the impeller. This prewhirl can significantly influence the performance and
efficiency of the compressor
Enthalpy-Entropy plot

𝑃03

03

𝑇01 , 𝑃01 = 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠

𝑇1 , 𝑃1 = 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 or actual properties (with loss)

𝑇2 , 𝑃3 = 𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 (without losses)

For perfect gases
We have for isentropic process,

𝑃03
03
We know that there is no work involved during the process of diffuser, i.e. 2 to 3

Above two relation can be used to calculate the stagnation pressure ratio between the
impeller inlet to impeller exit and impeller inlet to diffuser outlet respectively
Energy balance between the impeller inlet (1–1) and the diffuser exit (3–3),
The diffuser design should be such that the exit velocity
from the diffuser must be equal to the inlet absolute
velocity to the impeller
 Some of the power supplied by the impeller is used in
overcoming losses which have a breaking effect such as disc
friction or windage and the power input is therefore, modified
by a factor

Losses in a Centrifugal Compressor

Energy is imparted to the air (gas) by the impeller. Therefore, the absolute velocity of the gas at the impeller exit (V2) is high,
which is reduced to a lower velocity, V3, in the diffuser

✓ It is a diffuser where the gas is diffused before it leaves the stage through volute casing.
✓ Static pressure rise takes place in the vaneless diffuser simply due to the diffusion process from a smaller diameter d2 to a
larger diameter d3 as shown in Figure
• An axial flow compressor is a power-absorbing turbomachine and also a pressure producing machine.

• The name itself indicates that the working fluid (air or gas) enters and leaves the compressor in an axial direction (i.e. u1 = u2 =
u).
• One row of rotor blades combined with the next row of stator blades constitutes a stage; the pressure ratio developed in a
stage is about 1.2.

• Depending upon the overall pressure ratio, the number of stages in a compressor is decided. At the inlet to the compressor, an
extra row of fixed vanes, called inlet guide vanes (IGV), are fitted. These vanes are also called upstream guide vanes
(UGV).

• These do not form part of the stage but are meant solely to guide the air at the correct angle onto the first row of moving
blades. The function of IGV is to change the axial direction of the approaching flow to the desired direction (𝛼1 ).
Therefore, the first stage experiences additional losses arising from flow through the guide vanes

It will be seen that as the fluid moves from stage to stage, the height of the blades
decreases, so that a constant axial velocity (Vf1 = Vf 2 = Vf 3 = Vf = constant) through the compressor is maintained
as the density increases from stage to stage
Let subscripts 1, 2 and 3 represent fluid entry into the rotor, exit from the rotor and exit from the stator respectively

From the velocity triangle at the exit

From Euler’s energy equation, we have