Performance Prediction of a Centrifugal Compressor with Cooling Structure

Centrifugal compressors are widely used in turbochargers for vehicles and marine engines where high pressure-ratio is desired. High pressure ratio increases the temperature of the compressor blades, which negatively affects the performance of the compressor as well as the reliability. This paper presents the performance prediction for a high-pressure-ratio centrifugal compressor with cooling structure. The simulation of a compressor without a cooling structure has been validated by using experimental data. The analysis of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) shows that compressor with a cooling structure appears to better performance. The cooling structure reduces the temperature of main blades by about 19.1K at the design condition. The stable flow range has been expanded by 9.87% and the pressure ratio has been improved by 7.5%. In addition, the efficiency of the compressor also has been increased by about 0.8% averagely. The conclusion is that the cooling structure has an important influence on the compressor performance.