Nov 8, 2017
Design of Inlet Guide Vane (IGV) for Centrifugal Compressors
All centrifugal compressor designers want to achieve the highest efficiency as well as a wide operating range. With this in mind, the inlet guide vane (IGV) is a convenient and economical option for various applications.
IGVs are a series of blades circumferentially arranged at the inlet of the compressor, driven electronically or pneumatically. By adjusting the orientation of IGVs, the airflow enters the impeller in a different direction, therefore changing the flow behavior while affecting the passing mass flow rate (throttling). This can effectively reduce the power consumption to increase the compressor’s overall efficiency while avoiding surge to provide a better off-design working range.
The designer needs to optimize blade profile and positioning of the IGV for efficient operation of a compressor, which can be a tedious job if one does not have a handy tool. Figure 1 shows an example of the IGV working at different angles.
Figure 1. Example IGV Characteristic Curve
In AxSTREAM, people are able to add an IGV component before the centrifugal compressor impeller, which can provide different ways to edit its profile, such as:
- Directly accessing variables in the project (grid)
- Meridional coordinates (in viewer, 1D/2D streamline module)
- Axial profiler and blade design
Figure 2 shows the interface for adding an axial IGV to your compressor.
Figure 2 How to Insert Axial IGV in AxSTREAM
After setting all data information like tip/hub diameters, number of blades, clearance, stacking mode for 3D blade, etc., you will be able to see the flow path and 3D models in a graphic interface, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Flow Path and 3D Model of Centrifugal Compressor with Axial IGV
Then you can include the IGV in the calculation both in a 1D/2D module or a 3D CFD module. You can also create numerical experiments, comparing design and off-design performance with different IGV profiles and angle settings.
If you also want to take into account diffuser design, you can do so with different combinations of IGV/diffuser parameters. You could also run several tens of designs simultaneously in batch mode and automatically obtain the optimized design.
Contact us at Sales@Softinway.com for a demo of more AxSTREAM features for centrifugal compressor design.
References:
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2718&context=icec
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