COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS TO INCREASE TIP CLEARANCE AND ITS EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE OF TURBOCHARGER CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR STAGE

Tip clearance between the blade tip and casing of a centrifugal compressor can be varied through two methods:by changing the blade height(M1)or by changing the casing diameter(M2). Numerical simulations are carried out to compare these two methods and their effect on the stage and impeller performance.The impeller and diffuser are connected through rotor stator boundary using frozen rotor approach.Overall stage performance and the flow configuration have been investigated for nine tip clearance levels from no gap to 1 mm.Impeller and diffuser performances are also pre- sented separately.It has been found that the overall and impeller performance are comparatively better for M1 below tip clearance of 0.5 mm whereas M2 is found advantageous above 0.5 mm of tip clear- ance.Both M1 and M2 show performance degradation with the increase in tip clearance.Two models have been proposed for the stage total pressure ratio and efficiency,which are found to be in agree- ment with experimental results.The impeller efficiency and the pressure ratio are found to be maxi- mum at tip clearance of 0.1 mm for both the cases however minimum diffuser effectiveness is also observed at the same clearance level.Diffuser effectiveness is found to be maximum at zero gap for both cases.As it is practically impossible to have zero gap for unshrouded impellers so it is concluded that the optimum thickness is 0.5 mm onwards for M1 and 0.5 mm for M2 in terms of diffuser effec- tiveness.Mass averaged flow parameters,entropy,blade loading diagram and relative pressure fields are presented,showing the loss production within the impeller passage with tip clearance.