39 07-05-19 Mihai Niculescu 02

Proceedings of the 8
th
International Symposium
on Experimental and Computational
Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows
Lyon, July 2007

Mihai Leonida NICULESCU: Ph.D. Student
http://www.lmfa.ec-lyon.fr/ISAIF8/
Paper reference : ISAIF8-00125
Detailed Investigation of an Atomizing Air Compressor
Mihai Leonida Niculescu Valentin Silivestru Georgel Vizitiu Bogdan Gherman
National Research & Development Institute for Gas Turbines COMOTI,
Iuliu Maniu 220 D, 061 126 Bucharest 6, Romania, P.O. 76, Phone: +4021 4340198; Fax: +4021 4340241
Sterian Dnil Corneliu Berbente
University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering,
Polizu 1-7, 011 061 Bucharest 1, Romania, Phone: +4021 4023814

The centrifugal atomizing air compressors are utilized in the industrial gas turbine as auxiliary systems in order to
increase the combustion efficiency. This solution seems to be widely used by General Electric although there is
very little documentation available at large public. The authors have not found any material that investigates the
aerodynamics of the centrifugal atomizing air compressors. For this reason, the authors consider that it is useful to
share their experience with other researchers.
Keywords: Atomizing Air Compressor, Impeller, Vaned Diffuser

Introduction
The atomizing air compressors are utilized in a closed
loop system between the turbine axial compressor dis-
charge and combustion chamber inlet of industrial gas
turbine. They receive their air supply from the discharge
of the turbine axial compressor. The atomizing air flow is
only a small portion, usually less than 5% of the total air
flow through the turbine. The role of the atomizing air
compressor is to boost the air pressure to the level re-
quired to obtain the energy required for proper atomizing
of the liquid fuel; usually the atomizing air compressor
pressure ratio is up to two. The atomizing air and fuel are
mixed together at the exit of the fuel nozzles and subse-
quently mixed with the main air flow in the combustion
chamber. Due to the lack of documentation with regard
the aerodynamics of centrifugal atomizing air compres-
sors, we have used the general compressor aerodynamic
books [1-2]
COMOTI has design and manufactured two atomizing
air compressors, one of them has three different vaned
diffusers whose vane angle at the leading edge are 18, 23
and 28 deg relative to tangential direction because it is
widespread industrial practice to combine an impeller
with different vaned diffusers in order to obtain the range
of operation required by customers [3]. These compres-
sors have tested in similitude conditions on a new test rig,
which still operates in an open circuit. Our research con-
cerning the atomizing air compressors was supervised,
approved and supported by the Romanian Education and
Research Ministry.
In order to increase the performance of its products,
COMOTI has developed in-house tools of designing cen-
trifugal compressors to increase their efficiency and us-
able range of flow rate at which they can operate and has
bought a license of Ansys CFX 10.0
2 Proceedings of the 8
th
International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows

Fig. 1 Industrial gas turbine with atomizing air compressor

One of the main objectives of this study is to investi-
gate the tip leakage flow that occurs in the impeller of
atomizing air compressor because it has a huge impact on
its performance.
Governing Equations
For a three-dimensional rotating Cartesian coordinate
system, the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
equations can be written in conservative form as [4-5]
( ) ( ) ( ) y y
x x z z
F G
F G F G Q
S
t x y z

+ + + =

(1)
where:
2 2 2
2 2
u
v
Q
w
W r
e

=

+

(2)
2
2
2
x y z
u v w
u p vu wu
F F F uv v p wv
uw vw w p
uI vI wI

+

= = = +

+

(3)

Nomenclature
A
area of cross-section normal to midspan
surface of impeller (m
2
)
Greek letters
b blade height (m)
angle relative to tangential
direction (rad)
C
p
static pressure recovery coefficient t physical timescale (s)
e internal energy (J/kg) polytropic efficiency
f
e
external acceleration (m/s
2
) flow coefficient
F
x
, F
y
, F
z
vectors of convective components of flux thermal conductivity (W/(m.K))
G
x
, G
y
, G
z
vectors of diffusive components of flux dynamic viscosity (kg/(m.s))
I rothalpy (m
2
/s
2
)
t
eddy viscosity (kg/(m.s))
M
u
peripheral Mach static density (kg/m
3
)
p

static pressure (Pa)

shear stress tensor (Pa)
P total pressure (Pa) angular velocity (rad/s)
R Gas conconstant (J/(kg.K)) Subscripts
r distance from the rotational axis (m) 1 impeller inlet
S vector of source term 2 impeller exit
s tip clearance (m) 3 vaned diffuser inlet
T static temperature (K) 4 vaned diffuser outlet
t time (s) t turbulent
u, v, w Cartesian components of velocity (m/s) ts total-to-static
V absolute velocity (m/s) tt total-to-total
W relative velocity (m/s) Superscript
x, y, z Cartesian coordinates tot total (laminar + turbulent)
Mihai Leonida NICULESCU et al. Detailed Investigation of an Atomizing Air Compressor 3

If we assume that the fluid is newtonian and the ther-
mal boundary layer is neglected, the diffusive flux G may
be written as
0
tot
xx
tot
xy
x
tot
xz
tot tot tot
xx xy xz
G
T
u v w k
x
+ + +

(4a)
0
tot
xy
tot
yy
y
tot
yz
tot tot tot
xy yy yz
G
T
u v w k
y
+ + +

(4b)
0
tot
xz
tot
yz
z
tot
zz
tot tot tot
xz yz zz
G
T
u v w k
z
+ + +

(4c)
According to the Boussinesq hypothesis, the shear
stresses
tot
may be written as
( )
2
2
3
tot
xx t
u v w
x y z

= +

(5a)
( )
2
2
3
tot
yy t
v u w
y x z

= +

(5b)
( )
2
2
3
tot
zz t
w v u
z y x

= +

(5c)
( )
tot tot
xy yx t
u v
y x

= = + +

(5d)
( )
tot tot
xz zx t
u w
z x

= = + +

(5e)
( )
tot tot
yz zy t
w v
y z

= = + +

(5f)
The Sutherlands formula can be used to determine the
dynamic viscosity as function of temperature, while the
eddy viscosity
t
is computed with a turbulence model.
For gases, the external force f
e
due to the gravitational
acceleration is very small, therefore it can be neglected.
Moreover, we can assume that the thermal conductivity is
the single heat source. If the Cartesian coordinate system
is rotating about z axis with constant angular-velocity ,
source term S could be written as
( )
( )
2
2
0
2
2
0
0
x v
S
y u

+

=

(6)
The pressure is obtained from the equation of state,
p RT = (7)
Numerical Simulation
The numerical simulations of the three-dimensional
viscous flow was carried out on an atomizing air impeller
combined with three vaned diffusers, with Ansys CFX
10.0 [6] and a quasi three-dimensional in-house code.

Table 1 Design
Property Atomizing impeller
Gas Air
Rotational speed 40 000 rpm
Mass flow rate 2.676 kg/s
Pressure ratio 1.5
Number of blades 17
Hub diameter
at leading edge
42 mm
Tip diameter
at leading edge
65.7 mm
Outlet diameter 150 mm
Exit blade height 4 mm
Tip clearance at shroud 0.4 mm
Hub blade angle at
leading edge
54 deg
Tip blade angle at
leading edge
41 deg
Exit blade angle 55 deg
Inlet total pressure 12.273 bar
Inlet total temperature 380.37 K
Flow coefficient 0.0284
Peripheral Mach 0.8

The cross-section normal to midspan surface of cen-
trifugal and mixed impeller looks like lateral surface of a
frustum of a right circular cone (Fig. 2) cut by blades. We
have tried several meridional geometries in order to
minimize the area gradient of surface normal to midspan
surface of impeller until we have obtained an acceptable
area distribution as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. We have paid
a special attention to the chamber angle distribution (Fig.
5) in order to minimize the secondary and leakage flows,
which condition largely efficiency, pressure ratio and
stable operation range of impellers.

th

Fig. 2 View of cross-section normal to midspan surface,
in a centrifugal impeller

Fig. 4 Dimensionless area distribution of cross-section normal
to midspan surface, in the atomizing air impeller,
computed with in house-code

The investigated vaned diffusers consist of two parallel
walls and 14 circular-arc vanes whose vane angle at the
leading edge are 18, 23 and 28 deg relative to tangential
direction. The center of the leading edge is at radius r
3
/ r
2

= 1.16 and the center of the trailing edge is at radius r
4
/ r
3

= 1.721. The width of each vaned diffuser is only 4 mm,
therefore the viscous effects are very important.
Firstly, we have studied the impeller and vaneless dif-
fuser as shown in Fig. 6 and after that, we have investi-
gated the atomizing air compressor with open impeller,
vaneless diffuser and vaned diffuser as shown in Fig. 7.
For the atomizing air compressor with the open im-
peller and without the vaned diffuser, the computational
domain generated in Ansys ICEM CFD 10.0 was split
into six blocks to facilitate the building of a fully struc-
tured mesh. One passage is divided into six domains: one
H-grid upstream of the blade, two H-grids for the passage
between the blade, one H-grid downstream of the blade,
one H-grid in the center of tip gap and one O-grid around
the blade as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Two meshes were
tested, with 1 192 690 and respectively 868 890 nodes. A

Fig. 3 Meridional view of the atomizing air impeller

Fig. 5 Chamber angle distribution
in the atomizing air impeller

special attention was paid to the tip clearance because the
ratio s
2
/b
2
= 0.1 is very high. For this reason, the fine
mesh has 10 points in the tip-to-shroud direction and 36 in
the hub-to-tip direction. COMOTI has tried but it has not
succeeded to decrease the tip clearance at impeller exit
under 0.4 mm due to the vibrations and technological
constraints.
For the vaned diffusers, the computational domain
generated in Ansys ICEM CFD 10.0 was split into five
blocks to facilitate the building of a fully structured mesh.
One passage is divided into five domains: one H-grid
upstream of the vane, two H-grids for the passage be-
tween the vane, one H-grid downstream of the vane and
one O-grid around the vane. Two meshes were tested for
each vaned diffuser, with about 300 000 and respectively
200 000 nodes.
In Ansys CFX 10.0, the numerical solution of Rey-
nolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations was
obtained with an implicit time marching technique. It is
worthwhile to notice that, in the implicit or explicit
time-stepping schemes, the steady-state solution is not
dependent by the time step; therefore, this stepping is
hub
shroud
Leading
edge
Trailing
edge
Dimensionless meridional distance

A
r
e
a

o
f

c
r
o
s
s
-
s
e
c
t
i
o
n

n
o
r
m
a
l

t
o

m
i
d
s
p
a
n

s
u
r
f
a
c
e

o
f

i
m
p
e
l
l
e
r

/

A
1

R
a
d
i
u
s

(
m
m
)

Rotational axis (mm)
Leading
edge
Trailing
edge
C
h
a
m
b
e
r

a
n
g
l
e

(
d
e
g
)


Leading
edge
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

/

u
2

Trailing
edge
W/u
2
near shroud, mid-channel
W/u
2
at midspan, mid-channel
W
m
/u
2
W
/u
2
amenable to convergence acceleration techniques. In or-
der to reduce the computational cost, we employed a
physical timescale t = 1/ = 0.23 ms, which has assured
a good convergence rate. Convective fluxes of the discre-
tized equations are handled using a second order upwind
scheme. The authors considered that the steady-state so-
lution was achieved when the reduction of the root mean
square of the norm of residuals was five decades.

Fig. 6 Isometric view of computational domain of atomizing
air compressor without vaned diffuser

Fig. 8 Grid detail showing shroud modeling

Fig. 10 Atomizing air rotor
(designed and manufactured by COMOTI)
The flow is assumed fully turbulent and it has simulated
in Ansys CFX 10.0 with the shear-stress transport (SST)
k- based model, which was developed by Menter [6-7]
in order to combine the advantages of the robust and ac-
curate formulation of the Wilcox k- model in the near-
wall region with the free-stream independence of the k-
model in the far field. To achieve this, the k- model is
converted into a k- formulation.

Fig. 7 Isometric view of computational domain of atomizing
air compressor with vaned diffuser whose vane angle
at the leading edge is 23 deg

Fig. 9 Grid detail showing clearance modeling

Fig. 11 Dimensionless relative velocity, at design point, in the
shrouded atomizing air impeller, computed with in-house code
th

At the inlet, a uniform stagnation pressure (12.273 bar)
and temperature (380.37 K) are imposed, turbulence in-
tensity is 5%, turbulent viscosity ratio
t
/ is 10 and the
flow is normal to inlet. Downstream classical boundary
condition (uniform static pressure) is inadequate to
simulate the atomizing air compressor due to the highly
non-uniform flow at the exit boundary. For this reason,
the mass flow rate is imposed at the outlet because this
boundary condition leads to a non-uniform static pressure
distribution at the outlet. All the walls have been assumed
adiabatic.
The interface between the impeller and vaned diffuser
(Fig. 7) is simulated with a version of mixing plane ap-
proach called stage [6] because the unsteady flow,
multi-blade-row CFD analysis are still prohibitive and
limited by the available computing resources. On mix-
ing-plane, the momentum and energy fluxes are averaged
tangentially to provide a spanwise profile of pressure,
momentum and energy. Stage averaging between blade
passages takes account for time average interaction ef-
fects between them. Basing on the hypothesis that the
relative motion between blade rows is sufficiently large to

Fig. 12 Streamlines at 95% span from the hub, in the open
impeller, at design point, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0

Fig. 14 Total-to-total polytropic efficiency, at design speed,
computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
cause any upstream velocity profile to mix out prior en-
tering the downstream machine component, the stage
approach models the loss that occurs as the flow is mixed
between stationary and rotating components. The major
lack of this approach is that it neglects transient interac-
tion effects between blade rows.
The atomizing air impeller has studied in three con-
figurations: open, with no gap and with stationary shroud
and shrouded (with rotating shroud), in order to investi-
gate the importance of tip leakage on its performance as
shown in Figs. 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. Also, we have
studied the atomizing air compressor with three different
vaned diffusers whose vane angle at the leading edge are
18, 23 and 28 deg relative to tangential direction and with
the open impeller as shown in Figs. 16, 17, 18 and 19.
Because the flow is compressible at the impeller exit,
the static pressure recovery coefficient C
p
is defined as
2
2 2
p
p p
C
P p
(8)
to show the effect of the vaneless and vaned diffuser on
static pressure recovery as shown in Figs. 18 and 19.

Fig. 13 Total pressure ratio of open and close impeller,
at design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0

Fig. 15 Total-to-static polytropic efficiency, at design speed,
Flow coefficient
I
m
p
e
l
l
e
r

t
o
t
a
l

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

r
a
t
i
o

T
o
t
a
l
-
t
o
-
t
o
t
a
l

p
o
l
y
t
r
o
p
i
c

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

Flow coefficient
Flow coefficient
T
o
t
a
l
-
t
o
-
s
t
a
t
i
c

p
o
l
y
t
r
o
p
i
c

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y


Fig. 16 Total pressure ratio of atomizing air compressor, at
design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0

Fig. 17 Total-to-total polytropic efficiency of atomizing air
compressor, at design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0

Fig. 18 Static pressure recovery coefficient of atomizing air
compressor, at design speed, = 0.0257,
Fig. 19 Total pressure loss, in vainless and vaned diffusers
of atomizing air compressor, at design speed, = 0.0257,
Conclusions
We have paid a particular attention to the tip clear-
ance because it has a huge impact on the performance of
the open impellers, especially if the ratio s
2
/b
2
is high as
shown Figs. 13, 14 and 15. Due to the blade and shroud
contourings, the open impeller efficiency is acceptable
although the ratio s
2
/b
2
= 0.1 is extremely high.
The vaned diffuser without variable geometry has an
important destabilizing role because it reduces the sta-
ble operation range of centrifugal compressors, dra-
matically as shown in Figs. 16 and 17. For this reason,

many centrifugal compressor manufacturers try to avoid
using it. On the other hand, the vaned diffuser increases
the centrifugal compressor performance (pressure ratio
and efficiency) in the design point vicinity and reduces
its overall dimension impressively. For this reason, we
should to use the vaned diffuser, preferably with vari-
able geometry if the centrifugal or mixed stage pressure
ratio is higher than 1.5.
A good idea would be to try to decrease the vaned
diffuser load in order to increase the stable operation
range of centrifugal compressors and the best solution is
to use highly backswept impellers. For this reason, the
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

s
t
a
t
i
c

r
e
c
o
v
e
r
y

c
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t

C
p

Flow coefficient Flow coefficient
T
o
t
a
l
-
t
o
-
t
o
t
a
l

p
o
l
y
t
r
o
p
i
c

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

T
o
t
a
l

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

r
a
t
i
o

Radius / r
2

Radius / r
2

P

/

P
2

th

exit blade angle of the atomizing air impeller is 55 deg
relative to tangential direction.
The impellers and vaneless diffusers have a signifi-
cant stabilizing role. Unfortunately, the vaneless dif-
fusers are much bigger than vaned diffusers that realize
the same static pressure rise. Moreover, at design point,
the total pressure loss is much larger in the vaneless
diffusers than in the vaned diffusers, which achieve the
same static pressure recovery.

Acknowledgement
The study could not be completed without the sup-
port received from University POLITHENICA Bu-
charest Aerospace Engineering Faculty and National
Institute for Research and Development Gas Turbines
COMOTI.

References
[1] N.A. Cumpsty, Compressor Aerodynamics, Longman
Scientific & Technical, 1989
[2] V. Pimsner, Turbomachines (in Romanian), Editura
Tehnica Bucharest, 1988
[3] R. Hunziker, G. Gyarmathy, The Operational Stability
of a Centrifugal Compressor and Its Dependence on the
Characteristics of the Subcomponents, Journal of Tur-
bomachinery, Vol. 116, April 1994
[4] S. Dnil, C. Berbente, Numerical Methods in Fluid
Dynamics (in Romanian), Publishing House of Roma-
nian Academy, 2003
[5] C. Hirsch, Numerical Computation of Internal and Ex-
ternal Flow, Volume 2: Computational Methods for In-
viscid and Viscous Flows, John Wiley and Sons, New
York, 1990
[6] Ansys Inc, Ansys CFX-Solver, Release 10, Ansys In-
corporated, 2005
[7] F.R. Menter, Two-Equation Eddy-Viscosity Turbulence
Models for Engineering Applications, AIAA Journal,
32(8), pg. 1598-1605, August 1994

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