Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2008: Power for Land, Sea and Air

GT2008
June 9-13, 2008, Berlin, Germany

GT2008-50468

Design of a Centrifugal Compressor with Low Specific Speed for

Automotive Fuel Cell
Xinqian Zheng, Yangjun zhang
State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety
and Energy, Tsinghua University
Beijing 100084, China
Hong He
National Key Lab. of Diesel Engine
Turbocharging Tech.
Datong, Shanxi 037036, China

Zhiling Qiu
Department of Applied
Mechanics ,Chalmers University of
Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract ncor corrected shaft speed

Centrifugal compressors driven by electric motor are the
promising type for fuel cell pressurization system. A low Ns non-dimensional specific speed
specific speed centrifugal compressor powered by an ordinary
high-speed (about 25,000rpm) electric motor has been designed P power
at Tsinghua University for automotive fuel cell engines. The
experimental results indicate that the designed low specific p∗ total pressure
speed centrifugal compressor has comparatively high efficiency
Q volumetric flow rate
and wide operating range. In the condition of designed speed
(24,000rpm), the highest efficiency and pressure ratio of the R radius
centrifugal compressor is up to 70% and 1.6, respectively. The
designed low specific speed centrifugal compressor can meet T∗ total temperature
the requirement of air systems of automotive fuel cell engines
preliminarily. Moreover, the low specific speed centrifugal T.E. blade trailing edge
compressor avoids difficulties of usage of ultra-high-speed U rotational velocity
electric motors (about 60,000rpm) in high specific speed
compressor. Based on the preliminary results of this centrifugal W relative velocity
compressor, a new low specific speed centrifugal compressor
Z blade number
with higher performances is being developed.
Δh specific isentropic enthalpy
NOMENCLATURE
C absolute velocity ω rotational angular speed

L.E. blade leading edge α absolute angle

M meridional length β relative angle

m mass flow π pressure ratio

m cor corrected mass flow η efficiency

Subscripts
n shaft speed
1 impeller inlet

1 Copyright © 2008 by ASME

 2 impeller exit
5 diffuser exit
7 volute throat
b blade
h hub
t tip
1 INTRODUCTION
Fuel cell vehicles (FCV) have captured the attention of
more and more policymakers, environmentalists and
automotive manufacturing companies due to their advantages
of zero-emission, high efficiency and rapid response, etc. As the
prime mover inside the FCV, the fuel cell system is pivotally
important since it is directly related to vehicle performance.
Fuel cell systems can use pressurizing air systems to improve
performance. Pressurized fuel cell systems have higher power
density, higher system efficiency, and better water balance than
atmospheric fuel cell systems [1, 2].
The requirements of pressurized fuel cell systems include:
compact structure, light weight, oil-free of air, low operate
noise, easy maintenance, low cost, and high operation
efficiency [3]. Nowadays, displacement compressors are widely
used in air pressurizing systems of fuel cells due to their high
pressure ratio with low shaft speed and low mass flow, among
which screw compressors are fairly representative. However,
screw compressors are not able to operate with turbines
recovering exhaust gas power because of low shaft speed
limitation; therefore they cannot manage to save energy as
centrifugal compressors combining turbines. Moreover,
centrifugal compressors have more advantages of quick
response, long longevity, and high efficiency, etc. So,
centrifugal compressors are considered as one of the most
prospective pressurization systems.
However, nowadays it is necessary to use some auxiliary
power to operate centrifugal compressors since exhaust gas
power of fuel cell systems till now is not powerful enough to
drive turbines working with centrifugal compressors. As one of
the auxiliary powers, an ultra-high-speed electric motor (about
60,000 rpm) can be used to drive centrifugal compressors. A
turbocharger type compressor system integrated with an ultra-
high-speed (>100,000 rpm) motor is being developed by
Honeywell [4]. This system makes fuel cell pressurizing air
system more compact and has quicker response characteristic.
However, usage of ultra-high-speed motor causes several
serious problems including high cost, complex maintenance,
low stability, need of special cooling system, etc. Therefore this
type of compressor system is hard to be applied in
commercialization products [5].
Using ordinary high-speed motors (about 25,000rpm) can
avoid above problems of ultra-high-speed motors. However, if
centrifugal compressors are still designed conventionally in this
case, pressure ratio can only achieve around 1.1, therefore
cannot meet the pressurizing requirements of air systems for
fuel cells. So it is necessary to design a centrifugal compressor
with higher pressure ratio in the same condition of rotational
speed and mass flow, i.e., to design a low specific speed
centrifugal compressor. However, in low specific speed
condition, it is a challenge to design a centrifugal compressor
with high efficiency and wide operation range characteristic
Moreover, there is few reference relating to this type of design.
Compressor design software, Concept NREC, has been used to
design and analyze the low specific speed centrifugal
compressor [6]. The experimental results show that designed
low specific speed centrifugal compressor has a reasonable
performance.
2 CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR DESIGN
The main design parameters of the low specific speed
compressor are: design rotational speed 24,000 rpm, design
pressure ratio 1.6, design flow 0.15 kg/s.
2.1 Low Specific Speed Design
Non-dimensional specific speed Ns is given by:
1/ 2
Q
Ns = ω ⋅ ( ω is the rotational speed, Q is the
Δh3/ 4
volumetric flow rate, Δh is the specific isentropic enthalpy).
Specific speed qualitatively shows work ability of compressors.
With same rotational speed, lower specific speed means higher
compressor ratio. Specific speed for conventional design of
centrifugal compressors is typically around between 0.7 and 1.0
so that compressors can achieve comparatively high efficiency.
However, compared to conventional design, low specific speed
centrifugal compressors have higher inverse pressure gradient
and larger fraction of secondary flow. Therefore profound
understanding of flow characteristic inside stage is needed to
design a low specific speed centrifugal compressor with high
performance.
2.2 One-dimensional Design
Figure 1 shows the meridional view of the low specific
speed centrifugal compressor, which can be specified by the
following charactistics.
A) Long flow passage design: Inducer of impeller uses
comparatively small radius of curvature and adopts
zero-incidence design to be suitable for low flow rate work
condition of fuel cell systems. Elongate blade design is required
to meet the demand of high pressure ratio within low rotational
speed and low flow rate. Moderately big impeller radius is
needed to generate high tangent velocity of exit, therefore,
make compressors able to output high pressure ratio under low
rotational speed. But the maximum impeller radius is limited by
the requirement of compact design of fuel cell systems.
B) Short vaneless-diffuser design: Diffuser is used to
converts kinetic energy of air exiting from impeller into static
pressure. Automotive centrifugal compressor normally uses
vaneless diffuser due to wide operation range and small volume.
Air flows almost as a logarithmic curve inside of vaneless
2 Copyright © 2008 by ASME
diffuser. At the exit of low specific speed impeller, tangential Inlet total pressure P1∗ = 100 kPa
velocity of air is much higher than radial velocity of air along
impeller blade, which indicates that absolute velocity of airflow Inlet total temperature T1∗ = 298 K
inside vaneless diffuser is quite close to tangential direction
(see Fig.2). As a result, the distance air flows in the vaneless Design mass flow rate m = 0.15 kg/s
diffuser greatly increases so that frictional losses are high and
Design shaft speed n= 24,000 rpm
therefore back flow occurs easily. In order to reduce these
losses, short vaneless diffuser is required in this case. Design specific speed Ns= 0.265
Blade count full/splitter Zf/Zs= 10/10
Tip radius at impeller inlet R1t= 31 mm
Hub radius at impeller inlet R1h= 17 mm
Blade angle at L.E. tip β1tb= -53.4 deg
Exit blade radius R2= 108 mm
Exit blade depth B2=
B 5 mm
Exit blade angle β2b= -40 deg
Blade rotational velocity at
U2 271 m/s
exit
Average exit radius of
R5= 110 mm
vaneless diffuser
Throat hydraulic diameter of
D7= 30 mm
volute

2.3 Impeller Three-dimensional Design

Fig. 1 Meridional view of centrifugal compressor
design
Fig. 2 Velocity triangle at blade exit
The main parameters of the designed centrifugal
compressor are presented in table 1. Compal module of
Concepts NREC is used to optimize the parameters, such as the
effects on the performance from impeller's exit diameter, blade
angel, exit width and so on. The method of performance
prediction is described in Ref. [6].
Table 1: Main parameters of centrifugal compressor
Axcent module of Concept NREC is used to design the
impeller. The impeller blade is designed to apply loading
distributions along hub and shroud meridional traces. A linear
connection between points of both meridional traces along
quasi-orthogonal lines generates a ruled surface which make it
possible to manufacture the blades by flank milling. The shape
of a typical blade is defined by means of curves that specify the
blade angle distribution and blade thickness distribution. Of
course, the hub and shroud contours should be defined too.
Blade angle/thickness distribution is defined by using a Bezier
curve. The Bezier method defines the curve segment in terms of
a polygon, two of whose vertices are the end points of the
segment. The intermediate polygon points will not, in general,
lie on the curve. On a Bezier curve, the effect of moving a point
varies with the proximity to that point. The shape of the curve
is most affected in the region close to the point that is moved.
Smaller changes occur farther away; however, the whole curve
is changed to some extent, although changes far from the point
moved are usually quite negligible.
In order to define the blade geometry, an initial assessment
of the quality of the design could be obtained by means of MST
(multi-streamtube) approach. The MST analysis is a pure
streamline curvature technique that solves a velocity gradient
equation along quasi-orthogonals, used to determine the
velocity distribution from hub to shroud and linearized blade to
blade. MST method is known to be comparatively stable, fast,
and unique in its resulting calculations. By performing a MST

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calculation before any CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)
analysis, the design could be more productive.
MST is first used to configure the blade shape to obtain a
design that comes within recommended loading limits for the
blades. Then, CFD is used to confirm that there are no regions
of separated or reversed flow. If there are regions of adverse
flow conditions, we can make a design change, revise the blade
shapes in MST, and then confirm the design improvement in
CFD. The detailed design process is described in Ref. [6].
Blade angle distribution is very important for loading
distribution in terms of the Euler turbomachine equation. Figure
3 shows the blade angle distribution along hub and shroud.
Abscissa is the dimensionless meridional trace length %M =
[M(i)-M(0)/[M(T.E.)-M(0)]*100%; M(0) is the meridional L.E.
position of both traces. The L.E. position of splitter blade is
shown in Fig. 1. The splitter blade angle distribution follows
the main blade. Figure 4 shows the wrap angle (theta Fig. 5 Blade wrap angle distribution
distribution). If the wrap starts at zero, this shows how far
around the axis of rotation the blade is wrapped. Figure 5
displays a plot of the blade lean angel. This is the angle that the
curve represents the difference between the hub and shroud
wrapping; the further apart the hub and the shroud wraps
become, the more the blade leans. The lean also correlates to
other aspects of the design, including the radius. Due to these
correlations, the blade angle, wrap angle, and lean angle are all
related.

Fig. 6 Blade lean angle distribution

4 EXPERIMENTS
After optimization design, the centrifugal compressor is
manufactured. The impeller photo is shown in Fig. 7. Impeller
are made of aluminum alloy and machined by five-axis NC
milling machine. In order to obtain the experimental
Fig. 3 Blade angle distribution performance conveniently, the designed centrifugal compressor
is driven by a turbine just like an experiment for a turbocharger.
The experiment rig photo is shown in Fig. 8. The turbine is
driven by the pressured air which is hot up in combustion. The
total pressure p∗ is measured by total pressure rake with ±
0.2% inaccuracy. Total temperature T ∗ is measured by
thermocouple with inaccuracy ± 0.5 ℃ . Mass flow m is
measured by vortex flowmeter with inaccuracy ±1%.

4 Copyright © 2008 by ASME

 298 K
ncor = n × (3)
Tt1
Then, the power contours in Fig. 10 are calculated by the
following formula
P = m cor × C p × (Tt 2 − Tt1 ) (4)
Figure 9 shows pressure ratio and efficiency contours of
the centrifugal compressor with low specific speed. At designed
speed of 24,000rpm, the highest efficiency and pressure ratio of
the centrifugal compressor is up to 70% and 1.6, respectively.
The maximum efficiency ring is 78%, which is close to the
efficiency of conventional centrifugal compressor. Figure 10
shows pressure ratio and power contours of the centrifugal
compressor. Power consumption of compressor is important for
performance of full cell. At the designed point ( m cor =0.15kg/s,
ncor =24,000rpm), Power consumption of compressor is just
about 8.5kW.

1.90

Fig. 7 Impeller photo

1.80

1.70

1.60
Pressure ratio

1.50
68%
1.40
72% 65%
78% 75%
60% 28000rpm
1.30
26000rpm
24000rpm
1.20 22000rpm
20000rpm
18000rpm
16000rpm
1.10
14000rpm
12000rpm
8000rpm10000rpm
Fig. 8 Experimental rig photo 1.00
The experimental results including pressure ratio, 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
efficiency contours, power contours, corrected mass flow and Corrected mass flow (kg/s)
corrected rotation speed are plotted in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10. The Fig. 9 Experimental performance map of centrifugal
pressure ratio π is the ratio of absolute outlet pressure compressor: pressure ratio & efficiency contours.
P2∗ divided by absolute inlet pressure P1∗ . The efficiency
contours in Fig. 9 is defined as
(π ) k −1 k − 1
η= (1)
Tt 2 Tt1 − 1
The corrected mass flow is defined as
Tt1 100kPa
m cor = m × × (2)
298 K Pt1
The corrected shaft speed is defined as

5 Copyright © 2008 by ASME

 1.90 [2] Galen, W. K., Myron, A. H., 2001, “A Comparison of Two
Air Compressors for PEM Fuel Cell Systems,” Virginia:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
1.80
[3] Vine, A. J., Thornton, W. E., Pullen, K. R., et al, 2005,
“Low Specific Speed Turbocompressors,” International
1.70 Conference on Compressors and their Systems, London:
Springer：225-234.
1.60 [4] Mark, G., 2004, “Cost and Performance Enhancements for a
20kW
PEM Fuel Cell Turbocompressor,” DOE Hydrogen, Fuel
Pressure ratio

Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program Review

1.50 15kW
Presentation, Honeywell Systems, Systems & Services,
10kW Philadelphia.
1.40 7kW [5] Chen, Q. S., Qi, Z. N., 2001, “Technology Challenge and
Prospect of Fuel Cell Vehicle,” Automotive Engineering,
1.30 28000rpm 23(6): 361-364. (in Chinese)
4kW 26000rpm [6] Japikse, D., 2006, “Centrifugal Compressor Design and
24000rpm
22000rpm Performance,” Vermont: Concepts ETI, Inc., Wilder.
1.20 2kW
20000rpm
1kW 18000rpm
16000rpm
1.10
14000rpm
12000rpm
8000rpm 10000rpm
1.00
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
Corrected mass flow (kg/s)
Fig. 10 Experimental performance map of centrifugal
compressor: pressure ratio & power contours.

4 CONCLUSIONS
A low specific speed centrifugal compressor for automotive
fuel cell systems is designed in this project. This centrifugal
compressor can be driven by an ordinary high-speed electric
motor (about 25,000rpm), therefore has advantages of low cost,
easy manufacture, long longevity to be fit for low flow rate
condition.
The experimental results show that designed low specific
speed centrifugal compressor reaches efficiency of 70 % and
pressure ratio of 1.6 at the design rotational speed of 24,000
rpm, which basically fulfils the pressurizing requirements of
fuel cell systems. The maximum efficiency ring is up to 78%,
which is close to the efficiency of conventional centrifugal
compressor. Based on the preliminary results of this centrifugal
compressor, a new low specific speed centrifugal compressor
with higher performances is being developed.

5 ACKNOWLEDGE
This project has been supported by Xuyao Chen, Fenghu
Liu in FuYuan Turbochargers CO., LTD (Weifang, Shandong,
China).

REFERENCES
[1] Cunningham, 2001, “A Comparison of High-Pressure and
Low-Pressure Operation of PEM Fuel Cell Systems,” SAE
2001 World Congress, Detroit, 2001-01-0538.

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