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Detailed Investigation of an Atomizing Air Compressor

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Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium
on Experimental and Computational
Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows
Lyon, July 2007
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 Dănăilă 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 books [1-2]

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
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

Mihai Leonida NICULESCU: Ph.D. Student

http://www.lmfa.ec-lyon.fr/ISAIF8/
2 Proceedings of the 8th 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- ⎡ ρ ⎤

gate the tip leakage flow that occurs in the impeller of ⎢ ρu ⎥
atomizing air compressor because it has a huge impact on ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ρv ⎥
its performance. Q=⎢ ⎥ (2)
⎢ ρw ⎥
Governing Equations ⎢ ⎛ W 2 Ω2 r 2 ⎞⎥
⎢ρ ⎜ e + − ⎟⎥
⎣⎢ ⎝ 2 2 ⎠ ⎦⎥
For a three-dimensional rotating Cartesian coordinate
system, the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes ⎡ ρu ⎤ ⎡ ρv ⎤ ⎡ ρw ⎤
equations can be written in conservative form as [4-5] ⎢ ρu 2 + p ⎥ ⎢ ρ vu ⎥ ⎢ ρ wu ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
∂Q ∂ ( Fx − Gx ) ∂ ( Fy − Gy ) ∂ ( Fz − Gz ) Fx = ⎢ ρ uv ⎥ Fy = ⎢ ρ v + p ⎥ Fz = ⎢ ρ wv ⎥ (3)
2

+ + + =S (1) ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ 2 ⎥
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z ⎢ ρ uw ⎥ ⎢ ρ vw ⎥ ⎢ρ w + p⎥
where: ⎢⎣ ρ uI ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ρ vI ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ρ wI ⎥⎦

Nomenclature
area of cross-section normal to midspan
A Greek letters
surface of impeller (m2)
angle relative to tangential
b blade height (m) β direction (rad)
Cp static pressure recovery coefficient ∆t physical timescale (s)
e internal energy (J/kg) η polytropic efficiency
fe external acceleration (m/s2) ϕ flow coefficient
Fx, Fy, Fz vectors of convective components of flux κ thermal conductivity (W/(m.K))
G x, G y, G z vectors of diffusive components of flux µ dynamic viscosity (kg/(m.s))
I rothalpy (m2/s2) µt eddy viscosity (kg/(m.s))
Mu peripheral Mach ρ static density (kg/m3)
p static pressure (Pa) τ shear stress tensor (Pa)
P total pressure (Pa) Ω 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- ⎡ 0 ⎤

⎢ ⎥
⎢ ρ ( Ω x + 2Ωv ) ⎥
mal boundary layer is neglected, the diffusive flux G may 2

be written as
S = ⎢⎢ ρ ( Ω 2 y − 2Ωu ) ⎥⎥ (6)
⎡ 0 ⎤
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ τ xx
tot
⎥ ⎢ 0 ⎥
⎢ τ xytot ⎥ ⎢⎣ 0 ⎥⎦
Gx = ⎢ ⎥ (4a)
⎢ τ tot
xz ⎥ The pressure is obtained from the equation of state,
⎢ tot ∂T ⎥ p = ρ RT (7)
⎢uτ xx + vτ xy + wτ xz + k
tot tot
⎥
⎢⎣ ∂x ⎥⎦
⎡ 0 ⎤ Numerical Simulation
⎢ τ tot ⎥
⎢ xy ⎥ The numerical simulations of the three-dimensional
⎢ τ yytot ⎥ viscous flow was carried out on an atomizing air impeller
Gy = ⎢ ⎥ (4b)
⎢ τ yz
tot
⎥ combined with three vaned diffusers, with Ansys CFX
⎢ tot ∂T ⎥ 10.0 [6] and a quasi three-dimensional in-house code.
⎢uτ xy + vτ yy + wτ yz + k
tot tot
⎥
⎢⎣ ∂y ⎥⎦
Table 1 Design
⎡ 0 ⎤ Property Atomizing impeller
⎢ τ tot ⎥ Gas Air
⎢ xz ⎥
⎢ τ yztot ⎥ Rotational speed 40 000 rpm
Gz = ⎢ ⎥ (4c) Mass flow rate 2.676 kg/s
⎢ τ zz
tot
⎥ Pressure ratio ≈ 1.5
⎢ tot ∂T ⎥
⎢uτ xz + vτ yz + wτ zz + k
tot tot
⎥ Number of blades 17
⎣⎢ ∂z ⎦⎥ Hub diameter
42 mm
According to the Boussinesq hypothesis, the shear at leading edge
stresses τtot may be written as Tip diameter
65.7 mm
at leading edge
2 ⎛ ∂u ∂v ∂w ⎞
τ xxtot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ 2 − − ⎟ (5a) Outlet diameter 150 mm
3 ⎝ ∂x ∂y ∂z ⎠ Exit blade height 4 mm
2 ⎛ ∂v ∂u ∂w ⎞ Tip clearance at shroud 0.4 mm
τ yytot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ 2 − − ⎟ (5b)
Hub blade angle at
3 ⎝ ∂y ∂x ∂z ⎠ 54 deg
leading edge
2 ⎛ ∂w ∂v ∂u ⎞
τ zztot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ 2 − − ⎟ (5c) Tip blade angle at
41 deg
3 ⎝ ∂z ∂y ∂x ⎠ leading edge
Exit blade angle 55 deg
⎛ ∂u ∂v ⎞
τ xytot = τ yxtot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ + ⎟ (5d) Inlet total pressure 12.273 bar
⎝ ∂y ∂x ⎠ Inlet total temperature 380.37 K
⎛ ∂u ∂w ⎞ Flow coefficient 0.0284
τ xztot = τ zxtot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ + ⎟ (5e)
⎝ ∂z ∂x ⎠ Peripheral Mach 0.8
⎛ ∂w ∂v ⎞
τ yztot = τ zytot = ( µ + µt ) ⎜ + ⎟ (5f) The cross-section normal to midspan surface of cen-
⎝ ∂y ∂z ⎠ trifugal and mixed impeller looks like lateral surface of a
The Sutherland’s formula can be used to determine the frustum of a right circular cone (Fig. 2) cut by blades. We
dynamic viscosity µ as function of temperature, while the have tried several meridional geometries in order to
eddy viscosity µt is computed with a turbulence model. minimize the area gradient of surface normal to midspan
For gases, the external force fe due to the gravitational surface of impeller until we have obtained an acceptable
acceleration is very small, therefore it can be neglected. area distribution as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. We have paid
Moreover, we can assume that the thermal conductivity is a special attention to the chamber angle distribution (Fig.
the single heat source. If the Cartesian coordinate system 5) in order to minimize the secondary and leakage flows,
is rotating about z axis with constant angular-velocity Ω, which condition largely efficiency, pressure ratio and
source term S could be written as stable operation range of impellers.
4 Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows
ω
Fig. 2 View of cross-section normal to midspan surface,
in a centrifugal impeller
midspan surface of impeller / A1
Area of cross-section normal to
Leading
edge Dimensionless meridional distance
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 r3 / r2
= 1.16 and the center of the trailing edge is at radius r4 / r3
= 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
Radius (mm)
Rotational axis (mm)
Fig. 3 Meridional view of the atomizing air impeller
βhub
βshroud
Chamber angle β (deg)
Trailing
edge Leading Trailing
Dimensionless meridional distance
edge edge
Fig. 5 Chamber angle distribution
in the atomizing air impeller
special attention was paid to the tip clearance because the
ratio s2/b2 = 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
Mihai Leonida NICULESCU et al. Detailed Investigation of an Atomizing Air Compressor
amenable to convergence acceleration techniques. In or-
der to reduce the computational cost, we employed a
physical timescale ∆t = 1/Ω = 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)
5
The flow is assumed fully turbulent and it has simulated
in Ansys CFX 10.0 with the shear-stress transport (SST)
k-ω 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-ω model in the near-
wall region with the free-stream independence of the k-ε
model in the far field. To achieve this, the k-ε model is
converted into a k-ω 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
W/u2 near shroud, mid-channel
W/u2 at midspan, mid-channel
Wm/u2 at midspan, mid-channel
Relative velocity / u2
Wθ/u2 at midspan, mid-channel
Leading Dimensionless meridional distance Trailing
edge edge
Fig. 11 Dimensionless relative velocity, at design point, in the
shrouded atomizing air impeller, computed with in-house code
6 Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows
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 µt/µ 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
Total-to-total polytropic efficiency
Flow coefficient ϕ
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 Cp is defined as
p − p2
Cp = (8)
P2 − p2
to show the effect of the vaneless and vaned diffuser on
static pressure recovery as shown in Figs. 18 and 19.
Impeller total pressure ratio
Flow coefficient ϕ
Fig. 13 Total pressure ratio of open and close impeller,
at design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
Total-to-static polytropic efficiency
Flow coefficient ϕ
Fig. 15 Total-to-static polytropic efficiency, at design speed,
computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
Mihai Leonida NICULESCU et al. Detailed Investigation of an Atomizing Air Compressor
Total pressure ratio
Flow coefficient ϕ
Fig. 16 Total pressure ratio of atomizing air compressor, at
design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
Pressure static recovery coefficient Cp
Radius / r2
Fig. 18 Static pressure recovery coefficient of atomizing air
compressor, at design speed, ϕ = 0.0257,
computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
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 s2/b2 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 s2/b2 = 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,
7
Total-to-total polytropic efficiency
Flow coefficient ϕ
Fig. 17 Total-to-total polytropic efficiency of atomizing air
compressor, at design speed, computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
P / P2
Radius / r2
Fig. 19 Total pressure loss, in vainless and vaned diffusers
of atomizing air compressor, at design speed, ϕ = 0.0257,
computed with Ansys CFX 10.0
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
 8 Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows
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.
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